As if you needed another excuse to hit the pool this summer, new research shows that swimmers live longer than walkers and runners. And not just a little bit longer, either. In a study of more than 40,000 men ages 20 to 90 who were followed for 32 years, swimmers were 50 percent less likely to die during the study period than were walkers or runners. The results were so unexpected that the lead researcher, Steven Blair, a professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina, is hesitant to draw any broad conclusions. "I was expecting to see swimmers and runners have a lower risk of dying," he says. "I was a little surprised that the swimmers had a statistically significant lower death rate than the runners, but they did." by: Gabrielle deGroot Redford | from: AARP The Magazine | July, 2009
Swimming does exercise almost the entire body –heart, lungs and muscles – with very little joint pain. It’s great for general fitness and its fun too.