37 - The Best Cardio in the World

This post may be about how swimming is the best cardio. However Swimming works out your whole body, and I would even say all Four Pillars at once beyond just the physical.

Those Pillars being a concept I talk about on this site quite a lot, which are the four major aspects of life. The Mind, Body, Spirit, and Emotions, and I find that they fit into this story more than you might think.

Why + Philosophy:

The four pillars philosophy are different aspects of our existence, but in this swimming cardio we can touch on them each. When you are enacting this cardiovascular exercise, then you are pushing your limits.

Physically speaking it is one of the most prolific exercises out there. Mentally you have to stay calm and focused, even when your heart rate and lungs are being strained. I'd even go as far as to say that Spiritually you are being challenged, as it takes grit to push past the breaking points of exercise. Emotions sort of wrap into the Mind and Spirit side of the exertion.

Not only is it pushing your muscles and cardiovascular system to whole new levels, but you are also pushing the other Pillars as well. Which is not an easy task to do, even for various Pillars alone, not to mention doing all of them at once.

How + Physics:

The interesting thing is that regardless of what your intention is from exercise, there are benefits to all goals via swimming.

• If you want to lose weight, swimming is a phenomenal way to get into a caloric deficit (the only way to lose weight).
• If you're trying to gain muscle, then swimming literally works out almost every single muscle in the body. It should be noted that dry workouts are important to fill in the blanks.
• If you're going for aesthetics from exercise (say your cardio and strength are on point already), then swimming will get you to a much more defined state.
• If you want to strengthen your heart and lungs, then not being able to breathe underwater is a great motivator for holding your breathe. Training you to learn to be uncomfortable, and it being a good thing.

Swimming has all of those benefits and more. From what I can even share in this little newsletter post, there are so many things we can explore in future articles.

Read More:

While it doesn't make much sense to me that "running burns more calories than swimming", from what this article said. Perhaps it depends too on how much your body is moving all at once, and that swimming is more efficient. Then you can swim more in the long run, pun intended. This was an interesting article.

What + Psychology:

As I mentioned before the act of cardio in swimming impacts all Four Pillars. That is something I really want to drive home because most people get stuck on one of those Pillars. Just like with my "3 P's of Swimming: Psychology, Philosophy, Physics", there is a similar system happening with the Four Pillars.

Most people have an anchor Pillar, one that they have worked on the most in life, and view the other Pillars through the lens of that one Pillar. It is important to find out what your anchor is, so that you can know what your biases are.

The same thing goes for the 3 P's, as they are what people view swimming through.

These bias lens with dramatically effect your ability to swim, push through challenge, and sustain the cardio.

Conclusion

This post was a little late today, and honestly went a slightly different way than I originally thought. However I think this one might be one of the best newsletters in a while. Given how it hopefully got you thinking about what lens or bias you may be looking through.

Swimming is the best Cardio, I don't care what that article says, or the pure calculations. Sure maybe you burn more calories with running, but do you really want to put all that pressure on your joints, especially knees? Swimming in water takes the pressure off the joints, adds resistance to the muscles, and more.

I encourage you to try for a personal record today, or this week, in the pool!

Disclaimer:

This is advice for people to level up their swimming, or perhaps get started in the first place. While you swim you should make sure you are doing so in a public facility with a lifeguard on duty for safety.