The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention classifies swimming laps as a vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise, also sometimes referred to as cardio exercise, increases your heart rate and causes you to breathe faster. Swimming laps provides a non-impact cardio workout that works muscles in your upper and lower body.
Calories Burned
One hour of swimming laps can burn about 763 calories for a 240-lb. person, 637 calories for a 200-lb. person and 511 calories for a 160-lb. person, according to MayoClinic.com. Calorie-burning swimming workouts can help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight. To lose 1 lb., you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in over a period of days. Swimming workouts can help you create this deficit.
Comparison
Swimming laps burns more calories per hour than many other types of aerobic exercise, including brisk walking, leisurely biking and playing volleyball, softball or baseball. An hour of swimming laps burns about the same number of calories as an hour of rowing, cross-country skiing, backpacking or high-impact aerobics. Workouts that burn more calories than swimming include running, rollerblading, jumping rope, stair climbing or playing singles tennis.
Recommendations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise each week. Vigorous lap swimming workouts can help you meet these totals. Exercising even more can provide greater health benefits and help you to lose weight.
Benefits
Adults who get regular aerobic exercise face reduced risks of many diseases, including heart attacks, strokes, type 2 diabetes, metabolic disorders, obesity and some cancers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Regular exercise can lower your blood pressure as well as your LDL cholesterol, or bad cholesterol, and increase your HDL cholesterol, or good cholesterol. Physical activity can also boost your mood and improve the quality of your sleep. Non-impact sports such as swimming put less stress on your bones and joints than high-impact exercises such as running or playing tennis or basketball.
