What are the health benefits of artistic swimming?

As a combination of swimming, dance and gymnastics, artistic swimming offers a real variety of activity.

Whether you want to improve your core strength and flexibility, find a creative outlet for choreography and dance, or just try a new way to have fun and make friends in the water.

It’s a great way to keep fit, and it’s not just for women. Since 2015, artistic swimming has been a mixed sport, from domestic to international competitions.

But you don’t have to compete to get the most out of synchro. Read our eight health benefits of artistic swimming below then head to our Find A Club page to get involved.

Health Benefits of Artistic Swimming

• Flexibility
• Increased aerobic capacity
• Increased stamina
• Increased endurance
• Increased muscular strength
• Works the brain
• Increased confidence and teamwork skills
• Increased mental wellbeing

Flexbility

Synchronised swimmers are amongst the most flexible athletes, coming second to gymnasts. Artistic swimming will help you become supple and limber during every aspect of the sport, be it on land or in the pool.

Older athletes have reported improvements in arthritis and other age-related conditions since being involved in the sport.

Increased Aerobic Capacity

On average, an artistic swimmer can hold their breath for up to three minutes, although this is usually reduced to only one minute at a time in routines.

Expanding your lung capacity can help lung conditions such as asthma.

Increased Stamina

While top athletes make the sport look effortless, the conditioning of an artistic swimmer is extreme. Swimmers must perform their routines without touching the floor, using a combination of eggbeater and sculling to move in and out of positions and arm movements.

This continual movement builds stamina as athletes engage in a full body workout during every routine.

Increased Endurance

Artistic swimmers spend up to six days a week, eight hours a day honing their craft.

But don’t worry, just one two hour session a week can have a huge impact on your endurance through cross training on land and in the pool.

Increased Muscular Strength

Artistic swimming routines can involve a series of twists, splits, pointed toes and more. The variety of the routine means you are constantly isolating and engaging individual muscles.

Artistic swimmers can’t touch the bottom of the pool for lifts, so they need to build their strength on land to be able to perform gravity-defying lifts.

Works The Brain

Learning routines engages the brain to memorise and retain information. Keeping the brain active ensures new neural pathways are created and that existing ones stay healthy.

Depending on how involved you get, you could learn up to three different routines each year.

Increased confidence and teamwork skills

Training as a group builds camaraderie and self-esteem, leading to increased confidence.

You will interact with new people of all ages and background, allowing you to develop and grow your conversational skills and make new friends.

Increased mental wellbeing

The endorphins that the body create during all physical activity is good for depression, mood and psychological health.