Best Fitness Alternative If You Hate Sweating
I was watching CBC’s The National News the other week and they had a panel of four medical specialists – a cardiologist, a geriatrician, an endocrinologist and a family physician. They were talking about preventing a potential diabetes type 2 epidemic.
One of the strategies in preventing diabetes type 2 disease as well as other health problems is of course exercise. In regards to exercise, there is the guideline of being physically active for 30 minutes at least three times per week.
One thing that came out really strong as a concensus among all four medical doctors was that in terms of the 30 minutes of physical activity, one needs to break a sweat. Therefore a casual walk is NOT enough since it does not make you break a sweat (being in extremely hot weather making you sweat of course does not count).
Personally, I hate to sweat. Now this might be surprising to many people who know me since I was a competitive martial arts athlete and still work hard to keep in shape. But let me admit that I feel uncomfortable when sweating. This is why I prefer to work out in an air conditioned gym and will usually not like to come outdoors when hot.
If you also hate to sweat as well, it does not excuse you from the fitness guidelines of 30 minutes of physical activity that will be at a level beneficial to fitness and disease prevention. Fortunately, there is an activity that can make you work hard enough to satisfy this criteria of breaking a sweat, without actually sweating!
Swimming Is Great Exercise Without Sweating
That activitiy happens to be swimming. And I don’t mean just dunking and splashing around in the pool either. I mean actually doing laps for 30 minutes and that is exactly what my swim workouts are.
This weekend, our outdoor swimming pool opens which means my summer fitness program takes over from my spring season program. This is great as I’ve been looking forward to this since I can get a great cardio workout without the discomforts of sweating.
I plan to get in the pool at least three times per week and will try to get in four times if I can. I still want to allocate days for strength training and martial arts as well. I’ll have my full summer fitness program outlined in my next blog post.
But if you hate sweating as much as I do but agrees that physical activity is crucial for fitness, then get in the pool. Don’t know how to swim? Learn! Adult swimming classes are among the most popular community programs these days.
