In other words, does it count for maintaining bone density?
I have two informed opinions, and they conflict.
A personal trainer at the YMCA says yes, it’s a weight-bearing exercise because you are working against resistance (the water), so it counts.
Another personal trainer (a woman who is in my dance class) says no, it is not a weight-bearing exercise, but the fact that I swim laps in 84-degree water is a plus because the warmth of the water means I won’t develop extra body fat.
Now I don’t care about body fat. I am concerned about osteoporosis because I am middle-aged, fair, and extremely small-boned. I wouldn’t cut out swimming because I like it, but I could substitute something else for one of my twice-weekly swimming sessions.
Sorry, I think you’ll have to switch to jogging, hiking or weightlifting (it doesn’t have to be heavy weights or on a bench, lots of reps with light weights will work too).
Most people, weirdly, don’t think of weightlifting as a weight-bearing exercise, but it is, and it has been shown that people who lift weights have higher bone density and maintain more strength in old age than other athletes.
No it’s not weight bearing, but the “fact” that you’re swimming in 84 degree water will keep body fat off is BS. Eighty four degrees is much to warm to get a good workout in, you’d be better off swimming in a pool that’s in the mid seventies. The warmer water means you get much too hot and slow down.
I think the reason that people think this is because they get cold when they swim because they are not moving fast enough so they don’t get warm. It’s much easier to do just about anything else and get warm, but if you’re not working out hard enough the cooler water takes the heat away.
All right, maybe I lied when I said I wasn’t worried about body fat. What I meant was that I’m not worried that swimming will cause accumulation of body fat–which I had never worried about, frankly, until this person mentioned it. But I really don’t feel hot at all while swimming. Even the 84-degree water seems cool and if I’m not doing laps but merely messing around in the shallow end with my kid, I get chilled. (Which is odd, because I very likely would not get chilled in 84-degree AIR. But neither would I get too warm.)