Swimming is brilliant for both physical and mental health, with the list including weight loss, stress-relief and reduced risk of heart disease. While we can’t promise you’ll be as fast as Michael Phelps, incorporating swimming into your exercise regime will help you feel healthier and happier, inside and out.

"Swimming provides an array of specific benefits such as improved cardiovascular and respiratory fitness, improved muscle strength and endurance, improved lean body mass, lower risk of traumatic injuries such as occurs during high-impact activities, and improved mental health and well-being," says Mitch Lomax, a pulmonologist and exercise physiologist at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom.

Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or advanced swimmer, the benefits of swimming are all the same. Swimming, after all, is a full-body workout that engages multiple muscle groups. It’s an excellent pulmonary workout, strengthening the lungs. Swimming is also low-impact, excellent for reducing stress, and effective for weight loss.