People have been swimming through open waters, both out of necessity and for pleasure, from the earliest times. Traversing the English Channel, which entails a distance of at least 32 kilometres and was achieved for the first time in August 1875 by an English captain, set new standards in open-water swimming. Since Matthew Webb had miscalculated the motion of the sea and the current, he swam over 70 kilometres and took more than 21 hours! One well-known ultra-long-distance swimmer in open waters is the Slovenian Martin Strel. A few of his swimming feats include the Danube, the Yangtze, and the Amazon.

Sports medicine

Even if the achievements described above – particularly with regard to health concerns – are rather questionable undertakings to pursue, athletic swimming is considered one of the most effective cardiovascular training methods there is. The water pressure compresses the blood vessels and the blood is pushed back into the chest area, which means that the heart has to work very hard to counter this. This gradually increases the heart volume – the heart muscle grows bigger, the heart rate decreases, and the body becomes higher-performing and sturdier. Regardless of the style of swimming, all muscle groups are strained equally. As a result, all your muscles are built up and you are rewarded with a firmer, defined body.

Open waters

While long swimming in an indoor or outdoor pool now and again can be very monotonous and sometimes boring, swimming in open water offers much more variety and presents further challenges. A lake, river, or even the sea does not always offer very cosy water temperatures and through current, wind and waves, sometimes conditions can prevail that differ significantly from swimming in a pool. But this is what makes open-water swimming so thrilling, and once you’ve tried it out once and had the experience, you will increasingly enjoy it and perhaps even get hooked.

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