Exercise is one of the best things you can do for yourself in recovery. Exercise strengthens willpower and executive function. It improves your mood by increasing serotonin, endorphins, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which actually grows brain cells in certain parts of your brain. Exercise also makes you healthier and repairs some of the damage done by addiction. Now that it’s summer, you might consider getting your exercise by swimming. There are a number of reasons swimming is especially good exercise for people in recovery. First, it’s good exercise for almost anyone. Often people whose mobility is severely limited, whether from obesity, arthritis, disease, or injury, can still swim to some extent. Walking is probably the only exercise that casts a similarly wide net, and even some people who can’t walk can still swim. Also, swimming is low impact, so if you are overweight or have some other condition that makes walking or running painful, you can still get a challenging full-body workout in the pool with much less stress on your body. At the other end of the spectrum, if you’re already in pretty good shape, there’s no limit to the challenges of swimming. Swimming is better than any other sport for building lung capacity. If you’ve smoked cigarettes or other substances, your lungs will be damaged to some degree. They will start to heal relatively quickly; usually people notice they are less short of breath within a few weeks of quitting. Swimming can help strengthen your lungs and heart and help you breathe better. If you still smoke, swimming is the kind of keystone habit that can motivate you to quit. Swimming is also especially good for managing anxiety. While most vigorous exercise is good for anxiety, swimming forces you to actively learn to control your anxiety. Putting your face in water while strenuously exercising is not the most comfortable thing for most people to do. Most people feel a bit of panic when they go under water. Swimming is an opportunity to learn to manage that anxiety in safe conditions so you gradually learn to feel more comfortable with anxiety. Finally, swimming is more meditative than many forms of exercise. While most people can walk or run without thinking too much about how to do it, swimming requires a lot of attention to technique. The water gives you immediate feedback so that you’re making small adjustments to your technique with each stroke. As a result, you naturally focus a lot more on what you’re doing. The extra concentration swimming requires often leads to flow states, which make you feel happier. The summer is the perfect time to start swimming regularly. Most public pools have designated times for lap swimming, as do many gyms and community centers. Beeches are good for swimming, but swimming in open water is much harder than swimming in a pool so be very careful. You might want to consider taking swimming lessons to get you started, since there’s a bit more to swimming than flapping your arms in the water. As with all exercise, start slow and build gradually.
If you or a loved one struggles with addiction, we can help. Recovery Ways is a leading addiction treatment provider with an excellent recovery rate. Our expert staff includes masters and PhD level therapists and board certified addiction psychiatrists. Our comfortable facilities will help to make your treatment as enjoyable as possible and our therapists use proven techniques like sensory integration and recreation therapy to help to engage the world without the assistance of drugs or alcohol. Call us today at 1-888-986-7848 or email us through our contact page to learn more.
