The  World Health Organization (WHO)  estimates that 300 million people worldwide, including children, suffer from asthma. The main symptoms of respiratory disease are shortness of breath, dry cough, wheezing or noise in the chest and anxiety with Lifeguard certification.

Among the options for improving this condition and other discomforts caused by respiratory diseases, is swimming. To understand more about the benefits of sport for breathing, we spoke with pediatrician and pediatric pulmonology and allergy specialist Dr. Alfonso Alvarez.

Breathing benefits of swimming

1) What benefits does swimming bring to breathing?

Several scientific studies have demonstrated the benefits of swimming for respiratory problems. Swimming is a complete sport and mainly helps to strengthen the entire respiratory muscles, facilitating breathing and improving the symptoms of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, for example.

It stretches all the intercostal muscles, opening and closing the space between the ribs, moves the rib cage through arm movements and works the abdominal muscles, facilitating diaphragmatic breathing. All these movements are coordinated with the breath. The movement of opening and closing the space between the ribs facilitates the inspiratory and expiratory muscles, that is, it fills the lungs on inspiration and empties on expiration. Strengthening the diaphragm is also fundamental in this process.

Another benefit of swimming is the increased humidity in the airways, resulting from the high humidity of the inspired air at the water level, which reduces the loss of water through breathing and decreases the viscosity of the mucus in the airways.

2) From what age is it recommended to start swimming?

Studies show that cardiorespiratory benefits occur from 2 years of age. Before that, swimming will only function as recreation, with no benefits in relation to breathing. From the age of 2, the benefits of swimming are already well proven.

3) Does swimming help with all respiratory problems?

As swimming strengthens the muscles responsible for breathing, it ends up helping in most respiratory problems.

4) Is it also effective for adults who have had the problem for many years?

Yes, it is effective in conditions like Asthma and Emphysema.

5) Does swimming help to improve or also prevent?

The studies clearly demonstrate the benefits when the patient already has symptoms. It is not yet clear whether swimming will help prevent the onset of respiratory symptoms.

On the other hand, swimming will help prevent postural problems, and as postural problems can impair breathing, it can be said that swimming will play a preventive role in this regard.

6) In addition to swimming, is any other sport indicated to help with respiratory problems?

Yes, in fact any aerobic sport will help with respiratory problems. In this way, sports such as football,

ballet, jazz, basketball and tennis will also bring benefits. It is even preferable, for example, for the child to play football or dance with enthusiasm than to swim with displeasure. It is therefore very important to consider the child's preference when choosing a sport. The direction that parents should give is for aerobic sports to be performed, as sports such as martial arts will have lesser benefits in this regard.

The exception is for children with Asthma who have exercise-triggered bronchospasm. It is known that swimming is the exercise that least induces bronchospasm, a fact demonstrated in bronchoprovocation tests, performed with different types of physical exercises. Other exercises, such as running and cycling, trigger bronchospasm of greater intensity. In this way, swimming becomes the most suitable sport for children with these characteristics.

It is also worth remembering that the practice of sports awakens in the child the desire to have a healthy lifestyle, which affects other aspects of life, such as food.

Another important aspect, from a pediatric point of view, is that every child should learn to swim, as a matter of safety. Therefore, the child should start swimming, and when he/she knows how to swim, if he/she wants to, he/she can change the physical activity.