Swimming

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Chlorine and Your Hair

Imagine your hair as a sponge absorbing water. Before you get in the pool, wet your hair with fresh water. With non-chlorinated water on board, your hair won’t be able to soak-up as much chlorine while you swim. And always rinse your hair with clean water after swimming; chlorine in pools not only dries-out your hair, but will fade the colour too.

Chlorine in swimming pools can cause sebum – oil that lubricates your hair shaft – to start building up in your hair follicles. As time passes follicles can become blocked, creating further hair damage. After Swimming use a good ‘clarifying’ shampoo. The main ingredient to look for is EDTA (Ethylene Diamine Tetra Acetic Acid). It’s like a chemical claw, removing chlorine from your hair.

Baking soda is a wonderfully inexpensive home remedy. Shampoo as usual, but add ¼ cup baking soda to your shampoo. Using this mixture once a week can remove water impurities and lighten your hair. Also consider mixing baking soda with hair conditioner in your hand to condition the ends of your hair. It’ll give your hair more volume, body and health.

Protect Your Hair from the Inside

Drinking plenty of water every day is a good way to lubricate damaged or excessively dry hair. Other liquids such as herbal teas and fruit juices also help. Be moderate in your use of coffee and colas, as they can cause dehydration to your hair and skin.

A healthy diet and recommended use of vitamins will help the overall health of your hair by providing a boost of minerals and nutrients. Besides feeding hair with vitamins, minerals and amino acids you can crank up the moisture by adding daily Essential Fatty Acid (EFA) supplements. Flax Seed is reported to be a great EFA that softens a woman’s hair and skin.

Be Gentle

Don’t mangle your hair by brushing it when wet. Instead, comb it with a wide-tooth comb. Work out tangles as you move from the ends toward the scalp. Don’t over dry – leave some moisture in to prevent static. Use care when styling. Your hair will be better-off if you don’t use styling appliances; but if you must, don’t let your hair get too hot and avoid aggressive manipulation of your hair.

Hats Best to Stop Damaging Rays

UV-radiation from the sun can damage your hair, fading colour and making it brittle. Although some hair care products claim they contain sun protection, wearing a hat or cap around the pool or beach to is the simplest, most effective way to look after your hair.

Deep Conditioning Hair Treatments

If you already have damaged hair, perhaps it’s time for intensive treatment to turn the tide for your bruised hair cuticles. Whether you whip up your own recipe, go to your favourite salon or buy an off-the-shelf product, you may need to perform intensive conditioning at least once a week.

Salon treatments are more expensive and usually involve the application of a healing hair masque or deep conditioning product to return your hair to its natural, healthy appearance.

Keep these tips in mind next time you’re at the pool or beach. With a little care and know-how, you can maintain great-looking hair while enjoying the benefits of outdoor exercise.

Swimming information and products www.swimming.sport-and-fitness.co.uk

When it comes to competitive swimming there are various strokes and distances that can be competed in at most competitions. Competitive swimming started to become increasingly popular in the in the 1800’s , and due to its popularity is and has been for a long time one of the most popular events in the summer Olympics.

Competitive swimming has an international governing body that goes by the world recognised name of FINA. The governing body of FINA includes local sub groups such as Amateur Swimming Association (ASA) and Swimming Teachers Association (STA) in the United Kingdom ,USA Swimming (USAS) and United States Masters Swimming (USMS) in the United States. FINA regulates the four swimming disciplines, swum over different distances as outlined below.

Freestyle, also known as ‘front crawl’, can be swum using any technique or style the swimmer chooses, although front crawl is swum 99% of the time, and thus in swimming competitions bares no restrictions on what action the swimmers use. The only exception to this is when the swimmer is swimming the freestyle part of an individual medley event. The following events are held for freestyle in distances of 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m and 1500 m. All of these can be swum in regular competitions and major games.

Butterfly events require that the swimmer’s actions are equal at both sides

Swimming is one of the most popular forms of aerobic exercise, and it is an excellent activity for anyone who wishes to get fit and stay active. Swimming exercise uses more of the overall muscle mass of the body than almost any other form of exercise, and people get an upper-body workout and a lower-body workout, unlike running or biking or other activities like tennis, where you get a good workout in just the legs. In addition, as with most aerobic exercise it is believed to reduce the harmful effects of stress.

Overall, swimming is an excellent form of exercise. Because the density of the human body is approximately similar to that of water, the body is supported by the water and less stress is therefore placed on joints and bones. Since then the buoyancy of the water protects the joints, water exercise is a particularly good choice for people who are overweight or who are prevented from taking part in other activities because of injuries or other physical limitations. Therefore, swimming is frequently used as an exercise in rehabilitation after injuries or for the disabled. It’s also safe for older people and pregnant women.

For most adults, the upper body is the weakest part of the body. Swimming exercises the arms and upper body more than the legs. In competitive swimming, excessive leg muscles can be seen as a disadvantage as they consume more oxygen, which would be needed for the muscles in the arms, although this depends on the swimming style. While breaststroke generates significant movement with the legs, front crawl propels the body mainly with the arms.

Sometimes the swimming consists of swimming laps using a conventional stroke, such as the front crawl; other forms can include different forms of exercise performed in the water, such as water aerobics. Specifically, swimming and other forms of water exercise, such as water aerobics, offer remarkable cardiovascular benefits and are one of the few forms of exercise that work out the entire body. Swimming is primarily an aerobic exercise due to the relatively long exercise time, requiring a constant oxygen supply to the muscles, except for short sprints where the muscles work anaerobically. Particularly, water aerobics put a lot less stress on the knee and hip joints than running or many other aerobic activities. If you put people in the water, they don’t have that pounding and compression on those joints, so they’re able to exercise much more pain free. Moreover, if the water is warm, water exercise is good for people with arthritis.

Swimming and water aerobics are excellent and popular forms of exercise for the elderly, so long as the primary focus for exercise is not to improve osteoporosis.

www.swimming.sport-and-fitness.co.uk

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Last weekend, I went to go swimming locally.  Saturday morning, every local pool was either not open at all or only open for swimming lessons or clubs.

In the afternoon, the pool I went to was closed because of a swimming gala event.  They didn’t think to put this information on their web site.

It would be nice if all the local pools got together and co-ordinated their timetables a bit mire i.e. some have lessons on a Saturday morning and some maybe later in the day.  The nearest pool open on a Saturday morning is in Newbury.

Is Basingstoke the only place to have this problem?

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