Wonderful Reasons To Go Snorkeling

If you love recreation, especially swimming, chances are good you've heard of snorkeling. Perhaps you are even considering trying it out for yourself, but you need an extra push of motivation. Perhaps you have only just heard of snorkeling, and simply want to know more about it. Either way, you may enjoy learning four wonderful benefits of snorkeling.

Heart and Muscle Health

When you're snorkeling, you have to swim a lot, using your arms, legs, and entire body to move around. When you exercise like this enough to increase your heart rate, you are basically getting a cardiovascular workout! Regularly cardio exercise strengthens the muscle of the heart, meaning that your heart will stay healthier for longer, decreasing the risk of heart disease later in life. Snorkeling is also a great workout for your core muscles, quads, calves, and shoulders. 

Mental Health 

There are many reasons why snorkeling improves mood and mental health. For one thing, exercise helps relieve anxiety. For another, controlled breathing like you must do while snorkeling is similar to breathe and mindfulness meditations used in some forms of mental health therapy. In addition, there are psychological benefits to being near the ocean. A PsychCentral article notes, "Salt in the water preserves tryptamine, serotonin and melatonin levels in the brain, which aid in diminishing depression." Common anecdotal evidence shows that people feel better when they visit the ocean.   

Joint Health 

Exercise in the water can benefit everybody, but it is especially useful for people with joint pain or injury or those with obesity problems. For these people, it may be impossible to work out by walking a lot or running because the impact of it puts too much pain and pressure on the joints, such as knees and hips. In the water, however, you don't need to worry about the force of impact with objects, since you are floating. Exercising in the water is therefore great for joint health and may provide relief of joint pain.   

Experiencing Nature

One of the reasons people love scuba diving and snorkeling is that they get to see so much wildlife. When you snorkel in the ocean, you may come into contact with many types of fish, and depending on your time, location, skill, and luck, you might see eels, squid, lobsters, starfish, or even dolphins. If you are snorkeling near a reef, you will get see all the wildlife that flourishes there such as corals. Perhaps you can take a trip to snorkel into a kelp forest. Anywhere you go, if you can see the sea-floor and the blue all around you, it's likely to be a treat for your eyes. For some people, this kind of closeness to nature is a spiritual experience, yet another benefit of snorkeling. 

For more information, talk to a professional like ScubaTech Of Northwest Florida.