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How Does Swimming Affect The Body

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Competitive sports effect the body in positive and negative ways. Sports can be good for a persons character and often result in life long friendships, and bonds. Sports join the world in an inseparable bond, that is competition. Swimming is a beautiful sport that takes grace and endurance. Swimming also builds lung endurance. But, the chlorine in the pools cause respiratory issues such as asthma. We must start to fix this issue to restore health to swimmers. For most of my life I have competitively swam and for the past three years I have lifeguarded, I am often in a chlorinated environment. I have noticed that when competing and working I am more prone to having chest colds and breathing trouble. To understand chlorines role in causing respiratory discomfort, we have to understand our environment and how the water density affects the lungs. When people exercise they raise their heart rate. When ones heart rate is rapid it is up to their lungs, and respiratory system to provide the blood with oxygen. With competitive swimming a swimmers heart rate will rise and the swimmer will need a to breathe, but swimming has a low oxygen intake compared to other sports. The water is 800 times the density of the air. This shrinks the airway 2 millimeters, which constricts the chest, consequently constricting breathe (Swimming and asthma). Let me introduce two words: hydrastic load, and thoracic cavity. The hydrastic load is when a person is in a vertical position, submerged in water.

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