Swimming is an all-around exercise for working pretty much every muscle in the body. But can swimming help get rid of bingo wings? Keep reading to learn how swimming can help with bingo wings, it’s not quite what you think!
Swimming can certainly help build the muscles in the upper arms, which can help reduce the appearance of bingo wings.
But is swimming the best option? or is there a quicker way to get rid of bingo wings?
How swimming helps tone bingo wings
Swimming, in particular, the front crawl will work the muscles of the upper arm in particular the triceps and shoulders. As we swim the arms will be worked as we push water away from ourselves, over time this will force the muscles in the arm to grow stronger and bigger.
Swimming works many muscles in the human body. The muscles of the shoulders, arms, legs, back, and core are all having to work together to keep us afloat and propel us through the water. As we push the water away we are working the tricep muscle, which is the main muscle underneath the bingo wing.
Another way swimming can help bingo wings is the fat burning effects of the exercise itself. Bingo wings are fatty deposits that sit on the back of our arms. In order to get rid of them, we need to embark on a fat loss diet, the only way to do this is by creating a calorie deficit. 20 minutes of swimming can burn roughly 220 calories making it a great choice of exercise for burning off those unwanted calories!
Will swimming get rid of bingo wings?
Swimming would necessarily get rid of bingo wings, however, it will assist in the process of improving the appearance of our bingo wings. A calorie-controlled diet will be the biggest contributor in reducing fat all over the body. As we reduce our calories and slowly shed fat from the body, you will find your bingo wings begin to shrink. Swimming will both burn calories to assist with fat loss, but it will also work the muscles in our arm causing them to grow or ‘tone’.
Swimming workouts
- Swim a length as hard as fast as possible (25 meters), rest, and recover at the end for up to a minute before doing the next length. Repeat this 10 times. You can perform this in backstroke, breaststroke, and front crawl, try mixing it up for hitting different muscle groups (toning).
- Swim gently up and down for 30 minutes straight, try not to rest at the end at all, just maintain a brisk pace for the entire 30-minute period.
- Swim 3 lengths as hard and as fast as you can without any rest between lengths (75m). You will need a long rest of at least 3-5 minutes are trying this one! Repeat the exercise 3-5 times!
Will swimming get me fit?
It depends on what we define as ‘fitness’. If we want to improve our ‘cardiovascular fitness’ then swimming could be a good choice. As we swim up and down the muscles in our body require oxygen, forcing our heart and lungs to pump oxygen to our working muscles. Over time, adaptations will occur in both the muscle and the heart and lungs. The quickest way to get fit from swimming is to work at a higher intensity, in other words, swim harder and faster with less rest!
Is swimming better than running for bingo wings?
Performing exercises such as swimming or running will help burn calories which will support a calorie-restricted diet. But which one is best?
Running at a steady pace for 20 minutes can burn 150-200 calories an hour. Of course, if we increase the speed and intensity of our running effort we will burn even more calories per hour. Running is one of the best possible choices for burning calories and reducing fat. The main muscle we work on during a run will be our legs.
Swimming at a steady pace for 20 minutes can burn 220 calories on average, again this completely depends on how hard we exercise. In contrast to running, swimming will work more muscles in the body and will take more effort from our arms and shoulders.
In truth both are great choices for burning calories, however, due to the fact that swimming works the tricep muscle (under the bingo wing), we’re going to say swimming is the slightly better option!
Is swimming better than weights for getting rid of bingo wings?
We would say yes, swimming probably is a better choice than weights in terms of getting rid of your bingo wings. Mainly because of the calorie-burning effect of swimming. Whereas a workout with weights will tend to focus mainly on increasing muscle size, and won’t contribute to a fat-burning diet as much. We’ve written a full article on which is the best bingo wing exercise without weights.
Is swimming good for toning up?
In order to answer this, we think it’s important to understand exactly what ‘toning up’ is as there can sometimes be some confusion on this topic. Toning, or improving the appearance of the muscle tone, effectively means losing body whilst increasing the size of the muscle. The only way to do this is to participate in a calorie-restricted diet which will slowly bring our body fat down and in turn reduce the size of the bingo wing. If we add in some exercises that work the muscles of the arm, mainly the tricep then we can improve the appearance drastically. Swimming is great at assisting int he fat loss and is a-ok choice to work the muscles of the arm, however, if you are really wanting to create the look of a toned arm we would suggest adding in some bodyweight exercises, weights, or kettlebells. In fact there are numerous exercises we do to help tone our bingo wings. Such as push-ups, sit-ups, tricep dips, even running!