Like many people, I was never really into swimming growing up besides for leisure. Sure, I knew how to swim and took a few courses here and there in different summer camps. But in general, I never had a serious interest in it and by the time I hit high school age I almost completely stopped swimming (which is sort of funny considering I made time to sail).

[One of my dreams is to take a boat out to the ocean and just watch the most graceful and beautiful creatures to be found on the planet. Ialso think that anyone who ever wants to take a voyage out to the ocean is safer and better off if they're a solid swimmer as well.]

In fact, the only thing that pulled me back into swimming again was when I was injured in training and swimming was literally the only activity I could handle at the time. There was one problem though. The problem being that the only pool available was larger than Olympic size (more than 50 meters) and on top of that, I was really, really bad at swimming. This post is dedicated to showing you both the importance of swimming as well as a few videos that I used to help learn how to swim again. Here goes nothin':

Muscle Building, Endurance Training, Fat Loss and a Survival Tool All in One

If I could only advise you to do one activity, there is no question that swimming would be that activity. Here's why:

• It's great for fat loss
• It's great for building and toning muscle
• It's great for endurance training
• It is a skill that can potentially save your life and/or help you save the lives of others

In short, swimming is the best "overall" activity available, since it really hits on all the major exercise factors. Even if you're in "muscle building" mode, interspersing some short swimming sessions into the week can still help you.

Training for Life

One of the big themes I try to relay here at The Fitness Adviser is that we should be training for real life, and not just for vanity. One of the benefits of that training mentality is that you're able to objectively look at your training by way of the results you're seeing, while also naturally just looking good without having to be obsessive about it. When you're eating healthily and working your body hard, you'll automatically start looking great without having to worry about it.

Swimming is a great example of that. By practicing swimming, you're giving yourself a skill that can potentially save your own life or allow you to save the lives of others. At the same time, for guys, swimming helps make you broader and gives you that "wide shoulder" look and for for girls, it helps tone you up and burn off the last pound of fat. It's an activity that shows that training for real life is not only better for life, but you even end up looking better than had you trained for vanity alone.

The Videos I Used To Learn How to Swim Again

First, I want to say thanks to the creator of these videos, Jimmy Shea. His video on how to swim freestyle alone has gotten over 500,000 views, so I'm sure he's helped a lot more people swim than just me. When I first started swimming after not swimming for years, I used to watch these videos, go out and swim, come back and go over the videos again for the next day until I would get better. (Like I said...I was really bad in the beginning!)

It also helped that I was swimming at a pool where there were a lot of really high level swimmers, so I could also watch them and learn from their form. Also, just like the people at the gym, people who are into swimming are happy to share their hobby with you, so feel free to ask for some advice as long as you're not interrupting someone in the middle of a lap. Anyway, here are a few amazing videos on how to swim different strokes by Jimmy Shea: How to Swim Freestyle:

How to swim breaststroke (doing the proper breaststroke will make you feel like a pro right away):

Once you feel up to it, the butterfly:

There You Have It...

There you have it. Now you know why swimming is so important and which videos I used to learn how to swim again. Do you agree with me that swimming is the best activity for a combination of fat loss, muscle building, endurance training and for learning a survival tool? Leave a comment and let me know!