Swimming is one of the best sports with lifeguard recertification near me to do if you are overweight or obese. That’s what you often hear. Swimming puts the least strain on your joints because your weight is absorbed by the buoyancy of the water.
But with swimming you also immediately get to grips with the sport that is the greatest mental challenge for overweight or obese people.
Swimming means showing your body. Showing you in your most vulnerable position, almost naked, in front of a large audience. It all starts with the dressing room. You have no room to move. The bench that often also serves as a lock for the door is too small and too thin to sit on. Bending over is difficult for overweight people. So, you have to think carefully about what clothes and shoes you wear at home. What comes off easily? Where can you squeeze in and out in such a cubicle?
Clothes off, towel of
And then comes the supreme moment. You wrap the bath towel around you as much as possible and you anxiously try to keep your body behind the bag of clothes. You open the door. The first steps are the hardest. “Where can I go so that I meet as few people as possible?” You walk to the lockers and put away your clothes.
With quick small steps – against slipping – you walk through the disinfection baths to the main hall, looking for a seat. You see cheap plastic stacking chairs, tub models with backrests on both sides. That’s not an option. You don’t fit in that. The loungers look so cheap that you don’t dare to lie on them either.
You look for a suitable corner, as close to the pool as possible, to take off your towel and put it away. You hope they don’t take him away, because actually they shouldn’t. Your towel is finished, you try to get into the pool as quickly as possible. A hard splash would stand out, you don’t want that, so you try to slide into it as silently as possible.
Escape plan
As soon as you are in the pool you feel tired, but also safe. No one can see your body. For the first few minutes, you hold on to the side or look for a place in the shallow water where you can sit and rest under the water for a while. The stress disappears very slowly, but the tension remains. You’ll have to get out again soon. You look at the aluminum steps. Are they going to keep you? You don’t trust it. The stone steps at the shallow end are a better option. Happy. You will work out the rest of the plan later.
You swim your laps. The water feels good on your body. Swimming and breathing rhythms come together and you will feel stronger and stronger. After a good number of jobs, you feel a languid fatigue in your whole body. Enough. Time to get out. You hold on to the side and wait for the right moment to hoist yourself out of the pool. You already determine your route. “If I now take those stone steps, I can reach my towel in 5 steps and I can wrap it around me.”
Boys and girls swims
The crowds are increasing. A large group of boys and girls has just arrived. You wait until the group has jumped into the water and swims away from the ladder, your ladder. That’s the time. The pool’s attention is focused on the noisy youngsters. You run to your towel as quickly as possible and wrap it around you. It is not possible to rest on a chair or lounger. Showering is also not an option. There is a large group of boys in the showers, playing with each other.
The reality
Swimming is good for you…? It may be, but it’s not fun this way.
A few years ago, there were quite a few swimming pools in the Netherlands that had reserved special times for overweight or obese people, in which they could swim without tension. The number of swimming pools has decreased enormously: it was not attractive from a commercial point of view; subsidies have been discontinued.
If you do know a swimming pool with special hours for overweight and obese people, please comment on this blog and leave a link to the website of the relevant swimming pool. How nice it would be to be able to offer everyone who is overweight or obese an overview of such baths.
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