Courtesy of Jess Miller, @jenreviews.

Open water swimmers know and enjoy the benefits of swimming, but it is always good to read a synopsis of all the health and wellness benefits of aquatic exercise. Jess Miller of @jenreviews wrote a lengthy and comprehensive article about the health benefits of swimming.

Read on here where she talks about the following eight benefits:

1. Swimming fights tiredness by improving oxygen intake and energy use in the body
2. Swimming protects the heart and cardiovascular system
3. Swimming provides social support and aids mental health and development
4. Learning to swim reduces the chance of drowning
5. The risk of contracting certain chronic illnesses drops with swimming exercise
6. Swimming supports a healthy and longer life
7. As a low-impact exercise, swimming causes less overall damage to muscles and joints
8. A correlation exists between swimming and an overall decrease in body fat percentage