Swimming offers a wide range of benefits that perhaps no other form of exercise offers. It is well known fact that swimming burns calories and helps build stamina. What is not so well known is that it also helps build strength, since water offers resistance. In fact, swimming serves as a form of resistance training, which offers a host of additional benefits. Scientific research has established that resistance training helps improve bone density, sleep, as well as body balance.

Also, swimming is a non-contact activity which does not put the kind of stress on the body muscles, bones and joints that exercises like jogging or cycling would do. From the point of view of parents, the biggest advantage is that it is a fun and sweat-free exercise for the kids. There is perhaps no better way to get your children hooked on to an active lifestyle.

If you are interested in getting your kids to hit the swimming pool, here are five things that can help you achieve the objective.

Arm Bands: Inflatable arm bands are perfectly suited for children who are beginners or still getting used to swimming. The arm bands allow for east arm movement in the water, easing the learning process. There is the added advantage of protecting the arms of the little ones from harmful ultraviolet rays.

Animal floats: Animal style swim floats serve the dual role of play toy and safety device for children. It is important to keep in mind the fact that there is no replacement for parental supervision. These floats only serve as an additional line of defence. Nonetheless, they can complement physical safety features such as safety covers and pool nets.

Bubble blowers: These devices add to the joy of swimming for children by allowing them to blow bubbles in the water. The idea behind using bubble blowers is to encourage kids to immerse their face in the water, enabling them to eventually get used to doing it, quite apart from helping them overcome the initial fear of water. These toys are inexpensive, which means they can also be put to educational use by having bubble blowers of many different colors, encouraging kids to learn and use the color names.

Music Players: Waterproof music players are available, at perfectly affordable prices, on most e-commerce portals these days. You can use these music players in swimming pool- the benefits of using music while exercising are well known, and music is no exception to it. In fact parents can easily attract the little ones to hit the pool by promising to play their favourite piece of music if they go swimming.

Safety Wristbands: Child safety wristbands serve two purpose. Many of them lend themselves to writing on, so that the names and contact details of parents or guardians can be entered, to be used in case a child gets separated from his or her group. Secondly, many wristbands these days come with an in-built alarm that sets off when the device has been submerged for more than a few seconds, thereby reducing the risk of drowning.