Swimming is not good for you. The role of swimming activities in case of scoliosis

In the field of motor learning, a concept based on fluid dynamics and on the characteristic of water is of primary importance: the passage from land to water is the passage from the domination of weight to the domination of form. The undoubted value of the role of aquatic and swimming activities due to the effects exerted on the great organic functions (cardio-circulatory and respiratory) continues to be the object of unjustified attention and, not rarely, counterproductive in the process of normalization of morphological-postural alterations and in the treatment of real scoliosis. It is necessary to consider that, when the human body is immersed in water, it must deal with the force of gravity and enter into a relationship with the mass, weight, density and relative density of the water; these combine concepts such as buoyancy, hydrostatic pressure, surface tension, refraction, viscosity, motion, molecular cohesion of the liquid, flow, heat and water temperature. This definition confirms a principle of Physics whereby the vertical line that passes through the center of the human body (when in equilibrium) and the vertical line that passes through the buoyancy center (metacentre) are expressions of shape variations (volume variation) rather than changes in body weight versus gravity. In other words, from the point of view of perception, the shape of the body immersed in water undergoes specific revolutions that decrease the proprioceptive afferents until they disappear while, on the contrary, the exteroceptive afferents are enhanced. This means that we move from body patterns linked to the weight aspect to body patterns linked to the volumetric aspects of the skin receptors. Muscles in water are used by the human body in a completely different way compared to how they are used on land so that, due to a series of biomechanical phenomena, the movement they can generate has a vector that is constantly opposite to the direction of the movement while orienting the segments. of the body in the same direction and direction of the movement. In addition, since a rotational movement is generated and the muscles cannot generate any muscular traction in the direct sense, it is observed that - in water - the movement is delayed with respect to the contractions of the muscles necessary to generate the movement itself. We understand, therefore, that this is contrary to what happens on land where muscle contraction and movement are necessarily contextual.

Inside the book "Swimming is not good", by myself and my colleague Carmelo Giuffrida, we want to give technical-scientific significance and precise and detailed motivations based on Fluid Dynamics, Biomechanics and Kinesiology .... continue on the magazine