BE LIKE BEN

You probably recognize him from his plump face on the $100 bill. You might remember him as the pudgy fellow in the film “1776” who advocated for the turkey to be the national bird.

But, despite his portly portrayal in film, TV, and on “the Benjamin,” for most of his life, Benjamin Franklin was an active and fit man who lived well beyond the average lifespan of 40 for the period, having passed onto the next world in his 84th year.

Franklin is recognized as one of our most endearing Founding Fathers, partly because of his diverse contributions in the areas of diplomacy, writing, statesmanship, humor, invention, and publishing. Perhaps less known about him are his contributions to wellness – specifically to swimming.

Franklin discovered swimming at a young age as a child in Boston. He learned to swim in the Charles River and, even as a boy, he began experimenting with ways to swim faster. He observed that the size of people’s hands and feet determined how much water they could pull. Ever and early the inventor, he designed hand paddles that worked quite efficiently and also tried to improve his speed with foot paddles, but that design was not as successful.

Not only did Franklin use a kite to aid in the discovery of electricity, many years earlier he became the first kite boarder, holding a kite and letting it pull him along in a pond. In a letter to a friend, republished in Walter Isaacson’s biography on Franklin, Franklin himself explained, “I began to cross the pond with my kite, which carried me quite over without the least fatigue and with the greatest pleasure imaginable.”

His interest in swimming did not die in Boston when he ran away to Philadelphia at the age of 17. At that time in his life, Isaacson describes him as “physically striking: muscular, barrel-chested, open-faced, and almost six feet tall.” When he moved to London a year later, having studied the 1696 volume “The Art of Swimming,” he experimented with various strokes and taught his friends to swim. He even became an open water swimmer, swimming 3.5 miles along the Thames River.

And, Franklin is the only founding father who is inducted into a sports hall of fame, having been enshrined in the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968.

In his induction materials, the hall of fame explained that in addition to his contributions in coaching, and inventing swim gear, Franklin also was a strong advocate of learn-to-swim programs, proposing that all Pennsylvania schools have swimming programs and urging all parents to teach their children to swim. As is often the case with Franklin, his wisdom bears truth today. Not only are learn-to-swim programs still imperative in today’s society, the benefits of swimming are proven. Swimming is both an aerobic and strength training exercise that is low impact and can be enjoyed by the very young and the very old alike. It builds muscle, cardiovascular strength, and endurance. It helps tone muscle and trim fat as it requires a ton of calories and strength to move through water. It is good therapy for muscles as well as for the mind, helping to lower stress. It improves coordination, posture and balance. Plus, it is a pleasant way to cool down on a hot day.

Be like Ben. Take up swimming.