Swim exercise suggestions??

[lucky26]

If one were to incorporate swimming into their fitness plan, say 3 times a week, does anyone have any recommendations for an effective swim workout?

I mean, laps are obviously helpful for cardio strength but can you effectively work your muscles and see results from swimming?

[Scarlett]

Absolutely. :biggthumpup:

I'm a swimmer, and I love it. I would suggest you learn some strokes! Regardless of how you measure your workout, in time or in meters/yards, you'll definitely be seeing results.

BUT you could run yourself into the ground easily, be careful - 3 times a week might be too much if you're weight training too (unless your swim workouts are relatively short). The water provides resistance so swimming usually requires a lot more energy/muscle involvement than just running on a treadmill would.

Try your hand at a short, simple, free-stroking swim and see how your endurance goes. If you're new to it you could be in for a serious lung workout. Do you have access to a pool with lanes?

Also, I would recommend learning a flip turn, lol... it's not as hard as it looks. :D

[sassy69]

Absolutely. :biggthumpup:

I'm a swimmer, and I love it. I would suggest you learn some strokes! Regardless of how you measure your workout, in time or in meters/yards, you'll definitely be seeing results.

BUT you could run yourself into the ground easily, be careful - 3 times a week might be too much if you're weight training too (unless your swim workouts are relatively short). The water provides resistance so swimming usually requires a lot more energy/muscle involvement than just running on a treadmill would.

Try your hand at a short, simple, free-stroking swim and see how your endurance goes. If you're new to it you could be in for a serious lung workout. Do you have access to a pool with lanes?

Also, I would recommend learning a flip turn, lol... it's not as hard as it looks. :D


I used to do an hour of laps every night in college (mostly just to manage the stress from school). It was a fantastic endurance builder! I also would swim w/o my contacts in so when I did attempt to teach myself flip turns, I'd miss occassionally because I couldn't see actual distance to the wall.....

[bigleemurali]

Water aerobics can be an effective tool .

i have tried the step touch, etc etc (dont remember the name of aerobic movements ) inside the swimming pool - and found it extremely calorie burning effort. jogging or walking inside the pool takes up more calories than swimming :D

So i would recommend you to try water aerobics once a week and swimming twice a week with different strokes .

Feel your workouts and increase water aerobics if it works better for you

[tewen]

I would def. swim as part of my workoutplan if I had the possebility! Its awesome workout!

[Scarlett]

Water aerobics can be an effective tool .

i have tried the step touch, etc etc (dont remember the name of aerobic movements ) inside the swimming pool - and found it extremely calorie burning effort. jogging or walking inside the pool takes up more calories than swimming :D

So i would recommend you to try water aerobics once a week and swimming twice a week with different strokes .

Feel your workouts and increase water aerobics if it works better for you

Well if that isn't a very generalized idea/subjective experience - it really depends on the swimmer and the workout, now doesn't it. It's kind of like the god-awful comparison between long/slow cardio and short/quick cardio. Have you ever tried to sprint the fly stroke for a 400? Calories flee in fear. And your heart beats out of your chest to go chase them down. And your lungs explode.

Plus... come on. Water aerobics are for girly-men. :D

[lucky26]

Thanks for the suggestions :)
I actually used to be a swimmer in grade school so I am used to laps but I wondered about strength building exercises...I mean, jumping squats across the pool seems to give me a little burn but I wonder if I'm really doing much since the water decreases body weight.

I guess just making up my own little exercises might work. Seems that no one thinks swimming is a futile effort, so, I'm going to keep doing it. Certainly loosens the muscles, especially after lifting or running the day before.

If anyone knows of a website or post that suggests water aerobic exercises, please let me know :) Thanks!!

[Tweak]

OMG, Scar, a 400 fly... yeah right. I couldn't do that. But I blew at fly... my coach always used to tell me I looked like a shot seal. lol

I was a swimmer in high school and college. +1 to learning some strokes and flip turns. If you can, see if there is a swim club that you can join. They usually practice 2-3 days a week for an hour or two. Honestly you just have to jump in and go even if you don't really know what you're doing.

The more you swim, the better you'll get. You won't feel so awkward/alien in the water after awhile. You fall into rhythms. I'd say that the first stroke you really should learn how to do is freestyle (aka front crawl) because most swimmers spend about 80% of their time doing that.

Swimming is great for endurance and building up your shoulders, back, and chest.

I also recommend doing a sprint from the shallow end to the deep end, then doing 25 pull outs (cross your feet, put your hands up on the deck and pull yourself out of the water til your butt/hips are out, drop back down into the pool, do it again) and then sprinting back.

:D


Also, get a kickboard and go to town. You can do flutter kick or whip kick (what some people call frog kicking), and if you're really good you can do the dolphin kick (the kick used in butterfly... but I BLOW at fly, so I never even bother trying to do the dolphin cuz I lack the back flexibility). If you're looking for a challenge, wedge the board against the deck and sprint kick hard against the deck for 10 seconds, then turn around, push off, and kick normally.

You can encorporate build ups (starting out slow, going to a sprint), build downs (the opposite), and breathing exercises into your swimming as well. I personally feel like build ups and build downs work best stretched out from 25-100 yards (1-4 lengths)... anything over that is just awkward. I personally love doing build up 50s (2 lengths). Once you're better at the freestyle, you can do Restricted breathing exercises (RBs). RB3 = breathing every 3 strokes, RB 5 = breathing every 5 strokes, etc.

I personally hate anything over RB4. lol My coach used to occasionally throw RB 6 or 8 in and I would cuss at him cuz that's TIRING.

Anyways.

Just some ideas. For sure you should try pullouts. If you don't want to lap swim, you can tread water in the deep end for 2 minutes and then do 50 pullouts, then tread water with your hands out of the water for 2 minutes, do 50 pullouts, repeat.

[Scarlett]

I was wondering when you'd get to this thread, Tweak! Awesome response... Lucky, listen to that. ^^^^

[lucky26]

Thanks Tweak! I will be trying pullouts this week...hopefully tomorrow :)
I definitely do the freestyle laps but I also suck at the fly - never could get the arms down right but I can do the legs...so perhaps so kickboard work with the dolphin legs after freestyle laps would be a good routine to try.
I LOVE swimming but I know just floating around, playing and treading water isn't enough to see results so thank you all for the suggestions!
:)

[bigleemurali]

Well if that isn't a very generalized idea/subjective experience - it really depends on the swimmer and the workout, now doesn't it. It's kind of like the god-awful comparison between long/slow cardio and short/quick cardio. Have you ever tried to sprint the fly stroke for a 400? Calories flee in fear. And your heart beats out of your chest to go chase them down. And your lungs explode.

Plus... come on. Water aerobics are for girly-men. :D


sprinting does consume lots of calories but it tough to keep up the pace bro

i usually try jogging inside the pool and it really pushes you to the limit - less effort and more caloreis burnt -

just like the inclination cardio burns more calories thing :angel: