Posted: 2/4/2007 5:58:31 PM EDT
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I started back swimming recently. I lifeguarded back in '93. I hated swimming back then and was very poor at it. Fast forward to 2001, I started swimming at the local pool during my lunch hour. I did this for two years and started to get pretty good form. Even then, I was still only swimming 500 yards or so at a time. I started back a few months ago and I've really made improvements this time. Two weeks ago I swam 1 mile for the first time in my life. It took 45 minutes and 6 seconds. The next week I swam a mile in 44 minutes and 35 seconds. I finally, for the first time, feel truly comfortable doing a crawl stroke and I feel like a can swim forever without getting tired. Unfortunately, I don't look any leaner, I'm just improving my swimming form, I guess. I'm thinking about taking up spearfishing without scuba this summer. Maybe compete in a mini-triathalon. Anyone else swim? |
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1- 2 times a week, 20 laps,500M crawl, 500M kick with small fins on to get more leg work out of it. and then a few crossovers underwater. its not alot, but im big into cross training so as part of everything else, it works pretty good. its also a distance for me to maintain a minimum level of fitness/proficncey at it, then if im heading to the ocean for scuba/surf/spearfishing somewhere i can increase the distance 3 weeks before i go and jump up my level. im surprised you said you didnt get any leaner, but everyones body reacts diffirently, how many laps in an olympic pool is a mile? ours is 25 meters one way, so 50 per lap. anyway, good job. |
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I think I'm not getting any leaner because I may be eating more. Our pool is 25 yards. 35.2 laps equals a mile; I swim 36 laps. I brought my fins last week in order to get a bit of a leg workout, that and because my chest was sore from lifting. I scuba dive during the spring and summer, so a little workout during the off season may help. |
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In high school, we routinely swam 7 to 10,000 yards per day. That is not a typo. Our practices totaled around 3 hours and 15 minutes per day. I've been out of high school for five years and I have been back in the water to work out about five times since graduationas I've started running much more because of the army. The best time I ever put in for a mile was around 18.5 minutes though that was strictly in practice. Keep in mind that this was the result of several years of swimming practice and coaching. When I first began swimming, it looked like I was wearing out the water and i had no idea what a flip turn was. The thing I enjoyed most about it was being in incredible shape (by the end of the season I could swim almost 100 yards underwater with no breathing) and being able to eat about 4 or 5000 calories a day and still lose weight over the course of the season. My recommendation - link up with a community college or Masters team coach or instructor for several weeks and have them critique and help develop your form. In order to start putting in lots of yardage, you have to have good form and this will prevent injury. You will eventually see your times for the mile drop into the 20's, and then you'll catch the disease.  --Seeing your times improve and getting fitter while doing exercise that's easy on the body is fun.Thanks for the post bringing back the memories... early morning practices @ 530am in cold water, meets, and spending more time at school than I did at home for 5 months of the year. Maybe I'll have to go dig out my goggles. |
Congrats on finding an exercise that you enjoy. I am a fellow slow swimmer - somewhere around 43 minutes for 1.2 miles (open water). I think that only lessons will help me as my form is horrible
Is a mini-triathlon only 2 sports? 
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Ahhh the memories. Same experience and recommendations here. |
Short courses; 1/4 mile swim, 5 mile run, 10 mile bike ride. Something like that. |
Back in my early 30s I used to swim about 3K per day. I was a triathlete, and somewhat of a good swimmer. I could do 2K yards in under 30 min. and that was in practice. I used to have to work hard to keep weight on. Here is some of the stuff I learned: Do the long stuff, but also do sprints. Remember, train slow race slow. Try to swim with someone that is faster than you, and keep up as long as you can. In long distance swimming, legs don't play much of a part. IMO kicking drills are a waste of time. Weights will make you faster. Having a strong smooth stroke will make you faster. Relax. You will go faster. (this one was hard for me) Learn to breathe on both sides. Look up when you swim. You are not a log, you are a speedboat. In fresh water the waterline when you swim should be around your eyebrows. In salt water your head should be even higher in the water. I had one really good coach as a masters swimmer, and it really made a big difference. Try to find someone who knows what they are doing and have them evaluate your stroke and training overall. It will make a big difference. |
yes, you guys that were real competitive swimmers are monsters in the pool. i can always tell at the pool which guys/gals were on swim teams when they were in high school/college, even if thier like 50 +, my workout is only thier warmup! lol |
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I swim a little, and the advice to join a masters team is the right one. There is no cross overs to swimming, only swimming will make you a better swimmer. I am going to add a little to this advice and if I offend anyone I am sorry. 1. DO NOT listen to a triathlete about swimming, 95% of them come from running or other sports backgrounds. They will always carry this huge swim bag with funky fins, pull paddles, waiste blades, pull bouey, funky snorkles and other pool commando gadgets and have it all on at once. 2. DO NOT pay any to give you a one on one clinic on swimming, dont buy videos on swimming. The more you swim, the more time you spend in the water you will get better. Its all about getting a good feel for the water and being persistant. I dont know about anyone else but I can still remember the day as if it were yesterday when I broke a minute in the 100, and I am 34 now. |
Yeah, I know.Actually, one does not necessarily need to be a good swimmer t be a good lifeguard. Don't get me wrong, I was not so poor a swimmer that I was a risk of drowning myself, it's just that I couldn't crawl stroke worth a shit. I saved 5 people that summer. Most simply knocked the wind out of their chests jumping off the high dive. Now to lifeguard in saltwater would take some serious swimming ability. |
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I can vouch for swimming being able to get you in great shape. My parents started me swimming when I was about 5. They threw me in the pool and said swim or drown. That was not a pleasant experience at all. I ended up swimming for the local YMCA team for many years, but didn't really like it that much until I got into high school. I think I was in the pool so much to train for meets that I never really learned what is was like to get in a pool and have fun. It's kind of awkward getting in a pool these days because I feel almost obligated to swim laps. Swimming is great exercise. It's more of a full body workout when you swim correctly. And one thing is, at least with me, it's hard to keep weight on. When I graduated high school I had to high body density that when I went scuba diving I didn't even need to wear weights because I would naturally sink like a rock. |
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haha no workout I ever did in any sport has torn my body down like the swimming workouts in high school. I was convinced that my swimming coach was a demon sent to earth to punish me for whatever it was I did wrong.... That's been a lot of years, and I couldn't do a sub 1:00 100m free to save my life these days. I keep telling myself it'd be great cross training, but the pain and suffering I'd have to go through to get back in swimming shape makes running a marathon seem tame by comparison. |
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Ok, its time that time of the year to get back int the pool for me, and it went like this. First hundred, I feel good. As soon as I turned after that 100 it was all down hill from there. It will take me a few pain filled weeks to get back into swim shape, but what made it worse was this chick was in my lane kicking my ass. Not that there arent chicks that arent great swimmers, but she was smokin hot too. I let her know who tha man was......I got done doing a kick set, I finished at the wall as she did, I put my kick board up, did a fifty back kicked her ass. |
| Good thread! I've actually started swimming for cardio, and find that it's absolutely exhausting. I'm 40 years old, and a lifelong weightlifter. I'm 6'0 tall, 208 lbs @ 10% BF, an interestingly - negatively bouyant. I find that I tire quickly, usually swimming 1 length of the pool and resting for about 60 seconds before swimming back. I do this for 20 lengths, (or 10 laps) and feel nearly exhausted. I had a lifeguard watch me to critique me and she said my form was good - that I was smooth in the water (cupped hands, not too much splashing, etc) but my breathing technique was poor. I do what she called "turning my head to the side like I'm flipping my hair back" which is kinda funny since I shave my head. Seriously though, she said when they teach kids to swim, they encourage them to make their arm like a "chicken wing" to create an air pocket near their underarm to breathe in. I anticipate swallowing copious amounts of water if I try this, unless I'm misunderstanding her. Any advice? |
you should be smoothly rotating your head to the side as your arm is moving forward out of the water to take another stroke. When you do crawl properly, you should really be rotating side to side from the waist up so that you can reach farther forward with whatever hand is pulling at that moment - i.e. if your right hand is forward, your upper body should be rotated slightly to the right and your hips on down also rotated but slightly less so. THis helps you create a long stroke for greater efficiency. This rotational movement also keeps you from having to turn your head as far to breathe. If you are taking a stroke with your right arm, your left arm is moving forward and your left side should be closer to the surface because you've rolled a little bit to the right. This is when you breathe on your left side, and vv for breathing on your right. Describing correct swim form with words is an exercise in futility, so i'm going to try to find some online videos. |
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www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDSKwSR5Zgk This is an excellent video showing the body rotation I describe above. It is most easily seen after he flips at the wall and is swimming away. Watch for his breathing, it's difficult to see. again, his head is still, his shoulders and upper body rotate to get a little more length on his stroke, but he could still actually stretch a little farther and start a hand cup as his hand hits the water to get a bit more length. |
Was he breathing as he approached the camera? I thought I saw him breathe once maybe. Recoiljunky, congrats on the mile! Don't worry; swimming is a great workout and the pounds will fall away. Are you eating a non-crap diet? How many times a week do you swim? Chicks always say that swimmers have the best bods. I hope they weren't just saying that! |
I'm not much of a swimmer either but tris have much better scenery than bike races. I'm just saying... |
No doubt about it. That's why I go and watch 
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Yes. He breathed at least once going into the wall, at 4 strokes before his flip turn |
Taking a breath out of the turn like that is a real killer. The guy does have pretty good form though. Appears he has a real solid turn. A solid turn in quick races like the 50 freestyle pretty much decide the race. When I was a sophomore I would usually be last to the wall because I had lousy starts, but was able to be first off the wall because I really had my turns down. One kid on my team after one of the races told me, " yeah I was powering along in first going into the turn then after the turn looked over and said where in the hell did he come from?" Another good video though his head could stand to be a little higher in the water. |
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I swim pretty regularly, I went through Marine Combat Instructor of Water Survival coarse (MCIWS)about three years ago , lets just say if i ever let it expire I will never go through that again. We did more swimming then I ever wanted to do. And swimming laps in full combat gear for three to four hours is ridicoulosly painful! But after the coarse i was in the best shape of my life. Swimming is great for you. |
ya i know, and i dont know why more guys who claim to be looking for a way to boost everything else rarely latch on to the swimming, i was never a competitive swimmer like most of these guys on this thread, but whenever i have done even half of what these guys do more than once a week, i get better at everything else, i.e. cals, weights, running, biking, even rock climbing, i have found swimming boosts everything, especially pushups before a pt test. to add, i think athleticly, swimmers, water polo, and gymnasts are the most underrated athletes. so my hats off to you guys. |
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The good thing about swimming is it works out muscles you never thought you had untill you wake up the next morning It is definatley one of the best exercises out there. Goood for muscle tone and endurance. ITs a total body work out. If i had enough money I would love one of those pools with the current you swim in.
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