New training routine ideas

stephenrhinton

ok so as I mentioned in several other posts I started this journey with my diabetes diagnosis. My diabetic educator/nutritionist asked me to just start doing something, anything, for at least 30 minutes a day, and add 5 minutes every two weeks until I got to an hour. I've done that now. Today was 14 weeks, 98 days. I think I missed maybe 4 days in there.

I had a 20 year habit of being a couch potato and doing the least possible exercise. All of my vocations and avocations were cerebral and sedentary. So I made a bit of a deal with myself. During this initial phase, while I might measure my performance occasionally; I wouldn't stress about it. As long as I put in my minutes, I didn't really care what or how much I did. I just wanted to break old habits and establish new ones.

All of you have been wonderfully supportive. Some of you have made great suggestions about how to modify my workout. But up till now anything that fell out of 'do something for x minutes a day', I pretty much ignored. But now there are no more minutes to add. I don't really want to dedicate more than an hour a day to a workout. So for my workouts to improve at this point I need to work better instead of longer. Time to listen up and integrate some of your suggestions. So ...officially soliciting your suggestions and advice.

Here are some of my initial thoughts:

At least occasionally I think I'll try some other workouts besides swimming. I'm still a pretty big fella, so I don't want to abuse my joints too much. But I'm curious if I could make it through like a step aerobics class or core training, etc. Mostly I want to see how much swimming daily has improved my overall fitness. 3 months ago almost any of those classes would have seemed impossible. Who knows maybe I'll discover another activity I enjoy. Also different types of workouts may give some needed relief to the muscles I use most in the pool.

Rest Days: (I've heard you Robertus). I DO think this will be part of my plan eventually, but not just yet. I understand the science behind why rest days are important to increasing fitness and building lean muscle. But I have about another month before my next appointment with the doc. I want to wait till after i discuss it with him before making this a regular part of planning. For one thing I do want to have the talk about the relative health benefits of 'better faster fitness improvement' vs 'daily glycogen burn' for my diabetic condition. Secondly, a bit childish but I want to be able to hand him that 90 day exercise report from MFP and say 'gee golly gosh willirkers Doc aint I done good!' Lastly, I am still a bit worried about my personal psychology as an 'all or nothing' type of guy. If I give myself some rest days, I might give myself all rest days.

I really really enjoy being able to get distracted by my audiobook whilst i swim. I'm not sure I want to start trying to count laps every day instead. Nor do I own any sort of automated lap counter/fitness tracker etc. So I'm a little stymied about how to create and hold myself accountable to quantifiable performance goals. The tracker I am most intrigued by is the instabeat goggle-mounted heart rate monitor. But it tis expensive, and they are WAY WAY behind on shipping out back orders.

My first thought is this. I have been doing continuous swims with alternating strokes of crawl, back, breast, back, repeat. I find the crawl to be the most challenging because of the breath control issue. That said same issue has to be of positive benefit for aerobic fitness. So I think I'll change my rotation to crawl, back, crawl, breast, repeat. Thus forcing myself to do more crawl lengths. Then maybe up it to 2 crawls per one 'alternate' length, etc.

But I'm open to ideas and suggestions of every variety at this stage. Bring it on!

AquaticQuests

Others will no doubt chime in.
Word of warning. Don't be surprised if you struggle unexpectedly with dryland exercise when you start it.
Dryland works your body in a slightly different way in many respects, so may still be a struggle initially despite the stamina you've built up in the pool.
It works the other way round too. Some people are amazing dryland, then are completely flummoxed when they find themselves unable to do 2 lengths in a pool continuous.
It's all about the body getting used to and calibrating itself for different challenges I guess.
So I presume mixing it all up is a great way to build the overall package!

gentlygently

Sounds to me like you have developed a really clear understanding of yourself and already have some good ideas up your sleeve.

Adding more crawl, adding in some timed sprints, getting a finger lap counter (cheap, can still listen to audio tapes) would be amongst my swimmin suggestions.

Why not aim to increase your walking - pretty gentle on the joints, you are carrying yiur own weight so a brisk walk burns a lot of energy than you might think and really easy to integrate into every day life, as well as make a fun weekend day out. Climbing mountains if you ever get the chance is brilliant. Walking along a river is lovely. Add a 5 or 10k step goal for evey day activity... And just try to walk everywhere and lose your car keys. Or cycling to work/pool/shops. Ie Rather than adding another time consuming excercise, what could you do that adds Excercise to your every day life? This might work for you in trying to break coach potato habits?

Good luck - I am sure the doc will be pleased with you!

NoelFigart1

stephenrhinton wrote: »

My first thought is this. I have been doing continuous swims with alternating strokes of crawl, back, breast, back, repeat. I find the crawl to be the most challenging because of the breath control issue. That said same issue has to be of positive benefit for aerobic fitness. So I think I'll change my rotation to crawl, back, crawl, breast, repeat. Thus forcing myself to do more crawl lengths. Then maybe up it to 2 crawls per one 'alternate' length, etc.

But I'm open to ideas and suggestions of every variety at this stage. Bring it on!

I think this is a good idea. FWIW, I started out about like you did -- my first Adult Onset Swim was 16 lengths. Breast up, back on the way back, breast up, crawl on the way back. Took me about 20 minutes, IIRC.

Then I started doing breast, free, back free (by then I was up to 800 yds in 20 minutes), and then it was forcing myself to learn bi-lateral breathing, then doing 50 yards crawl and so on.

I don't remember if people are allowed to lift weights when dealing with diabetes or not. but you might find weight training kinda fun. My boyfriend is a big fella, but he's also quite strong (he can lift me easily, and I ain'ta exactly a delicate little thing!) and enjoys strength workouts.

If you want joint-easy cardio, there's the elliptical, though I can't say how size features into that. My darlin' spoose is tall and lean, but it's his go-to cardio is the elliptical to avoid the joint pounding.

mpeters1965

You are obviously a thinking kind of guy. No wonder swimming has been so good for you. You have to think about what you are doing to get the most out of it. I also think that when you go back to your nutritionist/doctor you are going to knock their socks off!

If it were me, I would stick to just swimming every day at your current time until that visit. Start working on putting more crawl in the rotation as you said so that you can get more comfortable with it. It's going to be the foundation for all your future swimming. Take your time with it too. I have done that with everything I have added because I just don't learn things as quicly as I did as a kid.

Then, yes, try different things. I'm not a fan of step aerobics because I found it hard on my feet and knees. Walking is good. Elliptical is good. Definitely protect the joints since that is easier than repairing them. Talk to one of the trainers at Gold's and maybe ask for a few easier exercises for core. Try anything that appeals to you.

Good luck!

60sPanda

I agree with the above - swimming is the way to go to avoid joint stress and working more crawl into your routine will do wonders for you in the long-term, but build up slowly. Don't do a step class - it's really bad on the knees so avoid it. Walking is great and the old advice of taking the stairs instead of the escalator is still sound.

You have made exceptional progress and are doing brilliantly. Looking forward to hearing all about the new regime.

stephenrhinton

So I tried some 'drylander' exercises today ....boy do I like swimming!

I thought I'd try out one of Gold's Gym classes today. Something called CXWorx. Supposed to be a 'core' workout ...that lasted about 5 minutes. I still have way too much belly in the way to be doing crunches of any sort.

But I didn't want to give up yet, so I went over to a recumbent stationary bike. Having no idea what I am doing I set it up for a 'fat burning' workout at level 10 (of 1-20) for 60 minutes. Well I made it to 30 minutes before i felt like I had died at least twice already and I just wasn't up for a 3rd resurrection. I got off that thing I was staggering, my legs felt like jello ...supposedly I burned 330 calories, about a third of what MFP guesstimates for my swims.

So I went back to the sweet perfume of chlorine and put in my other 30 minutes. I didn't count laps, so I don't know what my pace was but I am thinking it probably compares poorly with molasses at the south pole in middle of the 6 month night.

I like swimming ...i may be a wallowing whale surrounded by darting dolphins ...but at least I'm not gasping like a fish out of water ...

mpeters1965

I'm just chuckling here. It doesn't sound like the best first foray into dryland exercises but I admire your spirit!

Kida_Adeylne

30 minutes at 10/20 actually sounds pretty impressive for a fish out of water. I get tired after 30 minutes of cycling - it uses WAY different muscles than any type of swimming.
I like your idea of increasing freestyle - you may also want to try doing two lengths consecutively (then lost of recovery breast/back before you try again).
Since you're attached to your audio books (I understand. My tablet with my audio books on it is attached to me most of the time) maybe try five minutes without the book at the beginning (after a few warm up laps) - you can do sprints, or drills to work on breathing/freestyle technique. If you put a little time into working on technique each day, you'll probably find that your yardage increases. Then you can put the book on and get the time in.

I've yet to find a good balance with dry-land exercises - I agree that asking your doc about strength training, though. It's a good thing to add in, especially when you're dropping weight so that you can preserve your muscle.

Congrats on such a long streak! You are an inspiration.

AquaticQuests

stephenrhinton wrote: »

So I tried some 'drylander' exercises today ....boy do I like swimming!

I thought I'd try out one of Gold's Gym classes today. Something called CXWorx. Supposed to be a 'core' workout ...that lasted about 5 minutes. I still have way too much belly in the way to be doing crunches of any sort.

But I didn't want to give up yet, so I went over to a recumbent stationary bike. Having no idea what I am doing I set it up for a 'fat burning' workout at level 10 (of 1-20) for 60 minutes. Well I made it to 30 minutes before i felt like I had died at least twice already and I just wasn't up for a 3rd resurrection. I got off that thing I was staggering, my legs felt like jello ...supposedly I burned 330 calories, about a third of what MFP guesstimates for my swims.

So I went back to the sweet perfume of chlorine and put in my other 30 minutes. I didn't count laps, so I don't know what my pace was but I am thinking it probably compares poorly with molasses at the south pole in middle of the 6 month night.

I like swimming ...i may be a wallowing whale surrounded by darting dolphins ...but at least I'm not gasping like a fish out of water ...

Lol - really laughed reading this post!
Not ready for a 3rd resurrection - LOL!
Not to worry - just like with the swims, you'd be amazed just how quickly you get used to the bike, if you keep going.
So don't give up. Keep mixing it up as you're doing even as you keep up the consistent swimming.
And that was over an hour of total exercise time you did!

For calorie calculations for swimming, check out this thread http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10101324/a-snapshot-of-swim-calorie-calculators#latest
MFP can grossly overestimate calories burned swimming depending on the distance.
I find swimmingcalculator.com to be more accurate then the MFP way!

Two weeks ago I went back to the gym after many months and couldn't walk for a week (although I could still swim)! Lol.
But I was back in the gym this week and I'm walking fine.
Better still I know the work on my legs will also help with my swims!

Going dryland really gives me a fresh admiration for triathletes!

Macstraw

I think you're on the right path. Your overall health is your #1 priority, as it should be. As to what to do for workouts, you're going to be your own best guide because you'll know how your body feels & what it reacts best to. I like the recumbent bike also, if you enjoyed it it's easily something you can continue with because it won't create that pounding on your joints. Now that you got on there, you have an idea of the workout levels & can adjust to something more suitable. The dryland suggestions are great, again just let your body be your guide. Always keep the long term view in mind, you don't have to do every rep of every set of every exercise if you're not feeling it, create your workouts at a level that suits where you can finish them while having to push yourself to do so. Stay in tune with the messages your body sends you, be aware not only IF something hurts but HOW it hurts. Is the pain normal muscle soreness from use that will pass or is it a sign of an injury? Am I feeling the regular fatigue from working out or am I over doing it to the point of exhaustion? As you get more used to seeing people doing certain workouts you can ask them about what they are doing, just try to do it at a time that's not interfering with their own workouts - I think you'll find many people are more than happy to answer questions, especially when they see you are being courteous about when you ask......

stephenrhinton

ok so I was dog/house sitting this weekend further from my Gym. But the house had an elliptical and a recumbent in the sunroom. So I did two days of dryland work on them, 65 minutes each day. Easy settings, but my legs felt gone when I was done and are still a little sore two days later. Also the recumbent seriously bruised my backside ...I used to have more padding back there ... It was so nice to return to the water yesterday.

Last week I did crawl, crawl, back, crawl, crawl, breast, repeat

Today I upped it to 3xcrawl, back, 3xcrawl, breast, repeat.

I'm definitely feeling the increased aerobic demand of adding the extra crawls ...but yesterday i felt strong with 2x, I'm hoping by the end of the week I'll be adapted to 3x and I'll keep adding them ...

AquaticQuests

Good job Stephen!

Macstraw

That's the way it works, Stephen, you're on the right path. The idea is to keep pushing forward at a steady pace, but not too much at once......

stephenrhinton

ok so 5:1 last week, did my first 8:1 ratio tonight. I'm going for a geometric progression +1, +2, +3 ...etc. So 2:1, 3:1, 5:1, 8:1 ...but I may have reached the useful limit of this change ...we will see how I feel at the end of the week.

AquaticQuests

stephenrhinton wrote: »

ok so 5:1 last week, did my first 8:1 ratio tonight. I'm going for a geometric progression +1, +2, +3 ...etc. So 2:1, 3:1, 5:1, 8:1 ...but I may have reached the useful limit of this change ...we will see how I feel at the end of the week.

Soon you'll be at 30:1

stephenrhinton

Finished my week of 8:1 on Saturday, did a drylander workout yesterday.

So when I started this series the idea was a way for me to increase the aerobic difficulty of my swim workout without

1) Adding any more time
2) Needing to count laps
3) Watch a timer

At first I saw some benefit because i was definitely more out of breath adding in the extra crawl lengths. However, I have been a little disappointed in that my mile swim time(50 minutes) hasn't come down at all in the last month. I figured making the workouts incrementally harder would do that. I also figured replacing breaststroke lengths with crawl lengths would do that. But it hasn't seemed to at all

Furthermore, as the ratio increased keeping track of how many crawl lengths I had done before I could do an 'other' became just as tedious as just counting laps.

So today I tried just swimming the entire hour using front crawl, and I was able to do it. So I think I've accomplished the benefit I was seeking with better breath control/lung capacity. And this strategy has reached the end of it's usefulness.

I'll finish the week doing all crawls, but next week I will be looking again for ways to increase my difficulty, but staying with the 3 constraints above.

Time for all your expert advice!

mpeters1965

Sprints, maybe? Somebody told me once that the only way I was going to swim faster was by swimming faster. Now, I'm still not a fast swimmer but I have increased my speed some and sprints will certainly give you an aerobic boost. So maybe a 25 or 50 as fast as you can swim, back down to easy until you almost have your breath back and then up the speed again. That's the only thing I can think of within your constraints.

Good luck!

juliet3455

Maybe take a look at the Swim Workouts Post by Ms_J1.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10164950/swim-workouts/p1
Submit your times to her and see if she can come up with a plan to challenge you and increase your speed. Based on my experience with Swim lessons at my local pool expect to slow down at the start when you are adding in the drills overtop/beside your normal workout, but hang in there and the results will come.

AquaticQuests

stephenrhinton wrote: »

Finished my week of 8:1 on Saturday, did a drylander workout yesterday.

So when I started this series the idea was a way for me to increase the aerobic difficulty of my swim workout without

1) Adding any more time
2) Needing to count laps
3) Watch a timer

At first I saw some benefit because i was definitely more out of breath adding in the extra crawl lengths. However, I have been a little disappointed in that my mile swim time(50 minutes) hasn't come down at all in the last month. I figured making the workouts incrementally harder would do that. I also figured replacing breaststroke lengths with crawl lengths would do that. But it hasn't seemed to at all

Furthermore, as the ratio increased keeping track of how many crawl lengths I had done before I could do an 'other' became just as tedious as just counting laps.

So today I tried just swimming the entire hour using front crawl, and I was able to do it. So I think I've accomplished the benefit I was seeking with better breath control/lung capacity. And this strategy has reached the end of it's usefulness.

I'll finish the week doing all crawls, but next week I will be looking again for ways to increase my difficulty, but staying with the 3 constraints above.

Time for all your expert advice!

One major point to note about swimming, as contrasted to many other dryland activities.
Swimming speed is not as directly proportional to level of exertion as it is with things like jogging or riding.
Technique is of very great importance!
You may increase your aerobic ability, and ability to sustain harder work in the pool, but if the technique is not improving as well (and sometimes with greater effort we may find that our technique is actually deteriorating), you will burn more calories (which is a good thing) but not get any faster, and in some cases actually get slower.
Depending on your form in freestyle, you may even find that your current breastroke speed is actually faster than your freestyle speed!

So if you want to improve your swim times, my suggestion is at least three things are needed.
1) Constant refinement of technique (stroke, body position, kick, etc)
2) Improvement in aerobic/ unaerobic (depending on distances) ability/ conditioning (which you have been doing)
3) Patience (often you have to get slower to get faster)!

So the fact that your times are not already dropping after one month may not necessarily be a pointer to something wrong. I made a change in February or thereabouts, and it took me 2 to 3 months just to get back to the times I had been doing before the change.

That said, I would look and relook and relook at the technique, read around, see the advice on this forum and elsewhere and think what changes are needed. Ultimately, technique coupled with conditioning is what will make you go faster.

1) What is your body position when swimming, especially when fatigued? Is it horizontal with butt and legs up at the surface?
2) Are your legs straight and kicking from hips throughout with toes pointing, or are knees bending?
3) Is your body maintained in a straight position throughout, or is there bending going on side to side (as distinguished from proper rotation which should be there)!
4) How do you pull? Hand entry, catch, length of pull etc
5) Is your stroke rate optimal for your body and conditioning, or should it be increased?

You need to be asking yourself these questions (and others) constantly, and making adjustments! Without that, you will get fitter and work harder, but without technique refinements, your times may not necessarily reflect the improvements that are happening in your physiology!

I found this improvement quite inspirational:
http://youtu.be/ojt3nkVoYEU

There has also been another update to this, where they are dealing with some of the new problems that crept back into her stroke even as she was swimming even faster. It's amazing to think this is the same person - the change is astounding, even when they do a side by side comparison!

http://youtu.be/yq3UjSw5ONw

aliciamariaq

Technique is certainly important to improving speed as you become more efficient in your stroke and your position in the water etc but I would have to agree with Mpeters that the best way to swim faster is by swimming faster. Try doing a series of sprints, even if it is 25m sprint, 25m easy x10 or something like that.

Robertus

Gee golly gosh willirkers, Stephen, aint you done good!!!

Sorry I missed this thread all this time. You're trying different things and looking for something you really enjoy, which is extremely important. I am a huge believer in self-directed fitness. Lots of good advice from others but you're the one that has to do it and enjoy it for the rest of your life, which is becoming longer and longer on account of all your fantastic work so far.

Health is most important so getting your doctor's input is essential. If I were you, I would not worry about times and performance goals unless you truly enjoy that.

I'll be out of the pool for a while, and I've found that I enjoy biking outdoors on a real bike. They're a necessary evil, but I despise working out on a machine indoors. Although I enjoy swimming immensely, I've very much missed being outdoors and enjoying the scenery and fresh air. Biking and walking give that back to me. And I have found that the leg work-out in biking is a very good complement to my swimming. Biking has been a much more strenuous work-out than I ever imagined. Also, because leg muscles are bigger than arm muscles, it does seem to burn a lot more calories than I thought and have more of an effect on weight loss than I anticipated.

We're all rooting for you and you've done fantastic so far. I'm sure that you will find whatever works best for you and continue to be a good example to the rest of us on how we can do the same.

Kida_Adeylne

Are you taking rests after laps, or do you swim it all straight? Rests tend to increase the more effort you put in, so overall speed goes down.
Also, I agree with both sprints and working on technique. Do some kick and pull (if you have access to a board and a pull buoy). What AQ said about leg and body position could be especially helpful. If I went around and gave one tip to each person who swims at my local pools, 90% of them would get 'kick from the hips'.

stephenrhinton

I don't rest after laps. I've noticed by doing open turns I am catching a good breath or two while I get turned around, and I know that can be a bit of a bad habit. But I'm not actually stopping unless I need to dump water from my goggles or check the time. That only takes a few seconds.

'Kick from the hips' ...can you expand on this? AQ said something about knees not bending. I feel like I kick with my whole leg, both my glutes and thighs. So my upper and lower legs are moving. Should I have a stiff straight leg, using all glute muscle?

I'm thinking I might start include kickboard, pull bouy, and closed fist swimming ...I'm wondering if I should do them all for the same stroke in a day, or for all the different strokes in a day to isolate muscle groups. Like should I do front crawl kickboard, front crawl pull bouy, front crawl closed fist. Then the next day repeat with breast stroke. Or should I do kickboard front crawl, kickboard breast stroke (frog kick), kickboard backstroke. Then the next day do all three strokes with pull bouy.

The idea of 'to swim faster you must swim faster' makes sense to me. But I just really can't seem to find a middle gear ...i either swim at my 'all day' pace or I blow it all in about 1 length. (And when I go all out I'm not sure if I'm alot faster, or just alot more spastic). Maybe I could try doing my last length of the day as a sprint?

I'm not really sure how to tell about my body position. I 'feel' highish in the water. As a big fella I'm very buoyant so I don't really have to maintain speed to stay up ...i just float. I am conscious of keeping my feet submerged throughout the kick so i don't splash or waste that energy out of the water. But I cant really tell for sure how planar I am.

Oh and by the by that next Doc's appointment I talked about in the original post is Thursday afternoon. I'll be talking to him about rest days, strength vs cardio, etc.

Macstraw

If you break your workout up into some sets instead of swimming straight through you can push yourself a bit harder, including sprinting the last length of each set, because you can get a little rest before starting the next set. As you get stronger, you can make the sprint the last length & a half, hen the last 2, etc. until you build up to where you can do sprit sets - say 50 or 100 yards each time....

Kicking from the hips - you don't want your legs locked straight, but you don't want the knees bending either. Think about standing up with all your weight on foot, with the leg you're not standing on straight but not locked, point your toes & flutter the leg from the hip - this is what you want each leg to do during the kick. I'm sure there are plenty of YouTube videos to demonstrate this.....

You can break the workouts down b y whatever you're comfortable with. Some weight lifters do circuits, some isolate muscle groups to work on each day. Do it either however it makes sense to you mentally or whichever is most comfortable physically. Bottom line - however you get the work you want done is the best for you....

Remember the posts in AQ's Video Analysis thread about the difference between "feel" & "real". Too many times, we think we're doing something a particular way & we're very surprised when we see video that we're off the mark. Get somebody to take video of your swimming so that you get that other viewpoint. As for the alignment itself - what part of you feels "highish" in the water? If it's your upper body that means your lower body is dragging underwater. You don't want the feet underwater the whole time on a freestyle kick the feet should be breaking the surface of the water. You don't want them coming way up or going way under, again I think YouTube videos would be a big help....

stephenrhinton

So I had my appointment with the diabetic educator/nutritionist today. He was thrilled with my progress.

When I asked him about rest days he seemed to brush off that concern with regards to aerobic or endurance training. Said it was more important with strength/resistance training or if you were training to be competitive and approaching a competition. I've had enough other people who were physical therapist or trainers etc urge me to incorporate them that I am a bit uncertain now.

He broke down exercise into 4 broad categories: Balance/Flexibility, Aerobic, Endurance, and Resistance (Strength). Said they are all good and have value. But for both weight loss and diabetic benefits Aerobic is king, which is where he would place the swimming.

He did agree with the general idea that if your workout doesn't keep getting harder/challenging you then the benefits taper off as well.

He presented it with the FITT acronym. Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type. I've essentially maxed out Frequency (7 days/week) and Time (60 minutes). (At least for me I'm not willing to dedicate more than that). So I need to up my intensity and vary my type of workout.

Kida_Adeylne

I think the nutritionist is coming at it from a different perspective than the physical therapists or trainers, probably. Most people can go walking everyday, or bike riding every day, because these activities don't put too much strain on the body (strength, or endurance) unless you start getting higher intensity or really push the endurance. And swimming can be like that too, and probably is like that for you most of the time. Regular sleep is enough to recover.
But when you're training, you are pushing the body beyond what it can comfortably do every day so that it will adapt and therefore you will improve fitness. But the adaptation takes place during rest, not during exercise, so it's pretty natural to need an extra day or two every so often (or even after every workout, if you push yourself hard enough) for the body to fully recover.
In conclusion, they're both kinda right. Maybe right now, for your weight loss and diabetes management, you can keep taking the approach you've used so far. Though I think that if you're going to switch up your exercise, you'll find it harder to keep a full hour and not need rest days (your body is adapted to the full hour of swimming, not so much if you went for a run or something). Just listen to your body - if you show signs of over training, a rest day or two is in order. But otherwise, keep chugging along. Then, later on, when you are ready to focus more on fitness or training (you did say you're interested in Triathalons) you can try more intense workouts and then incorporate rest days.

Robertus

stephenrhinton wrote: »

So I had my appointment with the diabetic educator/nutritionist today. He was thrilled with my progress.

When I asked him about rest days he seemed to brush off that concern with regards to aerobic or endurance training. Said it was more important with strength/resistance training or if you were training to be competitive and approaching a competition. I've had enough other people who were physical therapist or trainers etc urge me to incorporate them that I am a bit uncertain now.

He broke down exercise into 4 broad categories: Balance/Flexibility, Aerobic, Endurance, and Resistance (Strength). Said they are all good and have value. But for both weight loss and diabetic benefits Aerobic is king, which is where he would place the swimming.

He did agree with the general idea that if your workout doesn't keep getting harder/challenging you then the benefits taper off as well.

He presented it with the FITT acronym. Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type. I've essentially maxed out Frequency (7 days/week) and Time (60 minutes). (At least for me I'm not willing to dedicate more than that). So I need to up my intensity and vary my type of workout.

You gotta do what your health-care professionals (HCPs) tell you, but, personally, I think aerobic exercise deserves rest and rebuilding every bit as much as so-called strength/resistance training. Swimming certainly involves strength and swimming against the resistance of the water and gravity. But I do not know anything about diabetes and the goals of exercise therapy to improve your diabetes, so, like I say, you gotta do what your HCPs tell you. In addition to the diabetic educator/nutritionist, speak also with your doctor and maybe ask about a consult with a sports medicine doc or exercise physiologist. That might provide some greater insight into a holistic approach. In the end, you may surprise everyone with your ultimate progress.

Robertus

Kida_Adeylne wrote: »

... But when you're training, you are pushing the body beyond what it can comfortably do every day so that it will adapt and therefore you will improve fitness. But the adaptation takes place during rest, not during exercise, so it's pretty natural to need an extra day or two every so often (or even after every workout, if you push yourself hard enough) for the body to fully recover. ... later on, when you are ready to focus more on fitness or training (you did say you're interested in Triathalons) you can try more intense workouts and then incorporate rest days.

True, true, true. Very true.

AquaticQuests

Agree with what everyone has said.
Also, as Robertus has pointed out in the past, everyone's body is different. Some need morerest than others. Even at the elite Olympian level, you will find that the regimen and rest routine vary for each individual swimmer.
As Kida points out too, much depends on the type of workouts that you are doing!
Listen to your body - it usually let's you know.
If 7 days a week is working for you, and the sugar numbers and weight is dropping and you're not having injuries, and you feel alright, then by all means, keep up with the 7 days.
However, if you up the intensity you may find you need at least a day or two to recuperate!
The adventure you're on continues, and all these decisions and considerations help to keep it all fresh and interesting!

Bruceapple

Agree: Listen to your body - it usually let's you know.

My doctor keeps reminding me "Don't wright a check your body can't cash".

Update on my body, shoulder is bad, "free bodies" / 2 chips (nickel size) in the joint, NO more swimming!! ,
long run I will need a replacement, and the new one will not stand up to swimming 365 miles a year,
and you do not want to wear the new plastic one out