Swimming so fast.. Why the low heart rate?

PhatAndy
PhatAndy Posts: 285
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey all,

Just wondering why my absolute favorite exorcise for a 540lb male swimming vigorous laps for 2 hours a day yields very little difference in my heart rate from when im just sitting at my computer... Whereas if i go for a walk my heart rate spikes and i feel like im dieing. Ideas?

Replies

  • pcastagner
    pcastagner Posts: 1,606 Member
    This is the beauty of swimming!

    The more you lose, the harder it gets!


    Right now you are very buoyant because at over 500 lbs you have a lot of tissue that is less dense than water. As you lose, you will become more dense and will have to work harder to stay high in the water.


    To get you heart rate up you can just swim harder (think sprinting), or use your legs more.
  • daftthoughts
    daftthoughts Posts: 88
    Weight.

    In the water you're generally lighter than on the pavement, meaning your muscles have to strain less to move your mass in the water. There IS water resistance, but it's very different. I remember when I went swimming for the first time in a long time. Spent 2 hours swimming almost endlessly back and forth, felt fine in the water, but as soon as I tried to climb out of the pool... OOF! My body felt like an enormous sack of salt.

    Still, if you're seriously vigorously swimming for 2 hours in a row without many breaks, your heartrate should go quite a bit up. You should be breathing heavily because your muscles need more oxygen too. Are you sure you're swimming vigorously? You can't go at it any faster? What sort of swimming strokes do you do? A breaststroke doesn't use nearly as much energy as a butterfly stroke.

    I think we'll need a little bit more information to help you out here.
  • jwdieter
    jwdieter Posts: 2,582 Member
    Your fat makes you buoyant, so splashing in the water is much less strenuous than bearing your full bodyweight.

    Do you have a high sitting heart rate - as in, different from your resting heart rate? You should be seeing an increase over your resting heart rate while swimming. If there's no change at all, maybe something is amuck with the HRM.

    Keep going with the swimming regardless.
  • PhatAndy
    PhatAndy Posts: 285
    I noticed when i tried butterfly yesterday my heart spiked but i could only do 1 lap. I usually just do front crawl? I think its called? breast stroke maybe? and if i go any harder i cant breathe i usually end up choking on water or somthing =) But when i get out like the person above said i DO feel like my body has just been put through a triathalon

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