Swimming to build muscle

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  • merecard
    merecard Posts: 56 Member
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    If you change up your swimming - say every 4-6 laps then you will work different areas. If you want to flatten your tummy area, make sure that you are keeping it engaged. I have had all my weight loss in swimming. You can burn around 400-600 calories in 1/2 hr depending on your effort of course. I do a water fitness class (as I posted) and at the end, I am sweating!!! It is so strange to sweat while wet in the pool, but it's true. I do laps on my lunch and fitness once a week. If I could work in another fitness class I TOTALLY would. GREAT workout - lots of arm/upper body and tummy area workouts. (and not to mention that crunches in the water are the easiest ever on your butt and back!) And I think that people that do not or have not used swimming for a weight loss are not aware of the effort that is put into the swimming. Now I am not saying swimming like in an inner tube floating down the river, I mean working your butt off with hard and fast laps and maximizing your water resistance! It's the same as a runners high!
    When I do laps I focus on my legs and getting them moving and grooving as hard and fast as I can and work on my technique and form, and the fitness class I work my arms and upper body!! It's WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! remember to change it up every couple of laps to work different areas, front crawl, back crawl, side stroke, breast stroke is what I do when I do the laps. Have fun with it. There are lots of swimming DVD's out there and Youtube probably has a million workouts that you can try. Laps can get boring, but keep changing it up and working for faster times.
  • contingencyplan
    contingencyplan Posts: 3,639 Member
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    Swimming lacks one key element to strength training: Progression. Water provides the same resistance no matter what. If you cannot increase load/intensity as you grow stronger, you won't achieve the results you're looking for. Period.
  • bakeralison1
    bakeralison1 Posts: 43 Member
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    I'm cringing at all of you wearing webbed gloves. Those are for doing water aerobics, if you wear them doing strokes you're training your fingers to stay apart which is WRONG! Invest in a pair of hand paddles if you really want to work on form and increase resistance.

    Look at swimplan.com if your interested in swim workouts for free. If you mix it up with some intervals/sprints etc you can get a decent workout and as a lifeguard I see alot of young swimmers that don't weightlift that are pretty ripped.
  • SteelersFan7
    SteelersFan7 Posts: 217 Member
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    I'm cringing at all of you wearing webbed gloves. Those are for doing water aerobics, if you wear them doing strokes you're training your fingers to stay apart which is WRONG! Invest in a pair of hand paddles if you really want to work on form and increase resistance.

    Look at swimplan.com if your interested in swim workouts for free. If you mix it up with some intervals/sprints etc you can get a decent workout and as a lifeguard I see alot of young swimmers that don't weightlift that are pretty ripped.

    Obviously, swimming with your fingers apart is not great form, which is why most lap swimmer who use gloves know how to switch it up. I don't swim with my fingers apart when I'm not using my gloves. Although, I believe I read an article where the new "thing" is to swim with your fingers relaxed and slightly apart (ie. not focusing on making "spoons" with your hands, but definitely not making "forks" with them either) to create a larger surface area with your hand. You can quit cringing. I prefer the gloves to paddles so I can adjust the resistance and close my hands during flip turns.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
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    I'm cringing at all of you wearing webbed gloves. Those are for doing water aerobics, if you wear them doing strokes you're training your fingers to stay apart which is WRONG! Invest in a pair of hand paddles if you really want to work on form and increase resistance.

    Look at swimplan.com if your interested in swim workouts for free. If you mix it up with some intervals/sprints etc you can get a decent workout and as a lifeguard I see alot of young swimmers that don't weightlift that are pretty ripped.

    That's low BF% allowing muscle definition, not built muscle if they aren't strength training.

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