I need tips on swimming for exercise!

acciomuscles

I might have access to a pool w/ lap lanes over winter break, and would love to add swimming to my workout routine! Thing is, I don't really know much about swimming for anything but fun (I was on swim team as a little kid so I know what the different strokes look like, but not necessarily their finer points).

So, any swimming tips for a lap lane newbie?

dippystick

I was on a swim team a very long time ago too, about 40 years ago. I prefer lap swimming to just playing in the water, unless I was working on teaching my kids or grandkids how to swim.

I just get in and swim. I try to keep moving. I get winded, still getting back into swimming, so stop every few laps or so. Sometimes so I can keep moving I'll switch from freestyle to backstroke or breaststroke for a bit of a break. I also switch to sidestroke and roll over to swim sidestroke for the other side. I keep changing up my stroke every couple of laps or so. The butterfly was never a good stroke for me. My best swims were breastroke and backstrokes. Towards the end of my swimming career, I added freestyle.

I find that I get a bit winded not so much from the swim itself, but because of the warmth of the air around the indoor pool. It will take some time to build up endurance.

Goggles are a must.

CouchSpud

It's a good whole body work out. Just get in and get going, keep moving... and don't push yourself to hard. Maybe set yourself little goals... start off with 25lanes, then 30, 35 and so on... the longer you do it the better you get at your lanes... but keep it fun... nothings worse than hating what you are doing

pilotgirl2007

I sometimes use www.swimplan.com to get workouts when I am out of ideas.. I also use the fitDeck swim cards.