Swimmers!

Join

Moderate or Vigourous?

Options
DPernet
DPernet Posts: 481 Member
in Social Groups
25m pool. 100 lengths Freestyle - 60 mins. What do you reckon? Not fast enough to count as vigorous?

I've been counting it as Leisurely because we all know MFP is way over the top, but I was just curious what people think.

Replies

  • riftknight
    riftknight Posts: 21
    Options
    Because the basic idea of vigorous pace is subjective, I would suggest weighing how you feel at the end of your set. If you find yourself out of breath and spent, then it is probably safe to call it "vigorous", whereas if you feel like you could another 100 lengths, you might want to consider it leisurely.
  • FitMama2013
    FitMama2013 Posts: 919 Member
    Options
    I would go with moderate - that's 2500 meters in an hour, which is around 2:30 per 100, right?

    I swim a different type of workout - I do individual sets where I'm descending, sprinting, kicking, etc...so, a portion of my workout is moderate, and a portion is vigorous when I'm sprinting and getting my HR way up. It's not 100% either one. So, if there's a portion of your 2500 meters which is sprinting, that might be vigorous, whereas the rest of the workout is likely moderate, IMO.
  • royalfish
    royalfish Posts: 3 Member
    Options
    I split my time, using leisurely/moderate for warm-ups and rigorous for sprinting and kick drills. It's a subjective measure. For a novice swimmer, all swimming would all be vigorous. For an elite swimmer, the same set at the same pace could be leisurely.

    Calorie-wise, this seems to be working for me.
  • kyle4jem
    kyle4jem Posts: 1,400 Member
    Options
    I've always thought MFP's exercise database values for swimming are woefully inaccurate; it will give you a calorie burn that's about 40-50% inaccurate. I did some research and from the myriad of web calculators I found a formula that I believe provides a better guestimate based on your weight and lap times. I've created a spreadsheet with both metric and imperial options which you can access here:

    http://tinyurl.com/swimcalories

    Based on the info I have for the OP: 216lbs 100 x 25m in 60min = 804 Calories burnt.

    I would also add to answer the OP's question... definitely vigorous. I'd be lucky to do the same in under 1hr 20mins.
  • DPernet
    DPernet Posts: 481 Member
    Options
    Very handy. Thanks a bunch :D
  • garnet56
    garnet56 Posts: 21 Member
    Options
    That speadsheet looks really useful but not sure how to get it to a useable state?
  • arserine
    arserine Posts: 63 Member
    Options
    It really depends on your fitness level. It could be leisurely for some people, but there are many people that couldn't even do that much in an hour if they were going at 100%. I'd see how tired you were, did it feel vigorous? Did you feel totally spent afterwards, or could you keep going? I've been logging all of my "main sets" as vigorous for the time that I'm actually swimming. For example, if I do a set of 8X 75's on 1:20, but get 20 seconds rest on each one, then I count that as 8 minutes of vigorous swimming, since I was swimming really hard the whole time. I don't count rest time since I'm not swimming. For the rest of my set, warmup, cool down, drills, or distance work where I'm not swimming too hard, I just count the amount of time and log it as moderate. Sometimes I'll be going vigorously, but sometimes I'll be resting at the wall while changing to a new activity. I think it'll all work out in the end. I also aim to eat back about half of my exercise calories, so the actual number of calories burned isn't too important for me.
  • kyle4jem
    kyle4jem Posts: 1,400 Member
    Options
    That speadsheet looks really useful but not sure how to get it to a useable state?
    If you save it as an Excel spreadsheet you just need to fill in your weight in kg or lbs, the size of your pool and how many lengths you do in what time in mins and bingo!
  • garnet56
    garnet56 Posts: 21 Member
    Options
    Thanks that's great.
  • DPernet
    DPernet Posts: 481 Member
    Options
    It really depends on your fitness level. It could be leisurely for some people, but there are many people that couldn't even do that much in an hour if they were going at 100%. I'd see how tired you were, did it feel vigorous? Did you feel totally spent afterwards, or could you keep going? I've been logging all of my "main sets" as vigorous for the time that I'm actually swimming. For example, if I do a set of 8X 75's on 1:20, but get 20 seconds rest on each one, then I count that as 8 minutes of vigorous swimming, since I was swimming really hard the whole time. I don't count rest time since I'm not swimming. For the rest of my set, warmup, cool down, drills, or distance work where I'm not swimming too hard, I just count the amount of time and log it as moderate. Sometimes I'll be going vigorously, but sometimes I'll be resting at the wall while changing to a new activity. I think it'll all work out in the end. I also aim to eat back about half of my exercise calories, so the actual number of calories burned isn't too important for me.

    Yeah, I've pretty much just been putting in the lowest possible level and eating all the calories. From my progress to date, I'm fairly confident it's working fine just the way it is. Without a waterproof HRM that works in a pool, I was just wondering how far I was undershooting. Going by this spreadsheet, it looks like I could put in moderate effort and still be under, but vigorous would be over.

    This also answers my initial question as well lol :bigsmile:

Categories