Swimming workouts

MartialPanda
MartialPanda Posts: 919 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hey does anyone have a really good swimming workout that they would like to share? I hurt my knee and i'm trying to rehab it. Swimming I heard is probably one of the best workouts I can do for the whole body and it also strengthens my knee. Help?

Replies

  • MartialPanda
    MartialPanda Posts: 919 Member
    bump!
  • athenasurrenders
    athenasurrenders Posts: 278 Member
    How good are you at swimming? How far can you swim without resting? How fast? What strokes?

    Without knowing a rough idea of where you are, it's hard to be helpful.

    When I started swimming I did 14 lengths per session with a rest after every length. I built up to doing 2 lengths at a time, then four, and upping my distance until I could swim a mile continuously.

    Then once I did that, each week I did one long slow swim for distance, then one session where I worked on technique (one length arms only, one length legs only, two lengths full stroke, rest, cycling through crawl, breaststroke and backstroke) and one session for speed (two lengths fast as possible, then rest and repeat). I did those three sessions each week.
  • MartialPanda
    MartialPanda Posts: 919 Member
    I'm decent at swimming and i can do about 8-10 laps without stopping in my college pool (25 meters). I'm definitely a beginner to intermediate.

    How many times a week do you swim? I found a workout where i'll be doing about 900 yards. I was also wondering if anyone had any good tips for techniques and anything specifically to strengthen the knee.
  • freezerburn2012
    freezerburn2012 Posts: 273 Member
    Try swimplan.com to make a customized swim plan.
  • _SABOTEUR_
    _SABOTEUR_ Posts: 6,833 Member
    My swim workout is fairly simple. Warm up 10 lengths of breaststroke. Then I medley (breast, free, back, butterfly). I go as fast and hard as I can for each one. After the medley laps (1 of each style/stroke) I break for a minute and then do it again. Repeat until you are exhausted.

    The key is to not worry too much about whether you are doing the strokes properly (my butterfly is awful) but to just focus on going as hard and fast as you can.
  • JustANumber85
    JustANumber85 Posts: 644 Member
    Try swimplan.com to make a customized swim plan.

    thanks! I signed up!
  • awerkema1
    awerkema1 Posts: 6
    Hey, I have been a swimmer for a long time so could help with a few workout ideas to make it interesting. Like would you want to mix in sprints and such? Also, if your knee is hurt I would avoid breaststroke kick. That can be rough on the knees. When coming up with a workout here are a few suggestions. Make sure to warm up, as a rule I would say warm up with a 1/5 of your total distance of your workout. Next, the best swim workouts involve intervals. So one set you could do would be to do 8x50 yards on whatever time would give you 4-5 seconds between 50s. Now saying that I would suggest that at any point your technique starts to fall apart take an extra break. Its important to push yourself, but you don't want to cause injury needlessly. Let me know if you need any help and good luck!
  • amybg1
    amybg1 Posts: 631 Member
    When it comes to a knee injury, freestyle is the best stroke in terms of preventing injury aggravation and later on, re-injury. Breaststroke would be the worst for the knee - remember to kick from the hip, your knee should NOT hurt while swimming

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