swimming workout suggestions

bethann_1226

I am apparently dealing with a stress fracture in my hip. So....I have to stick to low impact workouts-swimming or stationary bike. I personally hate biking in place so I was hoping to get some swimming work out tips! Anything would be helpful, I'm normally a land lover

emorym

The YMCA I go to has a masters swim program. They write the workout on a white board and it stays posted till the next class. Many people don't want to swim in the class for whatever reason and are still able to follow the workouts. You might see if your pool does this. Otherwise you can start swimming on your own. I would do a warm up of a couple hundred yards or meters then do some sets the core part of your workout and then make sure to do an easy cool down. We usually swim around 4000 yards a workout will look something like this
300 W/U
3x100 freestyle
4x 100 drills
2x400 free
3x200 kick
8x50 IM

That is all I can remember fro my last workout. Just mix it up a bit. When you are first starting out 1000 meters/Yards might be enough. Just do what you can and have fun

xonophone

First of all...and I don't mean this to sound snarky, but do you know how to swim? If so, simply doing laps is excellent exercise. Freestyle works all your limbs and most of your trunk muscles. To keep from getting bored, I do a few laps to warm up, then I do a few laps to work on my breathing (i.e. do a few laps while breating every 4th stroke, then a few laps every 5th stroke). Then I will do a few laps with a kickboard to strengthen my legs, then a few laps with a pull bouy to strengthen my arms. Then put it all together for a few killer laps filled with power, and then a few cooldown laps.

You can also try aqua-jogging if your pool has a deep end. It is excellent exercise aerobically, and is completely low-impact. If your pool doesn't have a deep end then you can still run in the water, but you will need good water shoes, and then it is no longer low-impact, and therefore contraindicated for a stress fracture....

Thirdly, there are a variety of exercises you can do in place in the water. Warm up by walking a few laps, then if you can get a "corner" lane, you can do a variety of things with your legs suspended: bicycling, flutter kicks, scissor kicks, double knee to chest (which will also work the abs) Try doing one minute intervals of each. Then you can stand back on the pool floor and do open-chain exercises with your injured leg: Kicking your leg out in all four directions (forwards, sideways, back, and across your body) Start with sets of 10 in each direction - the quicker you go, the more resistance you will feel. End your workout with some good stretches - pretty much anything you can do on land, you can also do in water with much less impact on your joints.

Good luck and have fun!

jessmomof3

First of all I am sorry!! But I can totally relate!!!! I'm just coming off of stress fractures in my feet (calcaneus in left foot and metatarsal in my right). I have already been swimming regularly (I'm a triathlete) but on the recommendations of a track coach and some friends, I got the aquajogger (swimoutlet.com has them). I LOOOOOVE it!! You can use it like you're really running in the pool (it's a flotation belt, so get in the deep end and *run* just like you would be on dry land).

You got some good suggestions here. Swimming laps is an awesome workout!!

Good luck... just know that you can keep up your fitness in the pool. I was ONLY in the pool for 3 weeks along w/ some weight training and once I got back to running I hadn't lost any of my endurance.

FireRox21

Check out this thread. There are quite a few of us on MFP that use swimming as our sole exercise.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/83531-pool-workouts