New to swimming laps: is this normal?

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WhenIAmKing
WhenIAmKing Posts: 13 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've only been able to swim really well under water, also only being able to hold my breath for ten seconds I've always just messed around when I swum, playing games with friends and all that. At the beginning of this week I started swimming half a mile every day and it's very enjoyable... For exercise!

I find the first 10 laps a struggle, getting very red faced, sweaty and muscles aching a lot. But after that, the rest is really easy! Although I'm still a little breathless and sweating, I don't feel pain in my muscles at all.
Am I still burning off the same amount? "No pain no gain" but I feel no pain after I get past that point of feeling like I could collapse, I get used to it and don't feel the burn at all.

Does this mean I'm not working hard and efforts would be for nothing? Or is this fine and I'm still getting enough out of the exercise as I do the first 10 laps?

I hope that all makes sense, thanks
- Jessie

Replies

  • aledba
    aledba Posts: 564 Member
    edited July 2015
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    It's all about efficiency in the water. The position of your hips, your arms to elbows angle, how you kick etc.. Maybe for the first 10 laps, you're doing a different stroke than the rest of the time? Either way, it sounds like you're over-exerting yourself at first. It's good to warm up - try stretching and do a few laps of flutter kick or arms only and then ease into the freestyle/breast/fly. http://www.swimming.org/swimfit/stretching-guide/
  • WhenIAmKing
    WhenIAmKing Posts: 13 Member
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    aledba wrote: »
    It's all about efficiency in the water. The position of your hips, your arms to elbows angle, how you kick etc.. Maybe for the first 10 laps, you're doing a different stroke than the rest of the time? Either way, it sounds like you're over-exerting yourself at first. It's good to warm up - try stretching and do a few laps of flutter kick or arms only and then ease into the freestyle/breast/fly. http://www.swimming.org/swimfit/stretching-guide/

    I do the breast stroke on every lap as it's the only way I can do atm bar doggy paddle lol, hoping to work up to a front crawl. Thanks for the advice!
  • Dnarules
    Dnarules Posts: 2,081 Member
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    I have never used swimming as exercise because I am a terrible swimmer :). But this same type of thing happened when I started jogging. The first five minutes were torture, but then I would get into a rhythm and be better after that. This would happen even though i always did a 5 minute warm up walk first. My breathing had a lot to do with it, and I think the first five minutes also warmed up my joints etc. I was never good about stretching much beforehand.
  • demoiselle2014
    demoiselle2014 Posts: 474 Member
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    I did swim team for years. I have always had an experience like yours. The first 800-1200 yards, my body screams "What are you crazy for doing this?! STOPPIT!" But after that it's a breeze.
  • thereshegoesagain
    thereshegoesagain Posts: 1,056 Member
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    I swim at least 1.5 miles 5 days a week, some days up to 2.5 miles. When I first started swimming, I experienced the feeling you are talking about. I just gutted my way through it, knowing it would get better. When my arms feel heavy, sometimes I will sprint a lap and that seems to "wake up" my muscles.
    Keep it up, it's a wonderful sport and way to exercise, I've lost over 70 lbs so far.
  • svirds
    svirds Posts: 57 Member
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    You might consider a swim workout plan, that incorporates a warm up, a middle part with harder effort (sprints), and a cool down. Like any other sport, your muscles need to warm up to be effective for performance. It's likely that you are swimming too fast and hard right away. Try pulling back and going easy for a warm up - 200 to 500 yards, then add sets of 50's or 100's at a faster pace and higher heart rate, then a nice easy cool down of 200 yards. Experiment with the crawl (freestyle) stroke too. This link is to a great site with various swim workouts -
    http://100swimmingworkouts.com/index.html
  • jurple132
    jurple132 Posts: 19 Member
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    As a swim teacher, I second the warm up. Try doing some arm circles and leg swings before you hop in the pool as this will help lubricate your joints. Then when you hop in do a few lengths or so at a easy pace. As suggested above, the middle of your workout should be the most intensive. If you can only do breast-stroke you can add variety by doing just the kick with a board (hold it sideways in front of you to increase resistance) or just the arms with a freestyle kick, or trying a few lengths with a longer glide (e.g. 5 seconds rather than 3).
  • dizzieblondeuk
    dizzieblondeuk Posts: 286 Member
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    One of the best things I ever did some years ago was take a swimming class called 'Swimming for Aerobic Fitness'. For a small class price, a swimming instructor spent 6 weeks assessing my technique and helping me to first correct bad habits, and then introduce ways of getting the absolute most out of any swim stroke. Despite my many years of swimming, I'd developed very lazy habits with my leg movements, and having someone point it out and watching me move all the way down a swimming lane, made me swim more consciously. I definitely feel like I've had a good work-out when I get out of a pool now!

    Look at your local leisure centre, and see if they offer adult lessons like this. I know my local ones do. If you lack confidence in your swimming, a handful of lessons would be good to help you achieve your goals. Like svirds says about a workout plan, a good instructor would also give you tips on warming up and cooling down, as part of a (say) 60 minute swim program.
  • meaghandyer
    meaghandyer Posts: 24 Member
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    Former competitive swimmer here. The people above are right creating 'sets' or a workout that includes a warm up, then a harder or faster set of swimming and then a cool down is great way to improve your swimming workout.

    Efficiency is a thing too, as you become a better swimmer your 'feel' for the water improves. You will swim more efficiently and therefore you do burn a bit less calories per lap. But the good news is as you swim more efficiently you will notice that you can swim faster and longer, which means you can make your workout a bit tougher.

    Also be careful on MFP, I have found that the predicted calories burned for swimming on here are REALLY high and probably a lot more than are actually being burned. Some other threads discussed this and the consensus seems to be to subtract at least 20% of the calories MFP suggested you burned.

    Hope that helps and just keep swimming!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    http://www.swimmingcalculator.com/swim_calories_calculator.php

    Log your own calorie burn figures.

    Like the start of any cardio activity before the muscles have warmed up (and if the water temp is right, on the cooler side could mean it takes longer), you are burning more carbs than fat and higher HR - trying to get more oxygen to do that work.

    Running/biking is figured about 30 min before your body slips into the normal ratio of fat:carbs burned for that level of effort. So prior, it's higher carbs.

    Combine with that perhaps not as great efficiency until your muscle memory kicks in better, ya - you should be out of breath if you aren't purposely slowing down.

    Good job keeping at it.

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