Swimming?

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stenochick0417
stenochick0417 Posts: 124 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So, I'd love to throw swimming in to my exercise regime. Are there any swimmers out there? Any tips/tricks? Anything I need to know before I get started or do I just jump in (no pun intended) and start swimming laps? I just need to mix things up a bit. I'm a cyclist and LOVE getting out and riding, it's just been brutally HOT. And with swimming, I can do that in the winter when it's too cold or snowy to ride.

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  • eillamarie
    eillamarie Posts: 862 Member
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    Ex-competitive swimmer here. Feel free to add me as a friend & pick my brain....I LOVE when ppl pick my brain about swimming/training!!
  • lustyrusty
    lustyrusty Posts: 46
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    I'm a swimmer and the best advice I ever got was to lick the inside of your goggles to stop them steaming up. Bit gross I know but it works!
  • lolitsangela
    lolitsangela Posts: 25
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    Swimming is fantastic. I swam competitively in high school and definitely got in shape. You might want to talk to someone, like a swim coach, who knows workout routines, because I feel doing different sets is a lot more beneficial than doing laps.

    I'm just going to jump in assuming that you're a newbie swimmer (forgive me if you're not). Laps are measured in yards, 25 being one lap, 50 being 2 laps, etc.

    When I swam, my warm-up routine on a regular day was usually 200 yards freestyle kick, 200 yards freestyle pull, 200 yards freestyle, 200 yards IM (butterfly, backstroke, breastroke, freestyle). (IM isn't always necessary, but it's nice.)

    Workouts always varied. For endurance and distance swimmers, my coach would have us do multiple sets of 500 yards, aiming to do each set in 10 minutes (A good competitive time for women is roughly 5 or 6 minutes). For sprinters, he would have us do thresholds, and these are what I think are the best for working out. He would have us do sprint sets of the following yardages: 25, 50, 75, 100. In between each yardage, we were allowed a short rest. Sometimes, he would give us a certain amount of time that he wanted us to complete each yardage in so that we would push ourselves harder to earn more resting time. He would have us take our heart rate after each set and aim to be in the 160-180 range. (We were all around 14-18, so, right up there around 80% of max).

    Then again, that's just my suggestion. Any kind of swimming is going to be awesome because it works out a lot of your body. Just be prepared to be really hungry after a good workout LOL!!
  • cartern1
    cartern1 Posts: 270 Member
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    I cycle alot (about 100miles a week) and about a month ago I started swimming. I love it, honestly can't get enough I went once the first week twice the second week , most i've done is 3 times in a week.

    I really can't give you much advice - i stick to breast stroke and treading water I just keep going til my arms don't want to work anymore but i'm usually in the pool for 40-60 mins.

    Best advice - figure out times when it's not so busy otherwise you get crowded out by the kids/families/competitve swimmers

    Have fun!

    nik
  • corpus_validum
    corpus_validum Posts: 292 Member
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    One of the best advice I can give is to strive for efficient swim strokes - get to the other side using the least amount of arm strokes.
  • stenochick0417
    stenochick0417 Posts: 124 Member
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    Thanks for the responses, everyone! I just haven't seen much on this topic here, so I figured I could post to find out more info. Yes, I'm a newbie at swimming, or at least what I consider swimming for exercise/competitive swimming. I know how to swim (grew up going to the lake on the weekends, that sort of thing) I just don't know where to start as far as getting a good workout out of it. Like I said, I'm cycle as much as I can (shooting for 100 miles as week as well, but haven't made it yet) but I think that my body is getting used to that so I want to find something else I would like to do. (I've tried running. HATE it.) And for me, that's been 1/2 the battle -- finding exercise I actually *want* to do so I actually stick with it.

    Not sure where to find a swim coach because I think that would be a great source of information and it would help me get started as far as what exactly to do, but I can look into that. I'm planning on joining the local YMCA because it's indoor (yay!) and they have swim lanes so I can swim for a workout. Only bad thing is there's a designated time slot for that, so we'll see.

    So, so far, I know I probably need to get some goggles and a better swimsuit that'll stand up to a workout. That's as good a place to start point as any.

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