What is a 'good' swim?

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farcry66
farcry66 Posts: 47 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Okay, I know this is a very subjective title, but . . .

I swim 3 times a week for about 50-60 mins. I started at 32lengths of 25m pool, I have now built up to 80 lengths which is 2k. I am currently stuck at 80lengths, but I am happy with this at the moment, my next target is to get to 85 ( I swim in multiples of 5 just because I find it easier to keep count!) I aim to do this solidly by first week of March.

I have just shy of 100lbs to loose so I am buring up a fair few calories during these sessions, which is nice. I just wondered what you would call a good swim work out.

I was talking to my Girl Guides about this the other day and asked how long it would take them to do 64 (a mile). One of the girls flippantly said, well, that's my warm up, I'd do it in about 20 mins. Turns out she swims competativly at a fairly high level for a 12 year old!

Replies

  • Chagama
    Chagama Posts: 543 Member
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    Anything where you don't drown? Just kidding.

    I think you are doing a lot for someone who is not a competitive swimmer. Just from my own experience and talking to other non-competitive swimmers, I don't know many that go over a mile in one session, you are up at about 1.25 miles. I wouldn't worry about it, just work on extending your distance by the 5 lengths at a time.
  • Elizabeth_C34
    Elizabeth_C34 Posts: 6,376 Member
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    I do a lot of swimming also.

    Here's my general workout:

    25- 50m laps breaststroke (first 25m)/freestyle (last 25m)
    10- 50m laps with pull buoy (works the arms and abs)
    10- 50m laps with kickboard (helps strengthen the legs and lower back)
    10- 50m laps with gloves (more resistence for the arms)
    25- 50m laps freestyle

    I usually do some water aerobics too with floating dumbells and some abwork in the pool also.

    It's a good comprehensive workout that works all the muscle groups. Takes about 120 mins or so. I don't push myself too hard on speed though I can if I want to. My goal is more to increase resistence and strengthen my body than to increase my endurance or push a strong cardio workout, so your goals may change what you do.

    Sounds like your workout is very good!
  • iuangina
    iuangina Posts: 691 Member
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    It depends what you are trying to do. When I swim, I'm working on my speed and my endurance because I compete in triathlons. If you goal is to lose weight, you need to have a mix of different swim routines that you do. I swim twice a week. The first day of the week that I swim, I work on speed. I do 4 x 100s and increase my speed after each 25m. I rest for 1 minute in between and then I repeat. On my endurance days, I do longer sets before taking a break. Either way most of the time I swim between 2000m - 2800m in an hour. I should add that it is all freestyle.
  • farcry66
    farcry66 Posts: 47 Member
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    I am swimming for weightloss and toning (for when you can actually see some of my muscles!) I basically do 5lengths breaskstroke, 5 lengths backstroke, 5 lengths front crawl and repeat ad nauseum!

    I am not really sure what I can do to have a different swim routine. I have searched on google and all I can find are things for people who swim ridiculously faster than me or complete beginners.

    I can't extend the time I swim for (as that would involve getting up earlier than I do on a swim day and that seems to be impossible!) but I can up the speed which is what I have been doing since hitting 1mile. Up until I got to the mile, I guess I was working on endurance as I think I only managed about 40 mins before feeling like I couldn't go on anymore.

    Apart from swimming the only other excerise I do is walking, although I have started trying to build up my times on an elliptical trainer, although currently I want to die after only 15 mins, which is a bit shameful! Anyone got any suggestions as to how to make this a better workout for me?
  • Elizabeth_C34
    Elizabeth_C34 Posts: 6,376 Member
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    I am swimming for weightloss and toning (for when you can actually see some of my muscles!) I basically do 5lengths breaskstroke, 5 lengths backstroke, 5 lengths front crawl and repeat ad nauseum!

    I am not really sure what I can do to have a different swim routine. I have searched on google and all I can find are things for people who swim ridiculously faster than me or complete beginners.

    I can't extend the time I swim for (as that would involve getting up earlier than I do on a swim day and that seems to be impossible!) but I can up the speed which is what I have been doing since hitting 1mile. Up until I got to the mile, I guess I was working on endurance as I think I only managed about 40 mins before feeling like I couldn't go on anymore.

    Apart from swimming the only other excerise I do is walking, although I have started trying to build up my times on an elliptical trainer, although currently I want to die after only 15 mins, which is a bit shameful! Anyone got any suggestions as to how to make this a better workout for me?

    If you want to tone, get a pull buoy and a kickboard. It'll force you to work your legs and arms harder and increase the resistence in the water. Gloves rock too.

    Do you do any weight training outside the pool?
  • farcry66
    farcry66 Posts: 47 Member
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    If you want to tone, get a pull buoy and a kickboard. It'll force you to work your legs and arms harder and increase the resistence in the water. Gloves rock too.

    Do you do any weight training outside the pool?

    No weights yet, although I am tentativly looking into it, just not sure I can find the time or the money without my husband getting mad! I need to look into these other aids, as I've never even heard of them!!!! If I was going to choose one of them to start with, whoch would you suggest?
  • Elizabeth_C34
    Elizabeth_C34 Posts: 6,376 Member
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    If you want to tone, get a pull buoy and a kickboard. It'll force you to work your legs and arms harder and increase the resistence in the water. Gloves rock too.

    Do you do any weight training outside the pool?

    No weights yet, although I am tentativly looking into it, just not sure I can find the time or the money without my husband getting mad! I need to look into these other aids, as I've never even heard of them!!!! If I was going to choose one of them to start with, whoch would you suggest?

    swimoutlet.com has a lot of items.

    This is what I have:

    Pull Buoy goes between your thighs and basically immobilizes your legs so you have to get through the water with just your arms. It will also work your abs and lower back because it forces you to use your core muscles to balance your legs stably in the water. It can take a little getting used to, but really effective (and cheap!)

    http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/1753.htm?color=27980

    Kickboard forces you to use just your legs to propel yourself.

    http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/15034.htm?color=210

    Swim gloves are awesome for increasing the resistence on your arms and propel you faster with your arm strokes. Whenever I use the gloves, my arms are on fire the next day. Good workout!

    http://www.swimoutlet.com/product_p/2032.htm?color=10804

    Good thing is all this stuff is cheap so you should be able to get it and use it. If you hate it, you're not out much money.
  • sarahrichards81
    sarahrichards81 Posts: 79
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    I trained (from scratch) for a 5k swim last year and I found what really helped was doing interval training. Get yourself a waterproof watch and time how long it takes for you to do 2 lengths at a leisurely pace and then do drills to try to 'beat' t
    Say you do 50m (2 lengths) in 1:00 at leisurely pace
    Do 2 lengths at 0:59
    2 lengths at a really slow recovery pace
    2 lengths at 0:58
    2 lengths at a really slow recovery pace
    2 lengths at 0:57
    etc
    Seeing how fast you can go and how long you can endure it - it'll be hard at first, and you might not be able to shave more than a couple of seconds off but stick with it for 2 reasons - a) it'll make you a much stronger swimmer in the long run b) calorie wise it'll burn a lot more than swimming at the same pace.

    I've taken a swimming hiatus over the last few months but my training starts again this week - my challenge is a 14k bridge to bridge river swim in August - scary!!
  • murdy745
    murdy745 Posts: 71 Member
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    Swimming world on-line has a vast on-line collection of workouts for various types of levels. http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/swim-cgi/

    I swim about 3-4 times a week, 5-6,000 meters each time. I try to mix it up so I don't get bored....
    the great part about swimming is your body catches up so quickly you will be swimming farther in no time. When you are just beginning, the most important part is building a solid endurance base...try to swim as long as you can without stopping. Focus on breathing and it will make such a big difference in your workouts. I try to do 200's as follows:
    first 50-breathe every 3 strokes
    second 50-every 5
    third 50-every 7
    fourth-every 9
    It really does help with not only your breathing, but speed as well and it mixes it up.
    Happy swimming!
  • kimbux
    kimbux Posts: 154 Member
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    Anything where you don't drown? Just kidding.

    This was my initial thought!!
  • tabinmaine
    tabinmaine Posts: 965 Member
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    I have been swimming now for about 3wks too, I love it. I swam all the time as a child, practically lived in our pool.

    The pool I have access to is not a olympic sized pool but it's a good size. I just try to remain swimming laps for 45-60 min each session. I do some breast stroke as well as front crawl, sometimes I swim on my back and use my legs to move, so lots of flutter kicks.

    I do this about 3-4 x a week, I also run, do the eliptical and lift weights 3x wk too.
  • theoneandonlybrookie
    theoneandonlybrookie Posts: 341 Member
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    First, it sounds like you're doing more than just a "good" swim. You're doing a great job! That's a lot of distance!

    I second everyone who recommends 1) adding in kick boards and buoys and 2) building workouts around time. For example, you can build a fun pyramid workout by making an increasingly fast goal for each 100 you swim, getting to a peak, and then bringing your goal back down again.
  • MaximalLife
    MaximalLife Posts: 2,447 Member
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    1 hour of swimming is great so long as you are feeling the burn.
    Push yourself; don't just float.
    And that sounds like just what you are doing.
  • tjnd88
    tjnd88 Posts: 26
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    I lost 40 lbs. this past summer by swimming 3-4 times per week.

    Pool is 1 mile from my house, so I walked there (briskly), swam laps for 30 minutes (48 lengths = 2/3rds mile) and walked 1 mile home.

    No kickboards or other aids. Just me, old man trunks, and a pair of goggles. It worked very well for me.

    Still doing this at an indoor pool this winter, although the winter weather often limits my opportunities to walk there. Have worked up to swimming 1 mile in 45 minutes. My goal is to swim 100 miles this year.

    You're doing just fine. Keep it up !!! It's one of the very best forms of exercise you can do.
  • jobster68
    jobster68 Posts: 145
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    I also swim three times a week at 6.00 am - I swim for an hour to an hour and 15 minutes and it is about 1.5 miles that I do or thereabouts. I plug in my waterproof MP3 player and off I go the time flies by and it sets me up for the rest of the day.

    :happy:
  • sabawden
    sabawden Posts: 15 Member
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    great job on how much you've accomplished already on your swims!
    I generally swim a mile and used to just “swim” with no changing up my routine, and this got boring pretty fast. Recently I tried a couple things that i believe made my workouts more efficient and more interesting. First, i swim 2-3 days a week and each swim focuses on speed or endurance. For instance, the first day ill swim 1 mile while with focus on speed via "pyramids" (variations like: swim 1 length fast, 1 slow, 2 fast, 1 slow, 3 fast, 2 slow, then reverse ). And yes, I use a kickboard a few times to during the speed workouts to give my arms a break!

    The endurance day Ill swim 1 to 1 1/2 miles, but try to set goals using the pyramid idea again: swim 4 laps without stopping, rest, swim 6 laps without stopping, rest, swim 8 laps, etc then reverse. Obviously you’ll get better the more you do this, so do whatever # of laps is a challenge to you.

    Keep up the good work!
  • dmiller9911
    dmiller9911 Posts: 3
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    I think that swimming a structured workout with sprints, long distance, kicks/pulls, and drills mixed in helps a lot. If you have the ability to do it mixing in other strokes will help a lot as well. As others have said putting your laps to time really gets the heart going a good example of a freestyle pyramid is below:
    Warmup: 200 drills
    Pre Set: 4x200 (swim,kick,pull, swim)
    Main Set: 4x50, 3x100, 2x150, 1x200, 2x150, 3x100, 4x50 (try to do a 15 second rest for each 50 swam)
    Kick Set: 400 free kick
    Cool Down: 200 free
    total: 3400 meters
  • parcade
    parcade Posts: 1
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    I started swimming July 18th . i am a 64 year old currently out of shape woman. The first week I could barely do 2 laps of a olympic pool Then I got hooked! I started with that worked up to 5 laps and then miraculously or so it seemed i did 20 laps in 1 hour 15 m
    Then i over trained and got a bit ill. I took 4 days off and today August 11th I swam 22 laps in 50 minutes!!!!! I am so excited!!!
  • EmilyStopFlying
    EmilyStopFlying Posts: 124 Member
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    bump for ideas
  • IHateThinkingOfAUsername
    IHateThinkingOfAUsername Posts: 568 Member
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    In for ideas as well.

    I think as long as you get out of breath, and aren't just dawdling beside a friend having a catch up then you're doing well. :)

    I'm the same as others here have written (albeit a while ago), I like to mix it up else I get bored of pool swimming. I vary it so one session'll be distance, another speed, another sprints, etc etc.

    I really must get myself a pull buoy to help develop my front crawl.

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