Need some Endurance Advice

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sailorsiren13
sailorsiren13 Posts: 460
in Fitness and Exercise
So my 16 year old daughter is trying to become a lifeguard for the summer and has to be able to swim 12 laps. She can only do about 6 right now before she is out of breath and has to stop. We thought she was in okay shape before she took the pre-test but now we have stepped up her training to running 4 miles a day and doing the 30 day shred. She is 5 foot 4 inches and 119 pounds. She isn't looking to lose weight just build endurance and tone I could use some advice of where do we go from here? We are also in the pool on Friday night and Saturday when they have open swim since the pool is an hour away.

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  • iuangina
    iuangina Posts: 691 Member
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    The best way to build swimming endurance is to swim. Those other things are a great way to supplement and build overall cardio endurance (and they will definitely help and she should continue to do them). However, she probably needs to be in the pool more. I'm not sure that is helpful advice if you can't get there more than two days a week.
  • MrsSYDL
    MrsSYDL Posts: 65 Member
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    My endurance has greatly increased by doing cross-training. I am strength training 2x and Cardio 3x. My strength includes things like kettle bell, push-ups, burpees, sumo deadlifts, turkish get-ups, etc. Tabata is also a great way to help with endurance. I wish her much luck and success. Keep me posted.
  • ldennett
    ldennett Posts: 75 Member
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    If by 12 laps you mean 600m my thinking is that she probably needs more time in the pool. Sometime the best way to do more at a sport is to just to do more. If you mean 1200 m, then she may have to work on her endurance outside of the pool as well but again more time in the pool may actually be the best way to address this. If she can run 4 miles she probably has the endurance to swim 1.2k. (I would consider the 1.2k easier than the 4miles personally). So it might have more to do with her swimming technique or the fact that she is simply swimming too fast and if she slowed down a little she could do it.
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
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    http://ruthkazez.com/50swimworkouts.html
    Has some decent ideas, albeit a bit more tailored towards competitive swimming.

    Building up swimming endurance is just like building up endurance in other sports (with the possible exception that you should probably be a bit more careful if swimming at the point of complete exhaustion)

    If she can do 6 laps now, have her do intervals. An example would be:
    1) 4 laps, followed by 2 minutes of rest
    2) 2 laps, followed by 2 minutes of rest
    3) 2 laps, followed by 2 minutes of rest
    4) 2 laps, followed by 2 minutes of rest
    5) MAX laps (minimum 6)

    And then the next time you do it go for 5,3,3,2,MAX or something.

    Play with the rest time, you don't want it to be too long, but you also need to make sure she has enough time to catch her breath before going again.

    Another idea is doing sets of 12 laps. After each lap (or each 2 laps, or every 3 laps, or whatever) she rests for a set amount of time, and you gradually reduce/remove the rest periods.

    If you're able you may want to have a swim instructor or something check her form. It's possible it's a form thing and not necessarily an endurance thing and you want to make sure your training to improve the right problems.

    Final thing is from a training perspective, if you can only do two days a week fine (not ideal but reality has a way with messing up the perfect plans), but maybe you could do Tuesday, Saturday instead of Friday, Saturday? It may help with progress.
  • sailorsiren13
    sailorsiren13 Posts: 460
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    Thank you for all the tips I really appreciate hearing things from other people. The reason we do Friday night is that is when the Lifeguards themselves work with her and then Saturday is open swim. When our pool warms up she will be in it constantly. Our biggest issue is gas prices and time. My son's T-ball practice is Tues and Thurs and she doesn't get home from school until almost 4 reality really does bite us in the butt sometimes but thanks to the last poster we are going to check out that site and really look hard at what we can do!!! Thank you all again!!:wink:
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
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    Yup, like I said reality makes the perfect plans...unrealistic.

    Work with what you have. The more she can swim the better off she'll be. Assuming this is something she wants to continue to improve at, getting into the habit of tracking her stats and working to improve them certainly can't hurt.

    At a point though, she'll really need more professional guidance to improve. Form really is huge when it comes to swimming "well". If something like that is a possibility, the sooner she gets that kind of tutelage the better.

    My $0.02
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    I'm another, just get in there & swim. Is there a time limit for the 12 lap swim? Perhaps she's trying to go too fast (just a thought).

    Has she had anyone look at her stroke? I started the swim program with my tri club last fall, pretty pathetic - I can run 20km but could barely swim 50m without being exhausted. Having a coach to show you proper stroke mechanics makes all the difference, if a coach is out of the question there are some great videos on youtube.
  • seven3
    seven3 Posts: 7 Member
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    Ditto she needs more pool time. Running ain't swimming. Case in point: in 2005 I had a good year bicycle racing. Won a medal in the state time trial, good finishes in road races, and was finishing top 5 in cyclocross races. My cycling and running endurance were very good. Then I ruptured a disc, and for a couple of months the pool was my only exercise option. The first time I went to swim laps, I figured I could swim for at least half an hour. Ten minutes later, I crawled out of the pool, exhausted. Swimming involves very different muscles than running, and endurance has to be built in the water. Your daughter has a good fitness base, so she should improve quickly if she works at it.
  • sailorsiren13
    sailorsiren13 Posts: 460
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    we are fish we moved from Guam last Sept. but if you don't use it you lose it i guess. We are really going to have to look at her form and technique. or maybe she is just used to having her snorkel and fins hehe she was wanted on the swim team there but her studies came first her studies and she struggles with juggling sports and academics. She is getting better now that we are stateside and she is older though. Again more great suggestions keep them coming!!!
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
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    we are fish we moved from Guam last Sept. but if you don't use it you lose it i guess. We are really going to have to look at her form and technique. or maybe she is just used to having her snorkel and fins hehe she was wanted on the swim team there but her studies came first her studies and she struggles with juggling sports and academics. She is getting better now that we are stateside and she is older though. Again more great suggestions keep them coming!!!

    You could spend your entire life going to the pool daily and be a very 'good' swimmer, but there would still be a number of things about your form that you'd likely need professional help to fix. And it's certainly not to say that your daughter is a bad swimmer or doing something wrong, it's just that there are so many extremely minute details when executing a perfect stroke that it's practically impossible to achieve without help. It's really a highly technical movement when done well.

    Does she need to have elite level swimming proficiency to become a lifeguard? No, but it's not a bad thing to strive towards.
  • sailorsiren13
    sailorsiren13 Posts: 460
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    ok well my hubby got home and read this thread and we now have a plan of action thanks to all of you and your suggestions. We looked at the pool hours and our schedules are going to get her some more pool time on top of running in the morning and strength training dvd's. I have been volunteered to do each lap and run each mile with her so it should be fun i will keep you posted!!!!!:flowerforyou:
  • ArroganceInStep
    ArroganceInStep Posts: 6,239 Member
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    ok well my hubby got home and read this thread and we now have a plan of action thanks to all of you and your suggestions. We looked at the pool hours and our schedules are going to get her some more pool time on top of running in the morning and strength training dvd's. I have been volunteered to do each lap and run each mile with her so it should be fun i will keep you posted!!!!!:flowerforyou:

    Best of luck.

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