Swimming

watna

I haven't been well recently (diagnosed with IBS) and have been advised to do some gentle exercise i.e. swimming or walking in order to help alleviate the symptons.

We have a great community pool near us and I've been swimming 3 times a week and really enjoying it. I've got in to a routine of 10 - 15 widths (that's the way the pool is divided) and 10 widths of aquajogging. I've also been eating a lot better (new IBS friendly diet) and as a happy side effect have lost a little bit of weight.

My question is, how good exercise is swimming for you? (Taking out the IBS helping part). Because you don't feel like you are working up a sweat like you do in the gym I'm not sure what a suitable amount of widths/time to work towards as I get a bit fitter. I definitely feel I am pushing myself and do get out of breath but I've no idea what would be considered a good amount of swimming or how much people would do in general to keep fit.

Any input from other swimmers would be appreciated. I'm interested as to what other people swim weekly.

Khannie

Swimming's great exercise. Was just swimming yesterday myself. Love it.

You wont build up a sweat in the pool because the water keeps you cool. The best indicator is that you're getting out of breath (that's a sign that you're working hard to feed your body with oxygen).

I'd suggest you increase the number of widths you do by 1 or 2 each time, or try to do them faster each time, otherwise your body will adjust to being able to do the fixed amount.

dave80

watna wrote: »

I haven't been well recently (diagnosed with IBS) and have been advised to do some gentle exercise i.e. swimming or walking in order to help alleviate the symptons.

We have a great community pool near us and I've been swimming 3 times a week and really enjoying it. I've got in to a routine of 10 - 15 widths (that's the way the pool is divided) and 10 widths of aquajogging. I've also been eating a lot better (new IBS friendly diet) and as a happy side effect have lost a little bit of weight.

My question is, how good exercise is swimming for you? (Taking out the IBS helping part). Because you don't feel like you are working up a sweat like you do in the gym I'm not sure what a suitable amount of widths/time to work towards as I get a bit fitter. I definitely feel I am pushing myself and do get out of breath but I've no idea what would be considered a good amount of swimming or how much people would do in general to keep fit.

Any input from other swimmers would be appreciated. I'm interested as to what other people swim weekly.

as khannie said and fix your time in the pool to say 30 mins and try and add 1 width each time you go

hunnymonster

just be careful about the being out of breath = working hard equation, many new swimmers think they are killing themselves because they are heaving, whereas in fact they are just panicky and uncontrolled in the water. I'm not saying that's happening you but it's just something to be aware of.

Khannie

Yeah, fair point. It took me a good while to get control of my breathing properly and I was very comfortable in the water.

rubadub

hunnymonster wrote: »

just be careful about the being out of breath = working hard equation, many new swimmers think they are killing themselves because they are heaving, whereas in fact they are just panicky and uncontrolled in the water.

Yes, I prefer breast stroke since my lengths are slower so less chance of resting at the end, i.e. in 30mins you might only manage 70% of the lengths as front crawl, and my breathing is easier.

I don't know what IBS is but other low impact training is cycling and weights, dunno if they are suitable.

BossArky

watna wrote: »

Any input from other swimmers would be appreciated. I'm interested as to what other people swim weekly.

The problem with swimming is that most people are crap at it. This means they cannot get into a rhythm which allows them to bang out lengths for 30 to 60 mins. Instead they splash around for max 30 mins, most of which is spent fixing their googles at end of the lane.

If you are considering continuing with the swimming I'd recommend reading Total Immersion. My stroke, breathing, body position, etc improved drastically having read it.

Regarding distances/times - I used to swim approx 750m in ~19 mins a few times a week when training for a triathlon. That is slow but will put you ahead of 90% of the rest of the people in an average pool.

This page tells me that I would burn about 180 cals in the ~19 mins above.

Good luck.

Reyman

I do a fair bit of swimming and always found it a bit easy - nothing to compare with running. So I was up with my physio a year or so ago and told her it was a bit of a doddle. Her response "you're not swimming" - "up the pace - a lot and then more".

So next week I went into the pool and did fast lengths and more fast lengths over and over. I came out of the pool completely wrecked. Worse than my running any day.

So OP if you want to get anything out of swimming you have to work "hard - really hard" - no doddling.

tringle

watna wrote: »

I
We have a great community pool near us and I've been swimming 3 times a week and really enjoying it. I've got in to a routine of 10 - 15 widths (that's the way the pool is divided) and 10 widths of aquajogging. I've also been eating a lot better (new IBS friendly diet) and as a happy side effect have lost a little bit of weight.

My question is, how good exercise is swimming for you? (Taking out the IBS helping part). Because you don't feel like you are working up a sweat like you do in the gym

Hi watna, which do you prefer, the swimming or aquajogging and how do you do the jogging. I go to the pool about 4 times a week and swim 32 lenghts (20m) and aquajog 28. I enjoy swimming but find the aquajogging a much more active exercise. I use a belt and have the dumbells aswell, I find with this exercise I can target each body area better, or just do plain brisk jogging and feel like I am working up a sweat. I started with about 18 lenghts of each a few months ago and worked up to where I am now.

Now I find I swim to stretch and warm up and loosen up the muscles and the aquajog to target different body areas and get some cardio exercise.

...and I get some funny looks with my purple dumbells in the water, but then always loads of questions of what are you doing and is it easy.

best of luck with the exercise and the IBS

bigstar

my girlfriend swims 1500m twice a week. like someone said, technique is important. she used to teach swimming. she swims that without a bother, i'm wrecked after 200m, mainly because my technique is crap. shes currently teaching me better technique, so hopefully less of the gasping.