Swimming for fitness

janullrich

I had a good hard session yesterday swimming. 30 lengths front crawl and the same breaststroke non-stop as fast as I could. I don't do much swimming but I wanted to give myself a test and timed myself for the 1500m. Is swimming helpful for fitness or is it mainly just a relatation tool? Sorry I mainly cycle so while I felt good after the effort wonders how useful fitness is.

Mellor

It depends how good you are tbh. Some people struggle to swim so in a 45-60 min session they get nothing done and would be better off else where.
How long did it take you

Canis Lupus

Internet stole my initial post

Short version: Be careful, lots of people when frontcrawling equate the oxygen deficit through incorrect breathing/technique as effort (ie because I'm breathing so hard I must be working my ass off) then once your form is nailed frontcrawling turns into slow steady cardio.

Drill and make plans (ie sets of slow and fast lengths etc). 'They' say swimming also increases lung capacity so by all means go swimming. It's fun and is good for you.

lonestargirl

Agree with the above 2 posts.

1500m continuous swimming is going to get boring really quickly. Out of interest how long did the swim take you? How did you feel afterwards? For comparison if I do a really hard swim my arms and back are so tired afterwards that I find they ache when I'm trying to lift them to wash my hair.

I'm a big fan working off intervals when swimming, i.e. doing sets of 100m on 2 mins, if you swim it in 1.55 you get 5 secs rest, if you swim it in 1.30 you get 30 secs rest etc. These kinds of sets are good for tracking your progress as the interval decreases and the number of reps increases. I also like mixing the pace up doing sprints and then active recovery rather that resting at the end of the pool. Learning good pace control is important if you are going to use swimming as part of your training.

A nice set I did as part of my session this morning was:
10 x 100 yards, starting on a 1.50 repeat and dropping 5 secs each one
it was a lot harder than it reads!!

Mellor

lonestargirl wrote: »

A nice set I did as part of my session this morning was:
10 x 100 yards, starting on a 1.50 repeat and dropping 5 secs each one
it was a lot harder than it reads!!

It would be even harder if the pool was in metres

janullrich

Thanks for the information. I felt pretty knacked afterwards to be honest and quite tired. I did it in 43m05secs which I know is slow but then again I don't do much swimming. I used to do it in a 50m pool which was about 2mins faster. I must admit though that I felt good despite the tiredness afterwards and I agree that your lung capacity does increase due to the specific kind of breathing I was doing. On a side note despite doing 60lenghts I did not feel bored but remained positive, focused and motivated throughout. Strange I know!

Mellor

THe first thing I notice was that you said you were faster in a 50m pool.
A 50m pool should be a slower time, the obvious reason for this is that your turns are letting you down, try improve these to get the times/distance up

lonestargirl

Mellor wrote: »

THe first thing I notice was that you said you were faster in a 50m pool.
A 50m pool should be a slower time, the obvious reason for this is that your turns are letting you down, try improve these to get the times/distance up

That's the first thing that jumped out at me too.

OP you don't have to do tumble turns but you need to make your turns efficient. No resting, touch the wall, swing your legs around, sink down and push off under the water. Also watch your body position as you push off, head down, arms stretched out and kick from the hips.

You said you did 30 lengths frontcrawl and 30 breaststroke, how fast is your breastsroke compared to your frontcrawl? Your frontcrawl should be considerably faster as it's a much more efficient stroke. Why did you switch to breaststroke? Were you out of breath from the frontcrawl? If so do you attribute that to the pace you were swimming at or difficulty 'getting your breath' as you were swimming?

janullrich

Sorry there Lonestargirl. I had a knee op on Friday and have been sick since so therefore not online. I understand what you mean by touching the wall. Mine are a disaster and I mean that totally. Particularly on the front crawl I lose a lot of time because I don't touch the wall properly (if you get what I mean?) As for breaststroke I just wary it for a challenge nothing more. I am sure I'd be faster if I did just frontcrawl! thanks for the advise though