Swimming!

stinky eggs

Ive taken up a bit of swimming as I cant really run with the goosed knee!

Started off doing 20 lenghts ( 25 m pool ) but have been easily able to add 10 on a night..

Is it something that gets easier quite quickly and how many lenghts is a denent work out for say a 25 yeard old 6 ft 3 15 stone reasonably fit chappy!

smcclaw

You might get more replies over in the Swimming or athletics/triathlon forums

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=973
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=973

Rather than focusing on adding lots of lengths at a constant pace you might aim for a session with warm up lengths incorporating drills (kick only, one arm drills etc) and then focus on doing your work sets in the middle at a particular pace with measured rest intervals between the work sets and then finally some slower warm down lengths.

As I say, you'll get more specific advice over on the swim forum

muboop1

stinky eggs wrote: »

Ive taken up a bit of swimming as I cant really run with the goosed knee!

Started off doing 20 lenghts ( 25 m pool ) but have been easily able to add 10 on a night..

Is it something that gets easier quite quickly and how many lenghts is a denent work out for say a 25 yeard old 6 ft 3 15 stone reasonably fit chappy!

I used to be a swimming teacher etc, so I think I can confidently say, there is no set amount... Or even a decent gauge.

Swimming is one of those sports that is neglected by many athletes. I have a mate who can run 10k, bench 1.5 times his body weight, squat double his BW etc... but can only swim 5 lengths before running out of breathe. I found this shocking as I can not train for 6 months then go out and knock off a hundred lengths simple! Totally varies. Swimming uses alot of muscles that most people will not have developed to any great level so even very fit guys can struggle with it.

I'd say just push yourself, try mix up the strokes. Ie, do IM if you are up to it, if not strive for it!

IM is basically a set, you do 1 length butterfuly, 1 Backstroke, 1 Breaststroke, 1 Frontcrawl. And repeat...

This will give you a very rounded physique workout. Or at least as good as possible with swimming.

Also, make sure you have good technique, ask someone or get a lesson, you wil be glad you did as you will see like with anything god technique leads to good gains.

stinky eggs

muboop1 wrote: »

I used to be a swimming teacher etc, so I think I can confidently say, there is no set amount... Or even a decent gauge.

Swimming is one of those sports that is neglected by many athletes. I have a mate who can run 10k, bench 1.5 times his body weight, squat double his BW etc... but can only swim 5 lengths before running out of breathe. I found this shocking as I can not train for 6 months then go out and knock off a hundred lengths simple! Totally varies. Swimming uses alot of muscles that most people will not have developed to any great level so even very fit guys can struggle with it.

I'd say just push yourself, try mix up the strokes. Ie, do IM if you are up to it, if not strive for it!


IM is basically a set, you do 1 length butterfuly, 1 Backstroke, 1 Breaststroke, 1 Frontcrawl. And repeat...

This will give you a very rounded physique workout. Or at least as good as possible with swimming.

Also, make sure you have good technique, ask someone or get a lesson, you wil be glad you did as you will see like with anything god technique leads to good gains.

Ill be honest.. my technique is gick!!

I was never a massive swimmer but just doing it at the mo as the kneww is goosed..

Is it god for losing weight?

Khannie

stinky eggs wrote: »

Is it god for losing weight?

Not really unfortunately. A crappier technique will burn more calories for the same distance though. At least you have that.

I found that once I hit 40 lengths of a 25 metre pool I could more less keep going beyond that. I did 100 lengths one time and felt I could have gone further. It's a bit like running....if you can do 10K you can probably do 20.

Prezatch

Khannie wrote: »

I found that once I hit 40 lengths of a 25 metre pool I could more less keep going beyond that. I did 100 lengths one time and felt I could have gone further. It's a bit like running....if you can do 10K you can probably do 20.

Yea I'd agree with that. When I was training for a triathlon I found that once you get a certain distance into the run/swim you just kind of hit a plateau and go into auto pilot at the same pace.

OP maybe try a bit of cycling. I'm not sure if that would affect your dodgy knee but it's certainly far more interesting than running or swimming - both of which I find immensely boring

lonestargirl

It's very difficult to quantify what's a 'good' swim workout without knowing how good a swimmer you are. I could hop in, do 40 lengths and barely raise my heart rate - for me this is the equivalent of going for a walk. However a good short workout of the same distance for me would be 20 x 50m made up of 25m butterfly sprint, 25m recovery swim and 5 secs rest, a HIIT-type swim-set.

There was an article in the Irish Times on Tues which suggested that you could burn 800-900 calories per hour swimming. I've often worn my heart rate monitor and the most I've ever recorded for a hour is 600 and 450-500 is more normal.