Easy Fitness – Swimming – A workout for the whole body

Let’s tackle the weight loss issue right away, because if we don’t, you might be missing out on one of the best exercises out there.

Tradition has it that swimming is not a good way to lose weight — a long-standing misinformation that certainly isn’t dispelled by newspaper photos of Hindenburg-sized marathon swimmers floundering in a frigid ocean.

True, when you swim, your body is supported by water, and because you’re not forced to fight gravity, you can burn fewer calories. It’s also true that some marathon swimmers won’t be modeling underwear any time soon (actually, it’s up to marathon swimmers to pack some fat as valuable insulation against icy water). And it’s true that a 150-pound man swimming at a leisurely pace burns about 6 calories per minute. He could burn nearly twice as many calories running at a walking pace of 12 minutes per mile.

But before you turn your back on the pool, consider this. That same 150-pound fish can double your calorie burn by swimming faster. Butterfly swimming (the most difficult of the four swimming strokes) burns approximately 14 calories per minute, a better calorie burn than tennis, squash or soccer. What we’re talking about here is intensity, and that explains why Olympic swimmers (as opposed to marathon swimmers) have the kind of body that pulls off the role of Tarzan.

Swimming offers other benefits that cannot be ignored. Because you are supported by the water, it is a low-impact sport and therefore virtually injury-free. For the same reason, it’s also a great exercise if you’re overweight, sparing your joints the pounding experienced in gravity-bound sports like running.

The various strokes used in swimming take the joints through a full range of motion that can improve flexibility. Most importantly, few exercises give you the head-to-toe muscle workout that swimming does.

You are using almost every major muscle group in the body. legs, hips, abs, chest, shoulders, and upper back—all of these muscles are working. You can also get tremendous stimulation for your heart and respiratory system. When it comes to general health, swimming is an excellent conditioner.

Starting

Here’s a likely scenario: Excited by the prospect of all these benefits, the man goes to the pool. The man puts on a suit and glasses. The man pushes off the wall and heads to the other end. The man scares himself and the lifeguard.

Swimming, it must be said, is not a sport that comes without effort. Witness recreational pools, which are usually filled with people who seem more interested in self-preservation than exercise. We’re going to show you how to make that transition from a wheezer to a graceful swimmer and how to improve even if you’re already at home in the water.

• Get qualified instruction – Learning to swim may seem like something for preschoolers on water wings. But even if you can successfully navigate from one end of the pool to the other, proper technique isn’t something you can learn on your own.

• Be patient – We hope to pick things up quickly. Swimming will not be one of them. Learning proper stroke techniques takes time and that requires patience. People want immediate results, but swimming is extremely technical, which is really frustrating for a lot of people. Learning the four strokes of swimming: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly is not difficult, but it is essential that you learn to do them correctly if you want to get the most out of swimming.

• relax in the water – When you are learning to swim, relaxing is the most important thing you can do, and the most difficult. When people are learning to swim, they get nervous and tense. And when they do that, they find themselves sinking, and it’s much harder. You need to relax and stay loose. If you’re one of those people whose muscles lock up in a rigor mortis-like state every time you get near the pool, you might want to pick up a pair of swim fins. They make your kick more powerful, which means they will keep you up and gliding over the surface, even when tense and tense.

• Get the right gear – There is not much you have to buy, just a suit and swimming goggles. The choice of costume is yours. Racing suits are light and comfortable. More importantly, they offer virtually no drag on the water. Swimming goggles are a must. Preventing the pool from becoming a virus gathering requires the liberal use of chemicals and many of these chemicals are harmful to the eyes. Occasionally you will see swimmers wearing nose or ear plugs. Save your money. Unless you are particularly prone to swimmer’s ear, the human body is designed to resist moisture in these particular orifices. In any case, earplugs tend to fall out while swimming, and noseplugs make breathing difficult, and when you swim hard, you want to suck in as much oxygen as you can.

swimming for fitness

Swimming seems easy, especially when you see experienced swimmers glide through the water. But swimming is an extremely demanding sport; for beginners it can be a struggle to get to the other end of the pool.

To achieve solid basic fitness, try swimming three to four times a week, logging 2,000 to 3,000 yards (about 1.5 to 2 miles) at each workout. Most swimmers can cover that kind of distance in about an hour.

If you’re fairly fit but new to swimming, experts recommend swimming between 500 and 1,000 yards each workout. Then slowly build from there. Swimming is a vigorous activity. You will be using new muscles and it is easy to stress them. Shoulder injuries are especially common among overzealous newcomers.

• Start with a warm up – Swimming can be a forgiving sport, but you’ll still want to relax before diving into an intense workout. Experts advise swimmers to warm up with a 400-yard swim (200-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke, and 100-yard breaststroke), mixing up the strokes to engage every muscle.

• work up to intervals – Although you can get an excellent workout swimming at the same time, doing the same stroke at the same pace for about half an hour, you will burn substantially more calories doing interval training. This is nothing more than a series of swims separated by a specific amount of rest (the interval). For example, you could do ten 50-yard freestyle swims, coming off the wall every minute. Or you could do five 100-yard freestyle swims off the wall every 2 minutes. A typical swim workout consists of several sets, with intervals of about 10 to 30 seconds between each swim in the set, then several minutes of rest between each set. The important point is not to allow too much rest during the set, you don’t want to fully recover between swims.

• mix up your speeds – Many people simply get conditioned to swim at one speed because they do the same type of exercise all the time. If you want to improve, you need to learn to swim fast. Not that every swim has to be a sprint. The idea is to mix things up. Instead of swimming the same pedestrian half-mile every day, for example, do intervals instead. And make at least one of those interval sets involve fast swimming. Swimming fast puts more muscle fibers into play, puts more of a strain on your heart and lungs, and burns up to twice as many calories. Of course, when you swim fast, you’ll need to rest longer between each swim so you can really put in a quality effort. For example, when doing ten 50-yard swims, you may want to leave the wall every 2 minutes instead of the recommended minute for a slower pace. You’re getting more rest, but I guarantee you’ll be beat. One additional point: It’s always a good idea to do your set of sprints early in your workout while you’re still fresh.

• mix your strokes – Many swimmers swim nothing but freestyle. If you are one of them, you are missing out. Throwing other swimming strokes into your training will help you work more muscles and improve your flexibility by bringing different movements into play.

• Put your arms and legs to work – Pulling (swimming using only your arms) and kicking (using only your legs) are good additions to any swimming workout. Pulling is a great upper body conditioner. The kicks hit your legs; add a pair of fins and you’ll increase ankle flexibility, making your legs work even harder. And because they involve large muscles, kicking and pulling raise your heart rate almost as much as swimming the full stroke. When kicking, don’t use a kick board. Holding on to the foam board lifts your upper body and drops your hips and legs. Swimming well means balancing your hips and head close to the surface of the water; having the legs angled down like anchors doesn’t do that.

• Get a quick burn – If you’re looking for a tough workout that you can do in minimal time, here’s a challenging option. The key to this training is not speed, but keeping rest periods to the absolute minimum. Using the stroke of your choice, keep the effort fairly easy, say 60 percent of your maximum heart rate. But keep the rest period between swims very short, no more than 7 to 15 seconds, depending on how far you’re swimming. For example, if you’re doing a series of short swims (say, 50 yards), you might want to rest about 7 seconds between each. For swims longer than 200 yards, for example, take 15 seconds between each. Keeping rest periods short leaves almost no time for recovery. This keeps your heart rate up and racing, giving you a great workout in a relatively short time. You are training your heart to be much more efficient. And it doesn’t mean more time in the pool. It means to swim longer in the given time. You can get a great workout in an hour break for lunch.