pennpaul

I've been a Clyde for too long and want to start incorporating swimming into my exercise routine for more weight loss, but don't know how. If I go to the pool with the kids and ever just swim a little, it always feels like I'm racing and I'm burned out in no time. My strength and cardio on the bike feel good, but horrible in the water.

I'm trying to learn how to swim slow and steady so I could, for example, do 5 lengths (not even Olympic) without stopping, then more and more. I think it's the feeling that my legs are sinking that I try to swim fast.

I'm not so motivated as to find a swim coach, but would definitely start my research on YouTube or reading. If you know of such resources, please share.

Thanks
Paul

Clyde1820

Freestyle stroke, I'm assuming?

Once had bad injuries to a leg, back when. Among the various physical activities and strength exercises I did, I also did a couple of things in the pool. Took months to learn to walk again, and a few years to be capable of doing most of the things I once was capable of. But it worked.

Try a good sized kickboard, in the pool. Your power is all legs. Starting out, just go at the pace you can go that'll get you a handful of lengths of the pool. With practice, you ought to be able to go much longer, and you ought to be able to ratchet up the power and speed. (Well, more power than speed, since kickboard speeds are so sluggish anyway.) It's a lot of work to do "high-powered" kickboard, if you're not used to it. But it's a good workout for those muscles.

One of the things that can be off, when overweight, is that the legs aren't being used as much as you should be using them, and thus aren't providing nearly as much power or "lift" for you in the water. Strengthening the power motion of the legs via a kickboard can help with that. (Of course, the leg motion with the actual freestyle stroke is more of a challenge, for delivering that much power, but technique can be learned.)

Try the breaststroke. It's a solid modest stroke that won't completely wipe you cardiovascularly. Occasionally toss in a couple of lengths of freestyle. Then, as your cardio gets back up to speed and your buoyancy changes as you strengthen and lose weight, you can begin swapping some of the breaststroke lengths for freestyle lengths. In time, you'll improve.

Takes time. Swimming strokes are by no means natural and innate movements. Once you get to the point of physically handling freestyle well, consider a couple of lessons on stroke form/efficiency. A basic stroke generally consumes a lot of power and wind, but an efficient stroke can deliver more power, be faster, and (at the right speed) can power you through the water for a good long while. A lesson or two might help, to specifically fine-tune your stroke.

As for feeling "burned out" when you go at a good clip, perhaps there's a good amount of improvement you could make to your general cardio? You could try the gym, with a couple of their cardio-oriented pieces of equipment. Doing harder, interval type sessions on a couple of those should help, if your cardio's a bit "flat" right now. So can a good solid walk in a hilly area, done at a moderate pace. Trudging straight up hillsides while walking can be a challenge, if the cardio needs improvement. And it doesn't require a gym, of course. Funny, how much a half hour of a hard walk can hit your cardio, at the right pace and incline.

rumrunn6

good for you! one of the best things I did for my body transformation 2005-2010 was to take up swimming. what a marvelous feeling when getting out of the pool after 50 minutes of swimming. good luck also finding an open lane! I used to have to go 5-6am! but it was worth it!

Steve B.

Swimming is entirely an upper body workout, unless you integrate a very strong kick, which isn't needed for general fitness swimming. You are not using any of the muscles you've developed for cycling, thus you are probably just out of shape and tired. Yes slow down, don't sprint. I do repeat workouts, maybe a slow 300 or 500 warm up, then 3x200, 6x50, or 4x100, etc... or a mix of stuff like that. You just start slow and keep at it, gradually increasing yardage. One idea of repeats is the shorter distance has you go a little faster, which elevates the heart rate, then you stop, do a few seconds of recovery and repeat. Maybe don't start this for a few weeks and just get in better general condition first. If your legs drop, get a set of pull buoys. Maybe do some kicking with a kick board in the middle of the sets to break up the tedium, I sometimes will mix in a 1x100 kick, 25 yards each of flutter kick (used with freestyle) breast kick, dolphin kick and flutter.

I found swimming to be a great workout to build upper body strength, which is useful for mt. biking. As well something to do on rainy days. I just now need to get my torn right bicep tendon repaired to get back to it !.

force10

If you swim regularly, I think you will get to 5 pool lengths pretty quickly. I also agree that alternating stroke between breast and crawl is helpful.

Ive found that it takes a while just to become accustomed to the additional lung effort of breathing while in the water. I think it must be due to the pressure of expanding your lungs against the weight of water rather than air.

Clyde1820

If your cardio's in need of a bit of boost, a basic rower at the gym can do wonders. It'll help transform your cardio.

But swimming's definitely a hit on cardio along with muscle stamina. It uses the upper body (including core) muscles in ways few other activities do.

Probably the best thing for boosting swimming performance is, silly as it might sound, doing more swimming. Swimming 4-6 days weekly for a half hour, even if it's only at the edge of what your cardio+strength allows (short of being "wiped"), the gains will come. Can take several months, but consistency can help re-train the muscles and cardio to handle the load change that swimming presents. (No idea if your schedule allows that much time commitment, on a regular basis.)

Used to swim on a team, back in the day. It's appalling how much time, at speed, in the pool a body's capable of. But it can take awhile to get over the initial hump.

Steve B.

i always found it remarkable how much distance competitive swimmers do in practice. Its a LOT of time in a pool.

zandoval 

Bravo! Any moving around gets ya results. And it's not just loosing weight but getting stronger that really matters. My trick with teaching young ones to swim was to use swim fins. I got some cheap swim fins and just had them wear them in the water. After a short while they were treading water and moving along. I would then shorten the fins by cutting them down till they did not need them.

Also... Remember...

Never Swim Alone

or with someone who cannot help you if you get in trouble...

Clyde1820

Good reminder.

There are fins, for the feet. And there are webbed gloves for the hands. It adds a great amount of additional power on the water. Can help keep the sagging tail end higher. Can help keep efficiency up even when technique's a bit flagging. Might be a good approach, if needing help to get over the first few months' "hump" ... until everything starts working again.

Clyde1820

I always found it appalling, myself. Heck, we get wrinkled in a bathtub after a few dozen minutes. But, in the pool, hours later we often found ourselves still cruising right along, in our distance sessions. IIRC, 500 lap sessions weren't uncommon, to get the cardio "base" for our basic swimming fitness. The sprinting power came through other training, technique improvements, etc. But, gads, those looooooong sessions were really something.

Steve B.

My competitive swim days, 60's-70-s, were before goggles came into use. We'd leave practice unable to see.

Clyde1820

Same, here. 1960s-'70s. Though, I had a simple set of goggles. Never liked those things. Today's versions work much better, IMO.

I recall the overload of chlorine (or whatever other) chemicals the pool was laced with. Good for keeping the bad "bugs" down, but they did a number on my sinuses and lungs. Breathing in all that vapor for 2-3hrs wrought hell on the membranes. Painful breathing for an hour or so, following hard swimming.

"Suck it up, buttercup!"

^ Yeah, pretty much.

kstephens

I coach competitive swimming, swam my entire younger life. I have helped several adults get started, and coached a few older triathletes or guided through a good training program. Starting swimming for fitness can be tough, but very rewarding. Studying a good technique and maybe seeking out a little guidance will make you much more comfortable in the water, regardless on distance and speed. Many people don't really seek this out for fitness as their intent is not to get faster - but most coaches I know love the sport, and are eager to help others get started, regardless of motivation for wanting to start. So you may want to look at a local swim club, tell them your goals and see if they can help get started. Swim fins (designed for swimming - not scuba diving) can be a useful too when first getting started. It will take much less effort from your kick to get and keep you in a good body position on top of the water, they you can focus on your upper body.

Yes - I pile the yardage on mid season for my competitive swimmers , with older groups regularly passing 15,000 yards on a double practice day. But as a coach, I am more concerned about quality yardage as opposed to just piling it on. My problem I encountered, when I stopped swimming in college I kept up the the 7,500 -10,000 calorie a day diet for quite a while also adding a healthy dose of beer in the mix too.