Comments on: Do Yourself a Favor and Start Swimming

By: Golf Memos

Golf Memos — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:19:33 +0000

I have to start swimming. I heard that with swimming you can even loose weight!

By: Sal Marinello

Sal Marinello — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:30:11 +0000

I don’t get hung up on heart rate and worry about VO2 and all of that. As far as high-intensity training goes if you are working at your maximum things take care of themselves.

With regard to the pool, if you are performing at a sustainable steady state for 20-25 minutes you are getting all of the aerobic benefits that you could hope for. If you want to change things up, swim as fast as you can – using any stroke you wish – for a length or two of the pool, make note of the time and rest for anywhere from 3-10 seconds for each second of work. At first swim one lap as fast as possible and see how your HR responds, and make use of a longer recovery period if you need to. As you transition into this new style of training you want to give your body a chance to adapt.

Also, laps are of secondary importance to time spent swimming, IMHO, and as you improve as a swimmer you can start to pay more attention to how many laps you can complete in a certain period of time.

Just like any exercise with swimming you need variety to derive the most benefits.

By: cat

cat — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:16:46 +0000

ok…so help me out. When I’m on the treadmill, i know how fast I’m going, manage my pace, observe my heart rate, and easily incorporate HIIT techniques. In the pool, I don’t know how to do any of that. I don’t know if I’m speeding up or slowing down, pushing myself hard enough to get cardio-vascular or VO2 benefit. All I can do is count laps and watch the clock. And even watching the clock is hard, since I have to stop or at least slow down to do it.

Do you have advice on how I can develop a routine to maximize the time in the lap pool and see results? Do you just swim steady laps or vary pace? What is your typical routine?

Thanks.