Swimming for fitness (part 3). Dive in!

Ah thank you singing and orig!! I'm ashamed to say I haven't been yet. Have been feeling lazy and demoralised but I'm going to give myself a kick up and go late this evening after work.

Agh, wish me luck! I’m paddling 20k tomorrow as part of the annual big swim from the mainland to an offshore island tomorrow. The swimmers are a team of 4. It should be a good day and lots of fun, I just hope I don’t fall in ( at least I can swim though).

Welcome WhatsTheGame.

I agree with Rights that exercising 2-3 times a week for 30mins is what you could aim for. When I started I managed 26 lengths of the pool (33m) in about the same number of minutes. 18 months later I can do 62 lengths in just under 40 mins. It is amazing seeing your progress.

Also, like Rights I think swimming has done some good toning. I didn't do it to lose weight (I'm a size 8 already), more to get exercise and keep fit, but I feel a lot more confident in fitting clothes etc. However, if you google swimming for weight loss it does seem to work (www.weightlossresources.co.uk/logout/sport/swimming.htm).

You'll be fine doing breaststroke to start with. You might find afterwards that you get braver doing other strokes. I'm rubbish at breaststroke (very slow) so I started swimming front crawl and then realised that alternating with backstroke (a stroke I've always liked) gave me a chance to catch my breath and I still alternate now.

Your question about eating before swimming really depends on what time you would eat. I swim first thing and have breakfast afterwards. but if you ate your evening meal 6-7pm you'd probably be fine swimming at 9pm. It wouldn't do your body any good to eat after the swim really as it would be very late.

Enjoy swimming and let us know how you are doing!

Welcome whatsthegame! Plenty of room in the MN pool.

I came to swimming as an injured runner so started small. I couldn't even really swim very well.

I started off going 3 times a week for about 40 mins each time. I did the same routine each time (mentally, that worked for me) and slowly saw the improvement.

Now I go twice a week and do 1K front crawl in 25 mins. It took me about a year to build up to that and to learn to do bilateral breathing.

If swimming is your only exercise I'd say you should go three times a week for at least 1/2hr. I think it's better to go more frequently for shorter duration than just one big, long session, though obv that depends on the time you have available.

I can't comment on the eating cos I'm crap at that. Also can't comment on slimming down (already am slim). I do swim late.

What it has done though is really, really tone my arms up. They are not broad at all. If you're using more calories exercising than you're eating then you will lose weight. It's no impact so that's great.

The mental space it gives me is amazing.

Hello! Can I join too please? You're all inspiring me to go swimming. Haven't ever really swam properly for fitness or exercise before. I have a few questions I'd be really grateful for any answers and tips:

What should I aim to do to start off with? (I'm only really comfortable doing breast stroke) is there a set number of laps I should try and do every session or should I just go for a certain amount of time?

Also how regularly would you recommend going?

And if you go very late in the evening (i think I might aim for 9pm so it's quiet) would you recommend eating dinner before or after going?

Im going in order to tone up, lose weight and get some mental peace/space. Having searched some threads on mumsnet I've seen people say swimming isn't good for slimming down or you get too broad shouldered...is that true? Sorry I feel stupid asking such a frivolous questions but I was wondering.

Thank you so much!

It’s Nice when you feel floaty relaxed rights
I did some drills to work on the bilateral breathing tonight it works when I relax but then I forget want to speed up and go back to one sided breathing again. I’ll keep working on it as I’m getting there slowly. Did a few fast L too which was fun sprinting at the end. 35mins done no idea on distance wasn’t counting today, just enjoying my swim

1K done at lunch time. More swimming, less running this week as I have a race (10 mile run) on Sunday.

Felt good today, all floaty.

Twenty minutes of crawl after an hour in the pool with the kids. Was bit busy so had to struggle to keep up in the fast lane and felt bit panicky but was just hungry I think as had done park run with kids too.

Wow, loads of swimming going on. It's warming up, so hoping to get in the pool soon. Running is turning into a warm activity!

Coffee my target for this year us to crack front crawl. Want to join me watching the videos?

Who's Paul and how do I get to be his friend?!

1K done last night. There was a knobber in the pool. He was fast and doing fancy strokes, but with me in the lane there was only 3 of us and there were people walking in the middle lane so I wasn't about to go in there.

So, I would wait at the end when he caught me up - every 4th length or so. All fine until person number 3 got out, leaving just 2 of us.
I waited at the end to let knobber go ahead and instead of skipping past me, he came straight for me (I had to leap out of the way) and turned to go back down the lane he'd just come up (ie up and down, not in a loop). I thought maybe he was signalling that we could just go up and down rather than round and round, but he didn't do that either.

I really didn't know what he was doing so I just carried on going round and round and let him do his thing. Twat. He didn't catch my eye to acknowledge my presence.

I rarely have this sort of thing and it's really off putting and unnecessary.

And the answer is $14,000 😱
Won’t be getting one of those then!

That’s interesting ski. Glad you can feel some immediate improvement. Breakthroughs like this feel good in swimming.

Paul is lucky to have an Endless Pool in his back yard. I wonder how much they are?

But! Grr not both

Sorry it’s swim smooth both effortless but ive watched some of there’s too

This one in case anyone else has this issue

Just came back from brill swim as something else just clicked yah! I’ve been watching other swimmers last few months trying to work out how to get faster but by watching this you tube video from effortless swimming on timing of the breath, finally made it click, by breathing maybe half a second earlier I’ve suddenly found my whole alignment better and proper power in my stroke with minimal extra effort. I was like WOW in my head couldn’t believe I was keeping up with some speedy swimmers I’m still not speedy but can now see a way to improve again which is fab. I’m also working on bilateral breathing which is also slowly clicking doing some pull buoy drills to practice with breathing both sides.

Glad you haven’t got stuck out of your car again Avo, luckily someone came to your rescue. It’s going to be 37 degrees here, so the opposite end of the horrible weather spectrum.

I had a nice swim last night, good to turn the arms over after the race. I was doing a few “finger drag” drills. I used to think this drill was pointless - because I was doing it wrong. It’s going to help me fix my arm recovery.

72 lengths / 1.5 miles done in 45 mins today. Fast Man was in my lane giving us all a bit of a push.

Car working fine today. It prefers 4C to –3C (as do I!).

I wasn't giving anyone a lift to the pool today, and didn't have to rush home as DH is on leave for half term so I pushed myself a bit beyond my usual 2km / 62 lengths and managed 74 lengths (was aiming for 72 lengths, which is 1.5 miles but miscounted). Did it in 48 mins. I'll give it another go tomorrow when I'll have a bit more time again. When I finished my swim my car door was frozen in the open position and I couldn't drive home as my car won't go without the driver's door firmly shut. A kind fellow swimmer gave me a lift home after I'd tried all sorts of fixes. When I returned with DH 1.5 hours later the temperature had recovered and all was fine. Spent time this morning googling forums of what to do! One suggestion was aiming a hairdryer at the door, which isn't easy in the middle of a car park! It makes me nervous going out as early as I do, in the cold.

I have been wearing 2 old swimsuits together... and decided to retire them both tonite. They got s u p e r s t r e t c h y. That leaves me with mere 3 suits .

I tried to increase stroke rate but ended up flailing with no technique. I've done better to learn long strokes. Most people have way higher stroke rate than me.

I remember struggling to bilateral breathe. Heck I could only dog-paddle before I was 25. I have come a super long way .

Orig - you're one up on me, I can't do crawl at all!

Corrigans - that sounds amazing and, frankly, more than a bit terrifying! Go you!

Hi Swimmers, lovely to hear everyone’s stories. I agree SkiGirl007 that bilateral breathing is the way to go if you can crack it.

I had my ocean race today and it was a cracker. I really enjoyed it and managed to follow through with the suggestions made during my lesson. I took 5 minutes off my PB! I came it at just over 1 hour and 1 minute for the 3.6k.

It was a bit of a fight at times but some race tactics helped. I was in the second wave (each wave was 400 swimmers, total of 1700 doing the event). I got into a pack and manage to draft off people for a lot of it. Drafting conserves quite a bit of energy, but can be tricky to get real right (and you risk having your head kicked in if you’re not careful!!).

I’m now celebrating with a G&T.

Had break through yesterday on bilateral breathing yesterday the drill from one of the you tube videos worked brilliantly using float sideways out front and reaching under it before pulling backf to breathe. I did 4 L with float drill then switched to a pull buoy then managed 2 more L with out a float was super as I’m tried several times before with no success.

Hi all!

I'm a very new swimmer - current DP is a beast at swimming and is currently teaching me breaststroke and front crawl. I can do about 22 laps now; which is slow for most but pretty good for me!

Hoping to use my new found passion for swimming to drop a few stone if I go a few times a week; and then I'll get better. Fingers crossed!

Oh coffee we are about the same speed, except I do that in crawl! Suspect it would take me double the time to do breaststroke!

I have only managed 1 swim this week - can't think why I couldn't go on Monday now. Ah well. I won't manage 2 next week either as it's 1/2 term.