Swimming for fitness (part 3). Dive in!

Zazu44

Welcome. How much time do you have available for sport and what level are you at? Any limitations in what you can do (both yourself and pool availability etc).

...and I just looked at your profile and see you have 4 children.
Lovely, but I suspect you are pretty busy!

lljkk Apparently there are people that pack their kit the night before, or those who have a bag always ready to go.

At the age of 47 I have accepted that I am not one of those people nor will ever become one and it's a good feeling. The important stuff mostly gets done in my life.

Apart from the time I forgot my swimsuit I always check I have the important stuff so that I can actually swim (suit, goggles, hat), the rest of the stuff is just peripheral.

1K done on Friday late and will go at lunch time today.

Coffee&crochet: I forget somethign almost every time!
Bra, soap, hat, pants, flipflops... so annoying (cries). I can't seem to find a reliable system.

I heard a great phrase about swimming 'mindlessly' just bowling up and down the lanes... Garbage Yardage. Just sharing it :)

Thanks Skigirl that's great x

Hi zau have a look on here you may get some ideas swimfit.com/ our pool runs swimfit sessions with an instructor on the side too.

Hi looking for some advice please. I need to lose weight and tone up preferably in 3 months! I love swimming, am going to try running and need to get into a routine. Can anyone give me an exercise plan or tips with regards to swimming. Thanks 😊

Solid half hour of FC in pool after a 5k run. Then spent another hour in pool with kids so was rather hungry and prune like .

It's a bit chilly for full on naturism - I'll save that for the summer

Hope you're wearing trousers!!

Lengths done: 60
Underwear packed in swim bag: 0
Commando walks home: 1

Hello again! Managed 32 lengths this week, in 20 minutes, with 4 of those being crawl. Aiming to increase the proportion of crawl is good, I think.

Would adding in few lengths of backstroke or kicking on your back with a float help? It re-sets your pelvis to tip the other way. I’ve had years of back issues but doing frontcrawl hasn’t aggravated it much. Is your head looking down enough which flattens your back position? If I use a pull buoy I can feel it sometimes in my lower back.
My poor DD was made to do 200IM in training this week then get out pool and do 10press ups on pool side and back in the pool again carry on she’s only 10 and wasn’t impressed by this “training set” I thought it sounded core building....

Sorry, it was flippety who was doing a mix of crawl and breaststroke not you, bee …

I had lots of back pain during my first year of swimming too. Maybe I wasn’t rotating properly and had weak back/core. It’s much better now I’m stronger (spent some time at the gym and physio-led exercise classes). Breaststroke can be hard on the lumbar spine.

I maybe do one or two lengths of breaststroke per session singing the rest is front crawl.

I've read somewhere that breaststroke puts more pressure on your lower back. Maybe switch to doing more front crawl?

Ah yes Igot that would make sense. I'm not sure I can cope with 5km with that amount of discomfort but potentially it will get better presumably with more core exercise. Must start planking....

flippety I am the same. Sore lower back. I've assumed that it's because I have a weak core so I'm incorporating some core exercises into my week. Probably not enough but I'm hoping it will help given enough time. Any thoughts more experienced swimmers?

Just dropping in as you've dropped off "threads I'm on".
Pool currently empty. Annual maintenance. Hopefully it will be filled in Feb, and warm enough by March to swim again.

I managed 2km this morning - mix-up of breast stroke and crawl. I find I'm getting a really sore lower back whilst swimming - any suggestions?

After two weeks out of the pool due to illness I finally made it back today. Was feeling rather nervous but got a solid half hour of mostly FC done in the fast lane with 4 others but we were all being respectful & passing/waiting at the ends which was really good. I normally get bit nervous if it gets busy or people are fast but everyone was just friendly today which was great. It restored my faith in lovely swimmers again .

Oh that's annoying, Singing. I was that fast swimmer the other day, but it was just me and one other regular in the lane, so after a couple of awkward pass & catch-ups, we agreed to just split the lane and each took one side. But of course that only works if there's only 2 of you!

Get well soon, Crotchet. Impressed you made it for a swim if you aren't feeling quite yourself. I'm sure I'm making lots of the mistakes that were being addressed at your session, Corrigans.

I found myself feeling a bit annoyed in the pool today. There was a fast swimmer in the fast lane and she was doing drills. There was quite a long patch (±10 lengths at least) towards the end of my swim when she was going super-fast, overtaking my slowish backstroke (I alternate backstroke and front crawl) nearly at the end of the length but then stopping to check out what she was doing next / have a rest so all attempts of mine to encourage her to go in front of me were thwarted. I hated being overtaken on every other length – quite discouraging as I normally hold my own in the fast lane. Eventually she did speed off ahead of me but I only had about 4 lengths left by this point! Grrrr …