Swam lengths today for the first time ever.

[TulipsInBloom1]

Oh my bloody god how exhausting! Mind ive not done any proper exercise (bar long walks) since dc2 arrived 4 years ago.

I managed 4 breast stroke, 4 back and 2 crawl. I thought I was going to die

How long until im blase abiut doing 50 lengths?

I normally think the first three times going back are hard and then it gets a lot easier.
Well done!

Well done. That's excellent :) how long is the pool? If you increase by say four lengths a time then you'll be up to fifty pretty quickly.

I love swimming. It's such good exercise. I'm always put off by all the faffing about in stuffy changing rooms before/after. But I really should just get over it.

Its a 25m pool so not great. Yeah the post swim faff is offputting. As is the price tbh. Wish our leisure centre did a pool only membership.

Also, how do I not get an achey neck with breast stroke? Does it just acclimatise?

Well done! I'm almost dead after 1 length width ...

I’ve started swimming recently, I’m 30 weeks pregnant and have been diagnosed with gestational diabetes so needed to change my diet and start exercising.

You’ll be surprised how quickly you can build up your stamina, I do 40 lengths, so 1km twice a week now, and although I feel knackered after it’s better than when I first started doing it! I only do beast stroke though as it’s the only stroke I know how to .
No idea about the neck ache, I hadn’t had a problem with it.

Achey neck. Keep your neck in line with shoulders whilst under the water as well as above. When doing crawl, turn your shoulders at the same angle as you lift your face out of the water. Hope that makes sense. Nice work OP.

I always thought swimming was a bit of a daft exercise to do- how hard could it be?

I tried lengths for the first time in the summer and thought I may die! I managed 14 and could barely move the next day, it's so bloody hard.

For context, I run about 15 miles a week on average, swimming is a killer!

Swimming is incredibly tough exercise, water is about 50 times denser than air, so just moving through it is hard work. I can do about 3 lengths before I’ve had enough, so well done!

Make sure you are breathing correctly, as this will make sure you feel less like dying. Once you are doing 50 lengths, use chocolate milk as a post-swim recovery drink- the nutrients are about the right balance.

I bloody love swimming, and we're lucky enough to have a 50m pool in our back garden (live overseas in a complex) - I used to swim for Surrey as a kid, can run miles but man alive the first time I got in that pool again I could barely do the full 50m without stopping!

Within a couple of swims I was pulling out 25-35 lengths so it really comes back quickly. And I noticed without fail, that swimming is for me, THE best toning exercise I do, without a doubt. Within two weeks of swimming every other day, my arms were leaner, my stomach was ripped and my inner thighs looked amazing.
And to top it off, my runs were amazingly easy because of the benefits swimming has on endurance.

I love swimming but hadn't swum lengths for years when started last year. I began with 20 lengths and over 3 months moved to 50 lengths and I can now swim 100 in just over an hour.
I was a county swimmer when younger so not terrible in the pool.