Swimming for exercise, am I doing it wrong?

[Thebloodynine]

I needed to do something to get myself moving as I am overweight but also started getting burn out from work and didn’t do anything for my mental health. Used to love swimming so have started that again, but I don’t know if i’m wasting my time. So advice from anyone who swam to lose weight please!

I have a shoulder injury from years ago which limits how fast I can swim. They’ve done all they can for it, it is what it is and won’t get any better without surgery (which comes with a 50:50 chance of helping or having no affect but months of recovery) so, I’m never going to swim any faster and I feel a bit like i’m just wasting my time and this won’t help with weight loss or fitness if I can’t get my heart rate up more.

I’ve been swimming a mile every weekday, which is about 1600 meters and it takes me around 45/50 minutes. I’ve been told that’s slow but even if I get fitter and stronger, my shoulder can’t take any more so am I wasting my time or doing this wrong? How long before I see some kind if change in my body!?

Eughhh ignore the man. What an idiot! You’re doing great!

FWIW, when I was losing weight I started swimming and was doing similar to you. I got quite bored and started doing aqua aerobics instead, is that something you might consider? I found it SO much more fun than swimming lengths and not more strenuous at all, and my watch told me it burned double the calories of swimming up and down 😂

A mile every weekday in that time is amazing! You're clearly very strong and very fit if it's not increasing heart rate. It must be great strength and toning though.

Definitely don't think about cycling if you have a bad shoulder (unless you're upright on a ladies bike with basket and bell!).

That's faster than I can do a mile! And I find swimming amazing for stress and relaxing after work. Real bonus that it helps you cut out the snacking.

I don't go as often as I should, but I'm going to try to shake up my schedule to get there more often now I've read this.

The absolute best swimming advice I can give you is to ignore random blokes!

I have been on a long running swimming thread which is lovely and there is some great advice from people of all abilities and speeds! It's not active at the moment but jumps into life every now and again and I'm sure it would of you posted! I'll try and find the link.

That’s not slow OP!
I swim 60 lengths in 40 mins and I’m a medium lane swimmer.

Agree that it’s good all round exercise but doesn’t get your heart rate up unless I do sprints. I found couch 2 5k good for everything too and feel I don’t really need to think about calories because I’m busy exercising 😁

I'm not a fast swimmer at all, but if I stick at it for a period of time I like the results I see in my arms! Dragging your body weight through water is good exercise.

Agreed, that's not slow! I had lessons to improve my stroke and the coach actually recommended often swimming at about 70% of your max speed to be more mindful of your stroke efficiency and your breathing. So there random blokes...

To me that’s incredibly impressive!

I am a terribly slow inefficient swimmer although I’m trying to improve. I just do it at the end of a workout for a few lengths because I enjoy it and I do want to get better at it! I’m so impressed with anyone who can swim long distance, it’s my dream.

Well done and ignore the random idiot!

Would it help to do some of your lengths with a board? You could kick like hell to get your heart rate up but keep your shoulder stable.

A random man?? Who prob knows fa about swimming and just talks shit. Stick to what you are doing. Get one of those floats that you hold between your knees and do arm drills. You are doing non weight bearing resistance exercise and getting your heart working. You won't lose weight by swimming that will include diet but swimming a mile a day is a great workout. Have a look on YouTube at swimming drills or coaching tips Ignore CFs loitering about in the pool.

Ignore the pool wanker.
I'm a competitive (masters) swimmer in my late 50s and I can tell you you're swimming pace is very, very good for a leisure swimmer.
I also have a shoulder problem- arthritis- so I can't train with as much intensity as I would like, for as long as I would like. I would suggest that you vary your sessions- once a week try a 'distance' set where you try and keep swimmjng continuously for an hour at the best rate you can manage. Then, another session, after a warm up, do a more HIIT style- i.e. 20 sets of 2 lengths at maximum effort but with a good rest inbetween. This type of session is not about counting metres- it will get your heart rate up without wearing out your shoulder. It also provides variety.
For my shoulder, I do not use paddles. It puts too much strain on, but I love using training fins- great fun and more variety. And as PO says, rest your shoulder by doing lots of legs only with a kickboard.
But as everyone else says, it's not much help at all with weight loss. But it's great for physical and mental health/ mood/ wellbeing etc - and that can help give you the mental boost/ discipline/ headspace to work on your healthy eating.

If you’re in a gym just watch TV on your phone

Thank you, that’s very useful and will probably help stop it from getting monotonous, and @SheridansPortSalut as well; I’ve ordered a kick board!

I know diet is the main thing with weight loss, but for my fried brain and just for fitness, I thought it was important to get a consistent exercise routine and just wanted to check this wasn’t a total waste of time! But it’s the best exercise thing I’ve found for feeling good after, so I’ll keep it up and not worry so much about speed.

OP you swim a lot faster than me. I am not even injured. I get overtaken by people doing breaststroke when I am doing front crawl.

I love swimming to clear my head. Cycling is great too especially as it isn't weight bearing. Any exercise is good, but variety really helps.

Don’t listen to random men would be my advice! I am the slowest swimmer ever but I love it and the breathing I have to do to swim calms me down so it’s ace for my mental health. I do always notice it pulls in my stomach so I reckon it’s a very good exercise.

Weight bearing is good to increase bone density so some form of weight training there. Never stops this health thing.

I had a really bad shoulder injury (broke neck of humerus in four places), and lost a lot of mobility. After 18 months I still had very limited movement, so I started swimming regularly. I found that alternating lengths doing breaststroke then backstroke was very effective for gently pushing shoulder mobility, and after about six months, I had regained the full range of movement in my shoulder.

The calories burn might not be huge but the benefits from regular movement will be, even if you don't see visible results quickly. I'd rather have thought swimming would be good for toning rather than losing weight? Must be a reason they talk about a swimmers build!
And any exercise you enjoy is worth much more than forcing yourself to do something you hate as you just won't stick it.
That said, you could maybe work eg 20 minutes of gym time in before you get in the pool if you want to for a more rounded exercise plan. If you do the 2 together it might help make it a habit.

Moving is better than not moving.

Ooh that’s much faster than me - I’m what you call slow. I’ve not even managed 40 lengths in an hour yet. I’ve only been going once a week, I think I should probably go more regularly.

I’m a slow swimmer, and it’s worse now I’ve lost a lot of weight because I’m now not naturally bouyant. I have to use a lot of energy just to stay afloat in addition to the work I have to do to move forwards. After 45 mins, I’ve done about 800m and am utterly exhausted, so I am in awe of the OP’s daily mile! I’m not unfit - four times a week, I do two hours in the gym, including 40 mins on the rowing machine at level 10, 26 strokes a minute, and my heart rate doesn’t even go into the peak zone, and then 40 mins elliptical. But swimming is a whole different level of challenge for me.

I highly recommend swim headphones, both for helping pass the time and for avoiding conversations with annoying random men 😉

Ps I swim about a mile in an hour so you are faster than me.

I'm genuinely shocked at all those saying it's not that great for weightloss! I thought swimming was a well know high calorie burner.

I swim a mile in a bit longer than you OP - more like just shy of an hour. I was doing this regularly a couple of years ago and my apple watch showed a calorie burn of 800-900 calories.

I swim 2km 3x a week. My Fitbit says calorie burn is approx 270-280. That's just a bit more than a Twix- for approx an hour's hard work.

Omg! Random man - I hate him. Don't listen to him, he always talks rubbish.

If you enjoy swimming, keep going.
If in ten years time you can look back and have been consistently swimming you will be SO much better for it.