Swimming for fitness (part 3). Dive in!

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Ohh la la....2nd thread filled up. Hopefully this Subject line will make it easy enough to find.

Everyone welcome.

Flowery I wish mine did - I've read about it before and I'd love That!

How do you see how many steps yo uve done/heart rate etc? On your phone?

I'd really love the nudge if I've been inactive for an hour as I have potential artery disease and should keep moving!

My ray does the nudge as well. Also flashes and vibrates when i get emails, texts or phone calls.

Ooh bruffin I'll have to look into it.
I don't think I want to know about texts etc but I do want to be encouraged to move and would like to track exercise/sleep/heart rate!

I think my blood pressure is highish so I'm going to track that at the free doctors machjne with the hope that exercise and food will bring that down which hopefully will be another set of figures to watch go down and objectively say my health is improving.

Until I can afford/decide on a tracker though last night I set hourly vibrating alarms on my phone so I do at least get a reminder to move. I read somewhere at least 100 steps in every hour. At least 4000 steps a day even on a rest day and aiming for at 7500 plus most of the time.

Oops I so thought I was replying on the weight loss thread. embarrassed look.

You can turn off the notification.

Hi all, can I join you please? Just been reading the thread and found some helpful info. I've always enjoyed swimming but had quite a gap if a few years as wasn't easy to get to a pool. I joined a local uni pool at the beginning of the year anc have been trying to go twice a week, first thing on my way to work. I do 1k in 30 mins swimming alternate lengths crawl and breast stroke. I slacked of a bit around Easter but getting back to it. I'm trying to loose weight and get fitter, plus I live swimming. I also try and get to thework gym a couple of lunch times and do a yoga and Pilates class each week. So if I can keep it all up I should get some good results! Hopefully being in here will help with motivation. I have to leave the house at 6.10am to fit the swim in so sometimes it's hard!

I'd like to speed up and improve my technique and was interested to read about bilateral breathing. Are there any good tips or web resources I could check out about this? Thanks.

I do aqua as well Cumberlover
Got up this morning early for the first time and did 72. Wish i had realised as i would have done extra 8 for 2k.

Welcome cumberlover I found doing some drills with a float out front useful for practicing F.C. breathing. You tube effortless swimming has some good videos which helped me.

Didn’t want to go but got in the pool last night as DD was training and the lane was empty so had nothing to lose and had gd non-stop 45mins swim mostly FC. My body needed it I think even if my mind didn’t want to initially do it

Trying to do some longer sessions in preparation for the 2.5k swim in July. I did 3k yesterday and today in just under an hour. Aiming for less than 50 mins for the 2.5k so that seems to be on track.

Just reporting a swim yesterday. I have had to lower my goal to one swim a week for the time being. That's OK though.

Did 1km for the first time yesterday (1km 250m) so so chuffed!

Does anyone have any goggle recommendations please? I'm very shortsighted so currently swimming in my glasses but I need to switch to contacts and goggles because I think it's seriously affecting my 'form' (is that the word?) as I'm trying not to wash my glasses off!

I'm also thinking of getting a kickboard if there's anything special about them I should know?

Wow thats fast Tiz!

Well done WeeSpike on the 1k! Ive only been swimming (again) a few months and found my stamina has really increased .

I have amazing prescription goggles that have been lifechangong. Quite literally... im +/- whatever it is 10 with astigmatism and was scared of not seeing people in lanes. Actually seeing bubbles underwater from the first time was trippy!!

Anyway specsavers etc do off the shelf goggles at + whole numbers for i think 30/40 pounds but my prescription is so weird. Mine cost about 120 I think but when i realised id be swimming 3 x a week its been worth it in my case. Ill go find the website.

Ah prescription swimming goggles . Co.uk.

They have some at £16 when i looked. You can contact them with your prescription and they can advise. They can telll you the "next best thing" for "good enough " swimming which is what i ahd for a while so i wasnt blind.

I dont think contacts in the pool is a good idea... (horror stories about chlorine ans contacts sticking to eyes).

You can get prescriotion goggles if you dont want to wear contacts.

I prefer the swim mask goggles like the aquasphere vista or speedo rift (still that someone nicked my rifts) i find them more comfortable.
Had class today which was breaststroke. Had fun doing handstands in the water at the end of the lesson. At 55 felt like a little kid again.
Dd passed her American Red Cross WSI which apparently means she can teach swimming at the camp she is at for summer. Not sure how it translates to uk qualification, would be a good way of earning while she is at uni.

Well done Bruffin daughter! My 9 year old does rookie lifeguards and has decided it would make a good summer job when shes older. Although its a long way off yet so who knows!

Whats your class like? I might eventually venture into asking if our pool does classes for adults that can swim reasonably okay but not super fast...in my head i assumed it was all beginners or proper club swimming.

Thanks for the recommendations - my prescription changes lots every 2 years so can't justify proper prescription goggles but 16 quid is doable!

I've swum in contacts before with no issues (sea and pool) but not proper swimming. I don't think it's recommended as such but they are disposable ones and the optician said if I swim in them I need to take them out straight away, which is what I would do. Although ideally the goggles would stop the pool water touching them.

I've no experience of goggles after my cousin told me they would make a seal and pull my eyeball out when I took them off so it's a bit bewildering!

Scaredpad
Both DS and Dd did their bronze medallion and then went on to NPLQ at 16.
Ds 22 worked from 16 and in uni as a lifeguard , well worth the price of the course.
Dd 20 didnt use her NPLQ so it ran out after 2 years. The took her on for Camp America as a lifeguard and first week she did the american nplq and 2nd week she did the WSI. She is away until September then off to uni

Fab kids :) Such a useful skill. Hopefully my daughter will do similar but 16 seems so far off. I guess it will come sooner than i think 😓

The class i go to is an Adult swim and stamina class. We have all levels from complete beginners to 3 of us who are advanced with 2 teachers.
Today we did warm up of
6 frontcrawl
6 backstroke
6 breaststroke
Then the teacher we had today likes us to do 2 butterfly, but i chickened out and only did the dolphin kick.
Then each week we concentrate on one stroke, this week was breastroke. We do lots of drills ie legs only front, legs only back. Float using one arm etc then put stroke back together and finish off with full stroke. The usually 5 or 10 minutes doing fun stuff like diving, floays or sculling.
Ive been going 15 years and my teachers taught my dc to swim as babies.

That sounds brilliant. I will get brave and investigate when im less self conscious about my size !

I used to love swim lessons as a kid and i feel i need someone to tell me what to do with floats /stroke correction as Ive forgotten most of it. Ill see what they do!

Decathlon also do off the shelf prescription goggles, you buy a frame and then separate left and right lenses to clip in. No actual experience but they looked ok.

I'm only -4 so manage without prescription goggles, luckily the timing clock is big enough that I can see it even from 50m away.

54 lengths today. I currently try to do 40 in 30mins ( 31/32 today) and then gently swim a bit.

I might see if i can swim a bit slower but try and swim a mile next week just for fun!

I usually do 10 lengths front crawl/10 butterfly and just alternate and then slow backstroke for 10 at the end. I have no idea about floats or anything.

I asked about classes but the lady wasnt 100% sure. It seems they vary from water confidence and up but all on one night which would be tricky for me. I don't exactly know where I'd fall. Theyd cost 25 pounds a month on top of my membership though.

There's also a one hour slot included in my membership but at 6oclock and she wasnt entirely sure what it was! I dont want to turn u p and find its all super fast swimmers. Im also a reciprocal member at another pool so may see if they do anything.

If im having to pay on top anyway i could look elsewhere too i guess. I think id like some technique guidance or even just soemthing to vary what I do.

Hello Flowery. I use Swimtag.

Welcome Cumber.

Great time Tiz. I do 2km in just under 40 mins (usually 39min something) but I've never stuck at it for 1km more!

Another vote here for prescriptionswimminggoggles.co.uk - they have transformed my enjoyment of swimming! Plus you can order each eye in a different strength and then you just snap all the pieces together.

Scared Im paying £52 for 6 weeks on top of my membership of £45 a month, that is a council run leisure centre.