Swimming Anaerobically - am I Overdoing It? (Or is my watch wrong?)

[ShinyMe]

I've been swimming regularly for about 4 months now, and over the summer I wasn't working, so swam about 4-5 times a week. I'm nearly 50 and am overweight and pretty unfit (although I have dropped 2 stone and am much fitter than I was a few months ago) and am on medication for slightly raised blood pressure (this has also dropped as I've lost weight).

Over the last couple of weeks, my watch tracker is telling me that my swims are about 20-30 minutes in the aerobic zone, and another 20 minutes or so in the anaerobic zone. It also tells me that I should only be going into anaerobic for "short bursts, once or twice a week".

Is it likely to be harmful that I'm going into anaerobic for so long while I'm swimming? I have been trying to push myself more and go faster, but I do just plough up and down doing breaststroke, faster than some, but slower than many, fairly steadily. I get out of breath, but not massively so, and am not panting and gasping when I stop. I do about 20-30 lengths without stopping (25m pool) for a rest. I don't want to have a heart attack or something though! I don't feel dead exhausted when I finish, just a little puffed, and my breathing goes back to normal by the time I've had a shower and dried off.

Or could my watch be wrong, and I'm actually not going anywhere near that high a heart rate when I'm swimming, and I'm perhaps just in the aerobic zone? I have been exercising quite a bit over the summer, often doing 45 minutes or so in the gym on weights and then having a swim afterwards, so I am getting fitter...

anaerobic would leave you gasping, basically. Trust how you feel in preference to a wrist tracker

What does it say your heart rate reaches while swimming?

What tracker are you using?

Maybe it's because I'm breathing out on every stroke perhaps? Maybe I should try every other stroke! My breaths do get quicker and more pronounced, but I don't think I'm gasping!

It's a Samsung Galaxy Active 2. Just checked the rates. It says my -anaerobic band is 137-153, and aerobic is 120-136. Today apparently I was 64% in anaerobic and 25% in aerobic, with my average heart rate at 136 and the highest at 152 (but that was momentary).

The heart rates sound plausible just poorly described (unless you've omitted to tell us that you're over 80 )

I mainly run and do some swimming; 136 to 152 is an elevated heart rate and your breathing rate would affect conversation, but you wouldn't be panting hard in anaerobic respiration and gasping to catch your breath. It would be very obvious in swimming too. I only reach that state on steep hills or at the sprint finish of a race. It's not something you sustain for long periods of the exercise.

So you're 49...
I used to wildly exceed what heart rate monitor (polar chest strap) should I do (not swimming but other sports, with different thresholds), but I was fine, not killing myself, not full of sore muscles afterwards. The suggested bands are suggestions not individually calculated for you.

I don't want chlorine destroying my watch but might wear it this week, will tell you what it says about my HR while in the pool.

Slightly off subject I notice you use the Activ 2, how else have you found it for swimming. How long have you had it, as i have some reviews that say although it has the swim ap, water damage is not covered under the warranty
My gear pro fit 2 which i have had a few years died yesterday after a 45 minute swim and i am looking to replace it
My heart rate was max for most of it, but like you i was doing breast stroke and breathing every stroke. It is a 50 metre pool but i was not stopping at the end of the length and did 1k in the end. Last week did 1.5k. Im just really getting back into after lockdown

My HR was 65-77% of my max HR today while swimming, says the Charge2. I only do front crawl. That was 1500m in 50 minutes, much of which time is fiddling with goggles.

@bruffin

Slightly off subject I notice you use the Activ 2, how else have you found it for swimming. How long have you had it, as i have some reviews that say although it has the swim ap, water damage is not covered under the warranty My gear pro fit 2 which i have had a few years died yesterday after a 45 minute swim and i am looking to replace it My heart rate was max for most of it, but like you i was doing breast stroke and breathing every stroke. It is a 50 metre pool but i was not stopping at the end of the length and did 1k in the end. Last week did 1.5k. Im just really getting back into after lockdown

I like it, I think. I have nothing to compare it to though, apart from a very old fitbit years ago which I hated. I've had mine about 4 months. I have noticed this week that the battery seems to be draining more quickly, which is annoying.

I use my Garmin with wrist based HR monitoring for swimming but have never really took much notice of HR zones until you mentioned it.
Tonight I swam 2300m in 58 min (not including stops but they were minimal) and that’s comfortable, mostly breastroke (some crawl but I’m still building up stamina on that) pace for me. My watch reckons 39% in zone 2 HR (112-129) and 59% zone 3 aerobic (130-148). By comparison, if I was doing cardio activity such as running I’d struggle to keep it down in zone 3 and would be in zone 4 for a slow steady run and zone 5 for speed work.

Not sure Emma's zones respect fact that Exercise zones for swimming are different from running because of the prone position, being supported in water. You can't use same zone boundaries for swimming as activity you do when exercising on your feet.

The zones change though, don't they, depending on your age? I'm 49, and Samsung's zones are called
maximum - zone 5 - 90-100% of age maximum, for me = 154-171
anaerobic - zone 4 - 80-90% of max, for me = 137-153
aerobic - zone 3 - 70-80% of max, for me = 120-136
weight control - zone 2 - 60-70% of max, for me = 103-119
low - zone 1 - 50-60% of max, for me = 85-102

I'm guessing Emma is much younger than me!

That's the first time I'd heard about swimming being different though, but it does make sense. I swam without my watch today and did 60 lengths in 40 minutes, and felt that my breathing was fastish, and I was tired at the end and a little out of breath, but not unbearably so, and not anywhere near the way I am when I walk up 7 flights of stairs to the office.

HR monitors especially optical are notoriously unreliable for swimming. So I wouldn't pay any attention to what HR your watch says you are doing and instead think about the effort that you are expending instead. If your effort is anaerobic it would be hard and sustained for a long period or extremely hard like sprints for a short period. When you stop and rest you would be panting for breath.

I’m just going off what my watch says but I’d be sceptical of it being accurate in water as I know it’s not always great when sweaty because I wear a chest strap HR monitor for land based activity. It was set to swim activity, I’ll have to check if the zones are different to cardio activity zones. I’m not that many years younger than you if you’re nearly 50!