swimming

[feebs21]

Hi! I'm just starting a new job that gives me a free membership to the fitness center on grounds (I'm a school psychologist, what a great thing for our school to do, right??!!)...anyway, our fitness center is great and has a very nice pool. I would like to start incorporating swimming into my workout routines and wondered if anybody has any suggestions? Currently, I do Cathe's workouts and I run a couple of times a week, but with winter coming, I don't like running on a treadmill as much as outside, so I probably will not run that often. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

 

[feebs21]

I'm bumping my own post cuz I'd really love help with this

 

[DebbieH]

You might want to consider asking this in the Open Discussion Forum and possibly addressing your subject title to Aquajock. She is loaded with tons of excellent ideas as this is her field of expertise. Good Luck! Came back to say that I will do a search for you for one of the posts AJ replied to last week that had some great ideas. I'll subject title it to you.

Your-Friend-In-Fitness, DebbieH http://www.handykult.de/plaudersmilies.de/wavey.gif[/img] If You Get The Choice To Sit It Out Or Dance...I Hope You DANCE!!!

 

[feebs21]

thanks!!

 

[Aquajock]

Hi, Feebs! (cool screen name) I'm more of a non-drowner than a swimmer; my moniker comes from the fact that I teach aqua aerobics, which is quite different from traditional swimming. That being said, I'll presume you're skilled at several swimming strokes, so I'll make a few suggestions:

Create a 6-week swimming "rotation" that alternates every 6 weeks between steady-state lap swimming and interval-esque lap swimming incorporating sprint-laps followed by recovery laps;

Create a swimming session that alternates traditional, total-body strokes (front crawl, backstroke, breaststroke and 'fly) with kickboard drills that recruit only the legs (flutter kick is the most challenging; dolphin kick from the 'fly and whip- or frog-kick from breaststroking are good to do while anchored at the wall, as is flutter kicking);

Create a swimming session that alternates traditional horizontal strokes and vertical water-treading in the deep end of the pool;

Consider checking out whether your facility has aqua-joggers available for check-out and use in the pool; aqua-joggers are like floaty cummerbunds that you put on and keep your head above the waterline while you do running and long-lever drills. That is one handy piece of equipment, and can really expand your use of the pool as a training environment.

HTH -

A-Jock

 

[feebs21]

Thanks for the great suggestions. I tend to swim laps (about 1 mile at a time) when I do swim, however, that's not that often. I do swim for fun quite a bit in the lake during the summer, but this winter, I'd definitely like to lap swim a few days a week. I just wasn't sure if I could subsitute that for a cathe cardio workout or if I should do a cathe workout after I get home from swimming. Maybe I'll lap swim one day and the other day, I'd do interval swimming. I plan to continue doing a cathe rotation (usually I stick with whatever she posts for the month), but would like to swim too! I am definitely going to look into the aqua-joggers...that sounds like a lot of fun...mixing running with swimming!

Thanks again!