To AquaJock /Lap Swimmers: Advice on Swimming for Cardio

Lynn M.

Lynn M.

Cathlete
Hi Aquajock (and any lap swimmers out there):

I am occasional poster on this board and have been a fellow Catheite for years. I have always enjoyed reading your informative and witty replies and am wondering if you could answer a few questions for me in regard to swim workouts.

I just joined a gym with a lap pool and have decided to incorporate lap swimming as one my cardio workouts during my week's rotation. I am a pretty strong swimmer ( certified diver, swim team back in grade school) so I am pretty comfortable in the water but haven't done laps in many many years. I did my first day of swimming yesterday and after completing 35 minutes of swimming I was wondering if you could advise me on the following things:

1. Which stroke incorporates the most muscle recruitment? Or is better to just switch between the various styles as I feel like it?

2. In front crawl, should I work on switching sides for breathing, or is it OK to continually get your air on one side?

3. Any advice on goggles that don't leak? (After my swim yesterday, my eyes looked like I was an extra for a Cheech and Chong movie.!)

4. For strength training, I am currently on a one bodypart/day rotation. Which bodypart do you suggest I pair with the day I do my swims? I paired a leg strength workout in the AM yesterday with my PM swim, but am open to any recommendations.

5.As I was swimming yesterday, I felt good and felt like I was not overdoing it. However, when I got out of the pool, I was kind of shaky, and weak. Is there any phenomenon at work here other than just fatigue and probably a bit of dehydration that occurred that I wasn't prepared for?

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and appreciate any advice you may have for me!

Take care, Lynn M.
 
RE: To AquaJock /Lap Swimmers: Advice on Swimming for C...

Lynn, I'm a sporadic lap swimmer but think I can help on your 3rd question.

Get a swim mask. It's not as large as a snorkling mask but I've had much better luck with a mask compared to goggles.

But, a fitness friend of mine who is a Masters Swimmer, swears on youth goggles. For most women, the fit is much better. She swears (actually she never swears) by the spit method. Spit or not, but get the mask/goggles wet & press them into your face before you hit the water.

FYI, Acquajock will claim to have no expertise in lap swimming, & then dispense a treasure chest of advice.

Debra
 
Hi Lynn! It's been a few years since I did fitness swimming, but it's been one of my favourite forms of exercise for a lot of years.

In terms of workouts, Jane Katz has a book called "Swimming for Total Fitness" that has been my swimming bible. She has tons of form guidance on all the strokes, and then the bulk of the book contains workouts. They range in length from 500m (beginner) up to about 3000m (super advanced). She incorporates interval training, pyramids, steady-long-distance, and just about any other form of training you can think of, combined with using all of the strokes. Individual medleys are used alot. She also includes drill workouts to help you improve your strokes and your kicking power. If you want ideas about fitness swimming workouts, this is the book for you. You will have so many workouts to choose from, you will never get bored.

To answer your questions,

1. I suggest you switch. Your joints will thank you for it. The butterfly and the front crawl incorporate the most muscle recruitment, I think, but I'm not a physiological expert. This is just my personal experience.

2. Switch sides. You will create a muscle imbalance if you don't. If you can switch every third stroke, that is ideal. Katz includes some 100m training laps that have you switch every third stroke, then fifth, then seventh, then every second stroke. It's a terrifically effective way to improve your aerobic capacity. And if you can hold your breath for a really long time, you can even end up with a bit of a buzz (but that's probably not recommended LOL).

3. Can't talk about specific goggles, but what I found helped was by making sure both my face and the goggle lips were wet; a better suction was created. I also swore by the anti-fog spit method :)

4. I never tried pairing strength training with swimming, on the same day, but it is logical to do legs that day. Katz may address this in her book, but I wasn't into strength training at the time, and never paid that kind of info much attention.

5. I'm not sure why you felt that way. Maybe you were not breathing frequently enough, or deeply enough? Regarding dehydration, I always kept a water bottle at one end and would take a squirt every time I stopped. You can underestimate your thirst when you're swimming, so you have to top up even if you don't feel thirsty.

Gosh, Lynn, you've made me relive some great workouts! I adored swimming, and only stopped because getting to a pool on a regular basis, was both expensive and time-consuming. That's when I turned to Cathe's home workouts, and the rest is history :) You make me want to get back in the water, though. Swimming intervals are really fun.

I'm happy to give more details about anything, if you have more questions. Check out Jane Katz's book. There are other fitness swimming books in the stores, but hers always suited me the best. You might also search some online swimming sites; I've seen workouts posted on those in the past, but they were usually really advanced.

Cheers,
Sandra
 
What Fiddlefit said,

Also consider incorporating flutter and whip-kick driils into your overall lap swimming session; swimming is overwhelmingly an upper-body activity, and kickboard drills isolate the legs and add a more meaningful cardio component.

Also consider incorporating treadwater drills and exploring an aquajogging workout (more on that tomorrow if you're still interested - I'm typing this out on a laptop model at Best Buy and people are getting pissed).

Also consider investing in a pair of resistance mitts to add some oomph to your strokes - Speedo is best.

And as Debra suggested, I'm more of a non-drowner than a swimmer. But this oughtta get you started.

A-Jocki
 
Hi everybody-

Wow, thanks so much for all of the very informative suggestions!! I will definitely be incorporating them into my swim this week.

I also think I will pick up Jane Katz's book. I might as well make sure my form is good right from the start. Like any other excercise, I am sure its imperative to have great form.

Also, the mask idea is a good idea too. Unfortunately mine isn't seeing too much action w/ my diving lately, being a Michigan resident!

Aquajock, you mentioned resistance mitts... are they more like swimfins for your hands, or as the name suggests, resistance to increase the effort for the upper body movement. Can you use them for swimming laps?

Thanks again everybody!!

Take care, Lynn M.
 
Hi, Lynn! Resistance mitts are just that, mitts for your hands that look (and feel) like clumsy gloves, rather than fins for the hands. You can use them for swimming laps, and are a good workload alternator. Try using them for a few laps, then taking them off for a few laps, to keep the body shock thing going.

Again, I prefer Speedo mitts over other brands, because they have better cloth drag on the upper part. Kiefer also sells a good brand. There are also mitts with lesser amounts of resistance, including cloth and rubber mitts that are out there.

a-Jock
 
Hi Aquajock..

Thanks for the reply and info!!! You've got me thinking now about a swim workout already...alternating kickboard drills with resistant mitt laps. Talk about working the whole body!!

Thanks again and take care, Lynn M.
 
Hi Lynn, me again. I'm thrilled that you're going to pick up Katz's book. I consider her Cathe-for-the-pool :) In her book, she details many different kinds of skill drills, using the mitts and kickboard that Aquajock mentioned, as well as a buoy that goes between your thighs and keeps your lower body afloat. When using the buoy, you do not do any kicking at all; the idea is to neutralize the lower body and make your upper body do all the work. When you use the buoys with the mitts, you put a lot of resistance on the upper body, and you really work the muscles hard. This kind of work could easily substitute for upper body weight training. And it works the core very hard.

I swam in the pre-mitt era, and used their predecessors: hand paddles. These are rectangular plastic boards that strap to your hands. The same effect is achieved. Using the mitts or the paddles are excellent for helping you find any weaknesses in your strokes. However, a poor stroke could create joint problems, just like lifting weights with poor form will, so pay very close attention to your form when using them, and if your shoulder starts to feel aggravated, cut back on using them, focus on your form, and gradually increased their use again.

Can you do flip-turns at the wall yet? Those are fun, but if you're not up to that yet, Katz describes it very well in her book, but also tells you how to appropriately turn at the wall without doing the flip. It's a different kind of turn for each stroke.

Please update me on your progress periodically. I honestly love fitness swimming, and would do it again if it was more feasible to include in my lifestyle.

Cheers,
Sandra
 
You guys are making me want to swim some. I tend to avoid it because yes, it is inconvenient and expensive, but there is a community center where I can swim for $3 a time. I think I hate sharing lanes with people who often swim waaaaay tooooooo slow for the lane they select, or "little old ladies" with flowery caps doing some mutated breast stroke, with their legs going way into neighboring lanes, who are in the next lane and kick me. AAAAAAGHH! And then there is the utterly wimpy reality that I do not like to get into cold water.

I can run if the temperature is 10 below, but no cold water please. I believer this is one of the disadvantages of low body fat! :eek:

But I really should do this more. It is so good for me, such great crosstraining, so easy on the knees. Sigh.
 
Hi there girls-

Sandra, thanks for the info. I am glad to hear the mitts work the core as well as lower and upper body!! (Every bit helps!)
I can do flip turns, and you are right, they are fun! When I swam last week, it took me a while to synchronize my breathing when doing one, but I eventually figured it out. I will keep you posted on my progress and thanks so much for the support! :)

Mogambo, you are funny! I am on board with the "cold water" thing. That is one thing I am a baby about...I'll run in 25 degree weather, but a cold pool makes me want to cry. I believe you said you were a diver in earlier posts as well. I am sure you can relate to those cold ocean jaunts.. kind of takes some of the fun out of it!!

Take care, Lynn M.
 
To Lynn re cold water -

As I'm sure you are grudgingly aware, you need cold water (between 82 and 85 degrees farenheit, no higher) for proper athletic work in the water. Anything warmer than that and you overheat like a little boiled egg, and it seriously damages your performance not to mention your body systems.

Cold water, though, CAN be a great motivator to work hard, again especially when recruiting the large leg and glute muscles - all that muscle contraction creates all that friction which creates all that awesome core temperature elevation.

A-Jock
 
RE: To AquaJock /Lap Swimmers: Advice on Swimming for C...

Hi
My DD swims 6 days a week, 2 hours a day. Granted she has the advantage of youth (12 1/2 y.o.) but she has such amazing posture, beautiful muscles in her shoulders and the tiniest butt and hips. A size zero falls off her hips. (sigh) She's 5'3" and still growing. She also can eat 6 slices of pizza while wearing her tiny suit w/ no worries. I think she must also have a fast metabolism (ya think?!) She did KPC w/ me and enjoyed it last week. I think swimming is an incredible w.o. if you can do it well. I can't do that and she spends her time correcting my form when I swim laps which gets alittle frustrating for me. She uses paddles but I'm going to ask the coach what he thinks of those mitts. The paddles break over time as the rubber bands wear out. ;) /karen
 
Yes, Annette, I am super motivated to generate all that heat once I get in there, and I do understand why it has to be cool, but I still hate getting in!!

I do remember a dive in California at Catalina Island. Water was 60 on the surface, 52 at 40 feet. We were all wearing 7 mm wetsuits, hoods, gloves, but when we all jumped in and were on the surface you could hear a chorus of "GGGGGGGGGGG!!!" as we all groaned through our regulators as the cold water first went into our wetsuits. Ack!

Beautiful beautiful diving with kelp forests, sea lions, sharks, garibaldis, sea urchins. I loved it. But never again! It's the Caribbean for me.
 
Hey A-jock-

Actually, I didn't know that 82-85 F was where the temp should be for swim work. But it makes sense esp if you you compare it to how tough it would be to try and run in 86F and higher weather outside. (yuck)

Sigh..cold water and no aromatherapy bubbles, maybe I need to reconsider this swim thing! ;)

Lynn M
 
RE: To AquaJock /Lap Swimmers: Advice on Swimming for C...

Hi Karen-

That is great your daughter is a swimmer! I swam competitively from age 10-12 and then my family moved so I had to stop. Its such a great sport, and the nice thing is that its so much easier on their still developing bodies..you don't hear about quite as many problems with swimmers and their injuries as you do w/ basketball, football, soccer players.

I am not sure that one day of swimming/week will help that much for givig me a swimmer's body..I wish, though.. I am a pear, so anything to widen that v-taper is a win-win in my world!!

I really am enjoying the "no impact" part about the swim. Right now I am doing alot of running, step, and kickboxing as my cardio..this swim day is going to be such a great alternative to that!

Take care, Lynn M.
 
RE: To AquaJock /Lap Swimmers: Advice on Swimming for C...

Oh, the cold water situation! Yeah, I don't miss that! Here's how I handled it, if you can stand a few more suggestions:

I used to have to be out the door at 5:30am to swim at six. In the middle of winter, this meant that it was dark, snowy, with an average temperature of -20C (-4F). I gotta say that crawling out of a warm bed, scraping the ice and snow off the car, and driving to the pool, knowing I was next going to be getting into a pool of cold water was a very difficult thing to face.

At our gyms, we're always told to shower before getting into the pools. So I would put my suit on and turn on the shower - warm! I would soak myself with that lovely warm water, then turn the temp down a teensy tad, and soak myself again. I would continue to turn the temp lower in small increments, until it was bonafide cold and I couldn't tolerate it any more. By time I walked from the showers to the pool, I was freezing, and the thing I wanted to do more than anything else in the world was jump into that pool of water. I was so bloomin' cold, that the pool's temp felt like a warm bath.

Wearing a swim cap will also make you feel warmer.

Sandra
 
RE: To AquaJock /Lap Swimmers: Advice on Swimming for C...

I use the shower trick, too--I start out warm and then make it cold so that it's not a shock to get into the pool. I also grab a kickboard and warm up with a couple of laps that way--by the second lap, I'm toasty.
 
RE: To AquaJock /Lap Swimmers: Advice on Swimming for C...

I just jump in and tear off for the other side like my life depends on it. By the time I get there, I'm warm, then I slow down to a pace I can hold for a mile, and just count down the laps.
 
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