Exercise! - Swimming

Hello All!

I have been gone for a while but I am trying to motivate myself to lose weight again. I lost nearly 30 pounds a couple years ago only to gain it all back plus a couple additional pounds.

Here is my question. I started swimming this week at a local gym. Last night I did 72 laps which is just over a mile! My muscles in my arms and neck hurt but I have been pushing through. I have been researching the benefits of swimming and I don't really like what I have been reading! It doesn't look like swimming is a very good exercise for weight loss!!! Should I keep swimming all together? I plan on doing some cardio and weight lifting too. Is swimming worth it? What are the benefits if it's not really going to help me lose weight?

Thanks for your help.

Silversparkle....

1. your avatar is ADORABLE... totally made me smile
2. Way to go on 72 laps!!! Amazing!!!
3. I think the most important thing to keep in mind is how does swimming make YOU feel?? Do you feel great? Do you feel like you got a great weorkout in? Do you feel ravenous after you swim? If it makes you feel good - then don't stop... Swimming is good for you and a tough work out!!! Plus it doesn't have the risks of injury like other activities...

Keep up the good work... Don't let all the articles be your gauge.. YOU are your best gauge.

When I started swimming last fall, I was having neck pain, too. But I think I was not relaxed when I started out. That has gone away now.

However, I did do something to my right shoulder, which I have just seen an orthopedic doctor for. He told me to stay away from freestyle and concentrate on breast and back strokes. So that's what I am doing.

I LOVE swimming!

Swimming accelerates the heart, strengthens the lungs, and tones the arms. I think it is a wonderful exercise, especially if you have a significant amount of weight to lose as it helps take some of the strain off of joints.

I think the overall issue with swimming is hunger afterwards. I did a quick look online and the point made was that with unrestricted diets, swimmers gained more weight. The key points were that they ate more after a swimming workout in colder water. The studies I saw were 20C/68F water as well, with none being done in heated pools.

I've been doing most of my exercise on the treadmill, and to some extent it's harder to get my heart rate as high in the pool. However, it puts a lot less stress on my knees, so I'll be doing more of it as the weather gets warmer. I've had a little pain in my shoulder, but I've been lifting weights as well, so I can't pin down if it's the weights or the swimming. I suspect it's more likely the combination of the two. However, with any exercise program, doing different types of exercise may be more beneficial.

I'd suggest doing a mix of cardio, strength training, and swimming. The one thing I like about the swimming is that it feels more like fun than exercise. Good luck.

Not that I am an expert, but I think swimming is WONDERFUL for weight loss. I wish I had a closer access to a pool. I used to swim once a week and I was getting up at the ungodly 5:30 am to hit the pool at 6:00 am (the pool opened at 6 am) and I swam 45 minutes (lanes).
I had beautifully toned arms and I also felt how swimming toned my abdominal area. It is a low impact exercise, very healthy for your heart. True, afterwards, I treated myself to a bagel with cream cheese from Tim Horton's (I do get very hungry after swimming) but that was years ago when I was not mindful of what I was eating. I could have chosen something healthier, of course. But if I had access to the same pool now (I moved) I would be still swimming. Sometimes I think I should start going there again, but it is a long drive across town, then I have to return home, and then back to work again not too far from the pool (I have dogs so I cannot extend the time when I am not at home beyond the regular work hours).

Thanks for all the great feedback! :) I do love swimming. I use to swim all the time...competitively from fourth grade until high school. I thought this would be a good thing to go back to because it is low impact on the body. I broke my ankle several years ago and have plates and screws in it. Then, about a year ago I started having trouble with the other foot…I have plantar fasciitis that won’t seem to go completely away. These two problems don’t always bother me, but sometimes my plantar fasciitis flares up. I think if I were to lose some weight I could eliminate the plantar fasciitis problem.

Swimming is tiring and I am hungry after I finish! I have been going later at night when the pool is less busy. By time I get home it’s nearly 9 p.m…not a good time to eat! I am also really thirsty when I get done! So I come home from swimming and drink a bottle of water and have some type of fresh fruit like an orange or some pineapple.

With all the effort swimming takes and the time I put into it, I just want to make sure I am not wasting my time. I do feel it in my arms so I know I am getting a workout. I have only been doing it for a couple days so I defiantly want to give it a chance.

Plantar Fascitis is exactly why I started swimming. I can only walk about 1/2 mile on the treadmill before my feet are KILLING me. I have very short legs, so when I sit in a chair, my feet do not touch the ground. So I usually point my toes up against the chair leg so that my feet can touch. Result: shortened heel cord = plantar fascitis. In addition, I am a stomach sleeper. Result: plantar fascitis. I have terrible foot problems.

But ZERO foot pain while swimming.

There is nothing fun about plantar fasciitis! I went to a podiatrist about the pain about 8 months or so ago. I didn’t know what the problem was…I had never heard of plantar fasciitis! Prior to going to the doctor my husband and I moved into a house. The podiatrist thought that I had got plantar fasciitis from straining it during the move and from wearing flip flops and sandals all summer. She gave me a cortisone shot in my heel and if felt better almost immediately. She really didn’t think I would have any more problems but told me to come back if I did and I could get inserts for my shoes. Well I never went back because I think it’s just from being overweight. The inserts were going to be really expensive and it’s not like I work on my feet all day. So I am hoping that once I start dropping weight I can have relief!

Ditto here on the plantar fascitis and swimming. I too started swimming for the same reason. I swim about 3 X a week. I haven't been following my plan regularly so I'm unsure about how effective it is for weight loss, but I love to swim. I have a waterproof MP3 player that really keeps me going. (I'm a music fanatic) My heart rate gets way up and I am totally out of breath, so I feel it's a great workout!

I have gone the cortisone shot in the heel route, too (NEVER again. OUCH!) It did not work for me. I have been through two sets of VERY expensive orthotics ($300 a piece); oral steroids, Celebrex, having my right foot in a cast for 6 weeks (no pain while in the cast. Pain returned 30 minutes after taking the cast off), night splints (again, I am a stomach sleeper. Couldn't stand the night splints), physical therapy, stretching my heel cords until I am about ready to hit someone. My calf muscles are SO thick and tight, even at rest.

I, too, am hopeful that when I drop the weight, hopefully my plantar fascitis will cease to be a problem. Hubby really gets aggravated that I can't even take a walk with him. And so do I.

irishayes,

Sorry to hear that you’re plantar fasciitis is so bad. :( Mine is not nearly as severe. It comes and goes from either severe pain to just a mild discomfort. Of course it hurts most in the morning when I first get up. I try doing stretches with it before I get out of bed and that usually helps some.

I have a friend that has had plantar fasciitis in both feet for several years. She has been giving me advice on things to do to make it feel better. She advised me to invest in a pair of Birkenstocks. I’m going to look into that this weekend.

Plantar's fasciitis does not have to endured, just because you're overweight. About 15 years ago, I had it really badly (at about 50 lbs lighter). I was usually wearing Keds and cheapy shoes without arch support. It took years to get rid of it (mostly because I couldn't bear to give up "cute" shoes with little arch support).

New Balance and Birkenstocks saved my life. For a long time, I wouldn't buy any other brand of shoe, because I was afraid to try anything else (finding and being willing to spend the money on a Birkenstock dress shoe was a challenge). Now I've branched out a little to Haflinger and Echos and one pair of Sketchers.

There are of course expensive shoes I cannot wear, but I've found that there are very few cheap shoes that I can. Basically, if a shoe cost me less than $60 on sale, I am going to probably be in pain wearing it.

Cute shoes are a problem for me too! I have tons of shoes that I should't really wear anymore. I hate spending a lot of money on anything. But I also hate having this pain in my foot all the time! LOL! I have stopped buying the cheap cute shoes. :( It's going to be hard to drop that kind of money on a single pair of shoes. But I figure it is worth a try!

I had no idea so many people could relate to my foot problems!

I know what you mean about cheap shoes. I resigned myself to the fact that I simply CANNOT wear cheap shoes anymore.

Unfortunately, the good, expensive shoes are usually U-G-L-Y. I can only wear New Balance athletic shoes because of the HUGE orthotics I need to insert, and because my foot size is an 8/12 EE width. My kids tell me the shoes look like Bozo shoes :>(

I only wear expensive shoes with my orthotics, or expensive shoes with good inserts, and still I can't get rid of the plantar fascitis.

Unfortunately for me, I think the only way to get relief is to lose the weight.

Hi, I love to hear from other swimmers. I'm a former competitive swimmer (last race was 30 years ago!) and now do it as part of my overall routine. In the beginning of my weight loss it was the only activity I did and I lost weight quite easily doing it. Now I use it to balance all the impact activities I do and it's espcially nice for arms - toning and strength. So my opinion is that swimming can make a real contribution.

I have a bit of advice, someone mentioned shoulder pain. I had a problem with my shoulders as well (never when I was young, but now...). The pain was a dull ache, non-specific. I learned that the shoulder muscles have to work together to hold the bones in the right places, and when some muscles are weaker, etc., there can be an imbalance that causes pinching, etc. Sometimes the joint seems to almost pop in and out a bit. Apparently this is pretty common. The repetitive motion of freestyle seems to be my problem. A good way to avoid it and what has worked for me is to do all the strokes rather than just freestyle, and to strengthen my back shoulder muscles with weights. So you might keep an eye out for this - build up gradually and let your system adjust to more yardage (I of course did not pay attention to this idea, and well, it would have been better...)

You might also look into doing interval training - rather than just laps - as you go along. Like they say with running, etc., it conditions you well and helps with calorie burning (and the boredom factor of just going up and down the pool.

I also had plantar fasciitis for some time when I was heavier. I endorse the shoe advice others have been giving. Even now I have some flare ups, and swimming helps ( I think the flexing of the foot?) Another thing - I've had shin splints and swimming was painless for me with them while I was recovering. It also helped me build strength in my left arm after a broken elbow. (Sounds like I'm a walking accident, really, I'm not!) Anyway, I think it's great to have swimming in your repetoire of exercise.

I also really think it has helped me avoid lots of muscle pain from doing weights and other cardio. Sometimes I swim after a class, just a little,, and the flowing nature of the exercise really seems to help me recover.

Good luck with it, I just love to read that others are swimming. At my gym, there are not many swimmers compared with runners, etc., so usually there is not a lot of chat about it. It is great to have it here and heaer what others are doing!

The best exercise for weight loss is the exercise that you will do. So if you enjoy swimming and it's something that you'll do on a consistent basis, I think it's a great exercise.

In terms of getting a better workout for weight loss, adding intervals to your swim would be a big improvement. Swim as fast as you can for one lap and then swim a recovery lap. Do this for at least 20 minutes of your swim workout (you can break it up separate sets if you want, you don't have to do all 20 min of intervals at once). Eventually try to work up to sprinting for two laps at a time.

Another effective drill for weight loss is to do timed sets. Swim 4 laps (100 yards) at a moderate pace and time how long it takes you. Then do several sets of 4-laps where you try to beat that time by, say, 10 seconds with say a 30-second rest between each 4 laps. Push yourself to go a little faster every time you swim. This is a lot easier to do if your pool has a time clock, but you could also just use a watch with a secondhand.

Also, if you want swimming to be effective for weight loss, you have to swim with your face in the water and practice proper breath control. If you are swimming with your head out of the water, it's not going to do much for you. You don't say whether you are doing this or not, so I just thought I'd mention it. If you are practicing proper breath control, swimming is fantastic for improving your cardio endurance.

Also, work on decreasing the amount of time you rest between laps and try to do flip turns. And do different strokes so that you aren't always exercising the same muscles.

I have a personal trainer and he doesn't have much use for swimming. But I swim once a week and the highschool swim team is in the pool at the same time. Those kids sure don't need to lose any weight. And when I was on swim team in my youth, the best swimmers were pretty lean. So I disagree with my trainer; I think swimming can be effective for weight loss, but for it to be most effective, you have to push yourself at it. It's just like any other exercise, you have to get your heart rate up into it's target zone. Doing intervals, timed sets, etc. will really help with that. If you just swim at a moderate pace, you may not be getting your heart rate high enough. But even so, that would be better than not exercising at all.

IMO that personal trainer doesn't know what he's talking about.

Our daughter, who is on the swim team in high school, swims 10,000 laps per week of training. She started out at 97 lbs and lost 7 pounds over the course of the season. She had rock-hard abs, legs and arms. I can't remember the stats on the number of calories they burn during a week, but I can tell you it was massive.

I have heard that swimming is and excellent exercise because you involve all muscle groups while doing it, in addition to needing to breathe correctly.

I started swimming a week ago today and have already made improvements in my stroke. I swam 100 laps last night! I have learned to slow down and relax. This has helped my neck and shoulders. Also, last night I started mixing things up a bit by using a kick board and a pull-buoy. I event did a lap of butterfly last night...I haven't done that in a very long time!

It was funny last night because there was this little boy who was about 8 years old in the pool who came up to me and asked if I was a life guard!

I have been doing some cardio along with the swimming and started doing the weight machines yesterday. I weighed myself last night and was excited to see that I have lost two pounds over the course of a week! So something is working!

I do think swimming is god exercise and I love it...so I plan on continuing.

I am happy to hear you found a way around the problem and that you are having fun. Barbara is right - the best exercise is the one you will stick with. So keep swimming! I so wish to jump in the pool with you.

Wow!! 100 laps!! How long did you have to stay in the pool to accomplish that?

Wow!! 100 laps!! How long did you have to stay in the pool to accomplish that?

I think it took me about an hour! There were some kids in the pool that would come into my lane to goof off every once in a while...one wanted to race me. So I had a few interuptions. My goal was to get to 100 laps...this is the first time I actually got there. As I got closer and closer to 100, the more and more I wanted to just do it!

I LOVE to swim! - I enjoy exercise altogether - my favorite exercise has been weight lifting for about 20 years now. But with my many injuries including osteoarthritis, sciatic nerve pain & herniated discs.... geesh! - it's a wonder I can even get out of bed in the mornings!

We bought a pool last summer - nothing fancy, just a 12x24 above ground pool. But I swim. And I swim. And I love love love it! - it's the ONE exercise that I can do that doesn't put any stress on my joints or hurt me in any way. I say YES it is a good exercise, simply because of that! - and while I am not losing all kinds of crazy poundage, I remind myself that (a) I am in perimenopause (making it more difficult to rev that metabolism!) and (2) if an exercise makes you feel good, then it's DEFINITELY worth it!

I, too, have had shoulder problems, including surgery for a torn rotator cuff, which healed nicely & I was lifting again, until I re-injured my shoulder... ugh! ... making the general freestyle stroke nearly impossible for me now. It just hurts too much. So I generally stick with the breast stroke. I usually swim 25 laps several times a day on weekends, & just however many I can get in during the week.

Plus, I have rediscovered yoga, and pilates, and Tae-Bo.... so with all this, I am hoping it will propel me to lose this weight. But even IF IT DIDN'T, I'd still do it... because IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD. ;) :cb: :dance: :goodvibes:

IMO that personal trainer doesn't know what he's talking about.

Our daughter, who is on the swim team in high school, swims 10,000 laps per week of training. She started out at 97 lbs and lost 7 pounds over the course of the season. She had rock-hard abs, legs and arms. I can't remember the stats on the number of calories they burn during a week, but I can tell you it was massive.

I have heard that swimming is and excellent exercise because you involve all muscle groups while doing it, in addition to needing to breathe correctly.

In defense of my trainer, who is a pretty smart guy and is getting his undergraduate degree in kinesiology (so he does know something about effective exercise), most adults who swim laps aren't doing anywhere near the kind of workout your daughter is doing on the swim team. When I swim laps on Saturday mornings, we split the pool with the high school swim team and the swimming on the lap swim side of the pool is very different and a heck of a lot less effective than what the swim team is doing. Not only are they at it for a lot longer than most of the lap swimmers, but they are swimming intervals and timed sets for the entire time, not just the measly 20 mins that I swim intervals for. My trainer knows that swimming like what your daugher is doing is effective but he also knows that most adults who swim on their own don't push themselves like that. In fact, given that the time clock on the lap swim side of the pool was broken for a long time and no one complained about it, I have to believe that very few of the lap swimmers are doing timed sets. Unless you're doing the kind of workout your daughter is doing, you really aren't going to see the kind of results she is getting either. I consider swimming to be my day off from exercise; even with the intervals, it is much less intense than the rest of the exercise that I do.

You are right that swimming is great in the sense that it involves lots of different muscle groups and requires great breath control. It is fabulous for cardio endurance; back when I first started, I saw a noticeable improvement in my endurance every time I swam--and not just when I swam but when I did other exercise as well, such as running. Every week that I swam I could literally set the treadmill a little faster (but now it's sort of leveled out and I'm not seeing that kind of progress). It's also great for people with injuries and back problems because the water supports your body. When I was unable to run due to knee and ankle injuries, swimming helped fill the gap. My ankle actually felt better when I got out of the pool than when I got in. And it's definitely better than not exercising at all, so if you enjoy swimming and it gets you to exercise, then it's a great exercise for you.

I swim 120 laps every Saturday; I think it takes me about an hour and fifteen minutes to do it, but I'm a little spotty about keeping track of my starting and stopping time.