[oracle]

Hi. I am new here and new to dieting and excercising and I am really frustrated. I have read so much contridicting crap about swimming that I am ready to cry and quit right now.

Here is what I do for exercise and I am wondering if it's all for **** or is it really going to help me...

I walk to work Mon-Fri 15-20 minutes there and 15-20 minutes back.

When I get home from work I swim for at least 30 minutes and on Saturday and Sunday I swim for 50 minutes.

I am also eating healthy and I am wondering from someone who knows - is this good enough or should I do more or something else?

Please help me.

Thanks.

[MILLIEB]

First off, any kind of movement is better than sitting on the couch eating ice cream and watching TV! Right now, you're probably more active than 1/3 of the other people in the US, if not more. However, to know if "it's enough" or "it's right", you need to know what your goals are. Are you trying to lose weight, gain muscle mass, prevent osteoprosis, keep your cardio system in condition, maintain your present condition or improve it? There are lots of different workout ideas depending on what it is you want to do. A book you might want to check out is "Fitness for Dummies" - like all the books in the "Dummies" series, it answers lots of questions in an easy to understand manner and helps you build a fitness plan based on your own personal goals, not someone elses.

[morrigan]

I think a lot depends on how you are swimming and walking. I can stroll or I can speed walk. You burn a lot more calories walking fast. After spending 9 years as a competative swimmer, I can swim a mile without raising my heart rate. Or I can up the tempo and swim hard and get tired out really fast and make my heart thump. I would say that if you are getting your heart rate up during the swim you are getting pently of exercise. If you are just swimming, then it is good that you are moving and it is better than nothing - but it is not a serious calorie burning workout.

Things you can do in the pool are
Try to decrease the amount of strokes from one side to the other (longer more efficient). Try to do 10 50's with each one being a few seconds faster. Sprint 25 then swim 25 - repeat for 10 mintues or so. Things like that turn a swim into a workout.

[aphil]

Hi,
I am a long time exerciser and have a little helpful advice. There are two kinds of excercise-aerobic and toning. Aerobic includes walking, running, biking, aerobics, swimming,dance-anything that really gets your heart moving. It burns calories and helps you lose weight.
Toning is exercise that reshapes and firms the muscles in your body-using weights, abdominal excercises, and leg lifts are all examples of this. You can lose weight, but may still be flabby to the touch, even if you are at your goal weight.
The excercise you are doing will help your heart and help you burn calories to lose weight, but if you are unhappy with your jiggly rear end or upper arms, then you also need to do toning. The most important thing to remember is that toning exercises must be done with a rest day inbetween workouts to allow the muscle to repair itself properly.
If you choose to do toning, you can do your upper body 3 days a week, and lower body 3 days a week alternating days-or what I do, which is do total body 3 days a week-Mon.,Wed.,and Fri.,and do aerobic activity on Tue.,Thur.,and Saturday-Sunday is my rest day.
You could continue to walk to work each day, and do toning and swimming on alternate days, or do the toning the 3 days and continue to swim each day if you enjoy the time in the water.
To start out I reccomend Denise Austin Shortcuts tapes-she has one each for upper and lower body, or Denise Austin Hit the Spot which has a 10 minute section each for upper body,abs,buns,and legs-they are both available at most Wal-Mart's.
Hope this helps you-good luck with your goals!
Aphil