So I joined a pool! I did it mostly to keep a friend company, since there are a lot of non aquatic exercises I am trying to focus on, and I don't really know how to swim for exercise.

So: how do you swim for exercise? Is there a program you'd recommend? I'm looking for the couch to 5k of swimming, I guess. I tried google, but the results were a bit confusing, so I was hoping someone here could give me some direction.

I know how to swim, by the way, and I'm comfortable in the water but I get tired fast and I'm relearning how to time my breathing. I was on a swim team as a kid, and I've always loved goofing off in the water. I probably still could do all the strokes, but I'm most comfortable with freestyle or breast stroke. I hate butterfly and I don't want to do it.

I used to swim twice or thrice a week when I was doing triathlons. I know people do ladders or fartlek type drills but I wasn't as serious. So I would just go in and get my mileage done. Usually 2000yds (25yd/length) with breaks for H2O every 500yds.

I've been exercising for 25 years. I've done everything from walking and jogging to hiking as well as most machines in the gym. For minutes put in, nothing gives me a better return on my work out time than swimming, as far as getting fit. Nothing.
Reason being that , at least with freestyle stroke, you are using many muscles in the body.
As far as a prorgram, I would start out swimming laps freestyle for about 20 minutes 3 days a week. Try to rest as little as possible during this 20 minutes. After maybe 2 weeks of this move up to 30 minutes 3 times a week, again resting as little as possible. After a few more weeks move up to 40 minutes and if possible increase the frequency to 4 to 5 times a week if possible or stay at 30 minutes 4 to 5 times a week.

Thanks!

I will highly recommend to you the Total Immersion swimming program. I used that program when I started doing triathlons and it enabled me to swim an Ironman length distance without stopping, even though when I started swimming I couldn't swim the length of the pool. Great program!

Hello TS

I started my weight loss journey on 22nd July ( check stats for CW). I combined my old hobby>>swimming with a low carb diet of 1200 per day. but now im camping at 63kgs

How i started
On 22nd July.. I started picking up with swimming >> freestyle. Initially i started with 10 laps ( 500m ) for a week then progressively increased it to 1km then 2 then 3km. The last was 5kms. Remember to always pat yourself in the back once you break a certain km.

Gadgets
I bought a garmin watch to accompany me when i swim to count laps and calories burnt. Because, sometimes when i swim ( like on auto mode..) my mind will fly here and there and sometimes i get caught on conversations in my mind tat i forget my laps!

And, the great thing about the watch is that it has a total swim length per week at the bottom of the screen, taht is easily showed off ( ) to anybody who wants to check out the time from you.
hehe.
imagine : showing your boss : total distance swam this week : 11000m

Too bad for swimming is that there are no music. I havent found a proper ear plugs for music so far. If anybody does, please share!

Tough stuff i faced for the past 3 months
Conjuctivitis!
Muscle weakness and extreme tiredness >> seen my GP and had me diagnosed as having hypokalemia ( guess it was from the low calorie diet ) so now, im taking 1 banana pre-workout.


swimming programs?
er .. none! self discipline !


Hm. i guess thats all

I second Mrs Snark's recommendation for Total Immersion (TI) swimming. Buy one or two of his videos after reading the book. It's awesome. I've followed it, and I like to think I am not just being flattered, when I'm told that my swimming form is exceptional - really smooth and effortless looking. I swim laps an hour twice a week, and play water polo on Wednesday night, so I get a lot of time in the water.

For the first book, though, I recommend a book by Emmit Hines (A Houston based trainer). This gets you through the pre-swimming steps you need to learn, and I think does it even better than total immersion. It lays the groundwork better, so you can get smoothly into bilateral breathing. It addresses kicking (including the 2-bat and 6-beat kick), the stroke, movement of hips, coordination of stroke and kick better than total immersion, in my humble opinion. That might only be 1/5th of the book, but it is the best intro there is. For people who like detailed technical pictures, this is the book! The rest of the book gets very drill centric, which will help you AFTER you get proficient following TI.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0736074570/

For those of you that want a cheap tempo trainer (a beeping ticker in the water), and don't want to spend $99 at FINIS (whom I love by the way), use a Pyle watch from Amazon and tuck it into your cap. It withstands swimming just fine and saves lots of money! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005G2SI2Y/


I just love swimming. It is making my arms look so nice. And, I would have thought I could actually play and contribute to water polo at age 51.

An additional benefit is you can swim with nice buff looking young men, and not get your husband too worried!!

alexis7 - can you provide a link to the garmin watch. The fact that it measures distance is really something. !!

Also, sorry to hear you felt weak. I have had to up my protein considerably with swimming a lot (swimming hard, really pushing for stamina), combined with strength training, and HIIT cardio. By pushing up the protein a good bit, not worrying about fats, and eating a yogurt after swimming, I kept from hitting the wall. And, bananas are great - I know my hubbie has to eat a good many of them (limas are good too, as is V8) to keep enough potassium in his system.