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?

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. :

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.