[MaNdA22]

I just started swimming yesterday at my gym and I love it I'm in pain today though.

I'm looking to make this a part of my daily routine. Just wanted to see how many of you are swimmers and what results have you seen??
What sort of workout do you do when in the pool?? Laps?

[TJFitnessDiva]

Sadly I'm a swimmer only in warm weather....I swam competitively in high school and love it!

When I first started last year I worked my way up to the equivalent of 5 miles in the pool doing laps. I do believe it certainly helped me out and lead me into running when the weather got to cold to swim in our pool. You can also get those noodle things and do resistance/weight training under the water if you need a break from laps.

[Bubu]

Hi there.

I used to swim a lot. Not anymore in the last 3 years.


I usually do breaststroke swimming. Some good warm-up laps and then power breaststroke, alternating the intensity.
If you are looking for shaping your body through swimming, you better go for more types of swimming. Basically swimming is a great workout and cardio for all muscles, but depending how you swim, you can develop some muscles more (example-butterfly is great for sculpted wide shoulders).

Swimming is part of my workout this month, 1x a week.
I also do in the gym during the week 3 days of lifting, and other 2 days of cardio.
At home I am doing for now Jillian Michaels circuit training from her site, and some Zumba or any dancing at a higher intensity.

[silversparkle]

I swam competitively from fourth grade to high school. I love it! I was swimming about 2 or three times a week…then it got cold and I didn’t feel like doing it anymore. However, I plan to start back up today or tomorrow. I was getting really good results when I was swimming.

I do 100 laps in 25 meter pool…so that’s just over a mile. I rotate my strokes and I also use a kick board and a pull buoy. I do four laps of breast stroke, four laps of freestyle, four laps of backstroke, four laps with the kick board, and four laps with the pull buoy. Then I start over until I get my 100 laps in. I do flips on the wall when doing freestyle and the pull buoy.

[BlueToBlue]

I swim about once a week. When I first started swimming, I saw noticeable cardiovascular improvement from one workout to the next. I could literally swim farther with less effort and could even run faster on the treadmill each week that I swam. It is the only exercise I've done where I saw marked improvement like that from one workout to the next. I've definitely seen improvement with the other types of exercise that I do, but it's take a lot longer.

I don't think the swimming has really done much for me in terms of building muscle ("toning") or increasing my strength. For that, you really need to be doing strength training. Because swimming is non-weight bearing, I don't think you're really going to see much improvement from it in terms of strength. Maybe some, but it's really more of a cardiovascular exercise.

At this point, I've plateaued with my swim workouts, so I'm not seeing much further improvement from them. But I'm not really working at it either. If I were doing more timed sets and other drills, I'm sure I'd see further improvement. But swimming is the easy day in my workouts, so I'm not really worried about pushing myself at it.

I find swimming to be very therapeutic. The rest of the exercise I do is very high intensity--HIIT, plyometrics, and heavy lifting. I'm often sore from it. I'll start a swim workout sore and often feel better afterwards. I think being in the water helps.

Right now, I do 120 laps, which is almost mile and three-quarters. I have a routine that I've put together that includes a variety of strokes, some interval work, and kicking with flippers.

[Bubu]

As I am on JM training, I will tell you what she says:
"Pool Workout

Q: Do you have specific cardio exercises for the pool? I can work out harder and longer in the water. Can you give me some tips and tell me how long to do the exercises?
JILLIAN SAYS: Totally! Try these moves:

1. Push-ups on the side of the pool.
2. Dips on the side of the pool.
3. Treading water. (If this is easy for you, hold a dumbbell over your head and try it.)
4. Hold weights in your hands and try running laps in a lap pool. This is fun and challenging.
5. Hold a kickboard and do only kicking-drill laps.
6. Place a Styrofoam block between your legs and hold it tight so that your legs are totally stationary. Now try swimming laps using only your arms.
7. Up-downs: Go into the deep end of the pool. Dive to the bottom and then jump from the bottom back up to the surface. Catch your breath and repeat.

Try to do each of these exercises for 5 sets of 10 repetitions — do what you can in the beginning, and work up to it! "