Swimmers: help me do this?

In My Humble Opinion
1

A combination of events has led to me acquiring a gym membership. Said gym has a pool. It’s not a big pool (I have no idea how big it is besides ‘not large’). I’m hoping to utilize it, because I’m trying to get back into (good) shape, I know swimming gives a decent workout, and I’m hoping it won’t irritate my knees as much as running does.

Last time I was in a pool, it was something like six years ago, and I was just splashing around with friends. I took swim lessons before, only I was five. I’ve discovered I remember (kinda) how to do two of the basic strokes (google tells me that it’s the breaststroke and front crawl). Only I kept, uh, veering diagonally and hitting the wall/lane rope. Part of that was my eyes being closed (need to get some goggles). Don’t talk to me about the backstroke; I have traumatic memories of trying to float on my back and failing, miserably, for three years of Girl Scout Camp.

So: If someone like me wants to start swimming as a cardio workout, how do I do it? Tips, pointers, advice…anything?

(Also: seriously, how do you float on your back? I tried again today, and again, failed. I know I’m not made out of lead, because when I’m face-down, I don’t sink to the bottom. What are the common mistakes here?)

2

Floating on back: Make sure your back is arched. WAY arched. Head tilted back until your eyebrows almost get wet. Take a deep breath to start this (inflate lungs), spread arms out, arch back. Your legs will probably tend to sink a little but, as far as possible, relax. The common mistake is feeling yourself drifting down and bending at the waist as a sort of reaction, and then flailing.

The pool I swim in has something posted about what an efficient cardio workout swimming is, which I can’t remember because it involved numbers and I have no idea what an efficent any-kind-of workout is. I think the gist was that your heart rate can be lower if you’re exercising in water. Something like that.

3

If this isn’t too much of a highjack can someone also explain how to do a kick-turn without bashing your ankles?

I have always been worried about bashing my ankles.

The biggest key for me to floating on my back was relax and pretend you are a board. Stretch out (like a starfish)and relax, breathe, as long as you have air you are not going to sink…

4

A few words of advice: if you don’t really know how to swim well or have little experience at swimming for exercise, pay a swim instructor for a few lessons. Your gym may not have one on staff but they almost certain have references for freelance instructors or someone on contract. Swimming is not a natural thing for people (Aquatic Ape Hypothesis nutjobs aside) and in teaching yourself you’ll probably acquire counterproductive habits, like using only your arms or favoring one side. A couple of hours in the pool with someone who can teach you how to perform strokes properly, advise you on breath control and pacing, and highlight your deficiencies or mistakes will pay back dividends in spades.

The other piece of advice is don’t try to overdo it, especially at first. Swimming is a whole body exercise and it is very easy to overstress, especially since you don’t have the sense of overheating. Change styles, change speeds, pace yourself, work up to fitness. Also, learn to control breathing without using nose clips to keep water out of your sinuses.

On floating: some people just do this naturally better than others. Don’t try to stay back stiff with your toes out of the water; let your legs be submerged, and that should keep your face out of the water.

Poysyn, you avoid bashing your ankles by rolling up into a ball when you do your flip. You should be half a body length from the wall when you flip–just close enough to get some thrust off of the wall when you push. After you’ve done it a few times you’ll see that it’s not a problem.

Stranger

5

Well I got my varsity letter the first meet of my freshman year.

If all you want to do is “get into shape”, then don’t worry about it.

Just swim as fast for as long as you can.

If anything, I’d say stick to freestyle: face in the water, and turn to one side and take breath every few strokes.

It’s hard to fuck yourself up swimming.

6

Or listen to Stranger.

He’s a fart smeller*.

  • or is it smart feller? I always confuse the two.
7

When I was in HS, one summer I had a job at a pool.

I was very thin back then, almost no body fat so I really couldn’t float. I liked swimming underwater the best though and with practice, I could ‘float’ under the water. As I held my breath and my lungs filled I would start to rise, then I could breathe out just a little and go back down.

Not a great water workout to be sure but It’s almost 3 am and I can’t sleep.

8

What **Stranger ** said.

Despite what some people say, swimming is not an intuitive thing for everyone. I find it a totally foreign environment for my body. I’ve got a lot of muscle mass and not a lot of body fat and floating just doesn’t come naturally. When I swim, it’s more of an adventure in avoiding drowning than actual swimming.

But the good news is that it’s a learned skill and the more I swim (I’ve “known” how since a very young child) the better I get.

There is a technique that is relatively new that involves the pressing of the chest and the rolling of the body (freestyle) that helps propel you through the water more efficiently and actually adds to the experience both as far as fitness and the actual tactile feel of your body in the water.

But like everything else it’s practice, practice and more practice.

And lest you thought swimming can’t be learned from a book… :slight_smile:

9

I got into swimming last fall…love it, but have a similar background. Always wondering if I’m doing it right, etc. And topping it off is that the pool is in a lower level of a hotel here, so the coffee bar looks out over it. While watching others swim from above, one really starts to see the difference between swimmers and water-beaters.

http://www.goswim.tv/ is a great site. I bought a DVD from there that goes into proper techinique and how to avoid basic mistakes. I too should get a swim coach, but in a different language, I don’t feel so confident. So I just watch the DVD and try to add the tips to what I do.

-Tcat

10

Hm. I’ll have to check with the gym about lessons - they say on the website that they offer swim lessons for kids and adults, but I’ll need to check pricing to see if that’s a possibility. (And…yeah, I’d feel slightly ridiculous doing it).

Tomcat, thanks for the link - I’ll have to check that out.

11

Don’t. Even highly expeienced competitive swimmers use instructors (they call them coaches, but that’s splitting hairs) to improve their technique. It’s money well spent, and if you can already swim somewhat you’ll only need two or three sessions to get real benefit.

Good luck with this. Swimming (well) is a skill everybody should acquire, for both safety and health.

Stranger

12

It might just irritate your knees. I have somewhat bad knees and doing the breast stroke kick can irritate them, especially if done wrong.

Eyeballs open is the only way to keep in a straight line. That’s why open water swimmers look up so often. You could of course just run your side down the lane line, but that hurts.

Don’t do the go hard and fast for as long as you can, doesn’t do any good and you’ll get tired much faster. Instead you want to do shorter distances with rest. I would say if you’re in the US then you probably have a 25 yard pool. So time yourself on a 50, once each way. Then add 15-20 seconds to it and use that as an interval. So if it takes you a minute, do 10x50s on 1:20. You can also mix things up and do 100s, 4 lenghts, the same way. In order to get a really good work out you will have to do at least 1500 yards.

Honestly you may not find yourself getting a great workout in. Lots of people find this, and it’s because it’s hard to keep going swimming. I see it a lot when I swim, people just not swimming very well and don’t get much yardage in and get frustrated that they don’t lose weight or get fitter. You’re best bet is to find a coach or someone who will help you out. You could also join a US Masters Team, which is not like it sounds, it’s just people who want to swim. You do not have to be able to swim well and they will teach you to swim better.

Also when you swim, learn to stay out of the way of the other faster swimmers. Try and find someone who swims around as fast as you do. Faster swimmers hate it when people don’t move out of the way, it’s very much like someone on a one lane road doing 10mph.

If you were in the DC area I’d be glad to help, and there are plenty of Masters teams around here as well.

13

In all the years I’ve swam I think I might have caught my feet once or twice and that’s it.

I learned by playing around as a kid, I didn’t swim until high school. I loved doing flips in the water so I learned to turn myself over. But unless you’re really not flexable, and I’m not, unless you’re head is on the wall you can do a flip turn. I can do them with my fingertips touching the wall. Once I got so close to the wall that I rubbed my butt on the wall enough to cut my suit, but didn’t hit my feet.

You want good turns though, it’s not about the flip, it’s about how you come off the wall. You want your hands out in front overlapping and elbows straight. Then tuck your head to your chest. This allows the water to go over you more. Don’t worry about looking, something I see even the faster guys do, the walls are not going to move so no need to look. You can come off the wall with an open turn just as fast as someone with a poor flip turn.

14

I’ve been swimming as my main workout for a couple years now. I have never been a competitive swimmer at all and have never been really “serious” about it but here are my tips from a regular-jane perspective:

  • Get goggles. It’s just so. much. easier.
  • Start slow. walk a couple of laps to warm up, stretching out your legs and stuff. Start slow in general (as in don’t try to do a complete 30 minute swim your first day).
  • Get a high-necked suit or else your boobs will pop out of your suit. Trust me on this one :slight_smile: (i recommend that web site)
  • Swimming is boring. Well it was boring for me. Until I got a waterproof iPod housing w/armband and headphones. They are sort of pricey but for me, WELL worth it. I spent $150 on mine (plus $150 for the iPod) and the amount of money I spent made me get into the pool and USE it. If you don’t have that kind of scratch there’s some other options
  • Always get your hair wet in the showers before swimming (it’s a rule at most gyms to shower before a swim - no one at our gym does!) and try to shower right after (at the gym). Soaking your hair beforehand is supposed to keep the chlorinated water form penatrating your hair, and washing right after keeps the chlorine from having a chance to take it’s toll. And rinse your suit off before drying it out, too.

You will enjoy swimming. I know I do :slight_smile:

15

How about some etiquette?

  • If you’re sharing a lane, try to pick one with someone who swims about the same speed you do. Many pools designate specific lanes as slow, medium and fast.

  • If there are two of you in a lane, split it left/right. The first person in the lane gets to pick his side. When a third person joins, switch to circle swim – always keep to the right.

  • If you wind up circle swimming with faster swimmers, pause at the end to let them pass. When you do this, stay to the right as you reach the wall. This lets them turn in the center of the lane (which is pretty much essential if you’re doing a flip turn while circle swimming).

  • Be mindful of waves and splashes. Don’t jump in the pool right next to another swimmer, swamping them. If you’re flutter-kicking with a kickboard, ease up a bit when another swimmer passes.

  • If the pool is crowded, don’t hang out in the water when your laps are done. It’s maddening to see an entire lane blocked by someone just floating on his back.

16

I used to have a really hard time floating on my back, but I improved some after swimming in high school and college. I think one of the biggest problems some people have is that they feel like they’re sinking so they pull their head up out of the water, which forces their hips/feet down, causing them to sink. The trick is to keep your head almost underwater (that is, only your eyes, nose, and mouth should be out of the water) and to keep your hips up.

While I was a swimmer, I would sometimes watch my mother swim. She has never been a good swimmer, and one of her biggest problems is that, while she is not afraid of the water, she is not really comfortable in it. So spend enough time in the pool to become comfortable in the water.

17

For flip turns, people generally use the end of the black lane line on the pool bottom as a gauge to remember when to flip. Depending on how fast you’re going, you’ll want to snap into the turn at or after the T-bar, and pull your feet in according to how fast you’re going. The tighter the knees and hips are folded, the faster you flip. It takes practice to know your limits, like not wiping out on a curve on the highway.

I was on the swim team for 4 years in high school and rec swimming in college, and I don’t think I ever actually hit my feet on the wall during that time. I need to get back into the water one of these days…

As other posters have said, there is no substitute for having a tutor/coach/instructor around to show you what’s what and to give you a good workout plan. Our coach did that. Although he never could quite break me of my funky wrist-lock when I do freestyle (my hands apparently fail to lock in a straight line with my forearms, go figure). :smiley:

18

Yep, lessons are key. I was where you are now a coupla years ago - wanting to get back into it but not really sure how. I signed up for the free adult lessons offered at my YMCA and found them to be outstanding. I knew the strokes; I’d taken lessons as a kid, but wanted the benefit of instruction so that I’d know I was going right once I really started. Sure, it’s rather strange being coached by a kid in high school, but I found them to be invaluable. One eight week course later, I was on my own in fine style. And it was a good way to get into going to the pool once a week, a habit that was easy to keep up on my own after the lessons (well, for a bit, anyway. I’ve since slacked off, but I’ve started again, so it’s all good.)

The best advice that I got from my coach? Slow down. Slow down and relax. See, I knew the strokes, but I was trying to do everything too quickly. I was nervous about keeping myself afloat that I’d rush through and tire myself out before I’d gotten one length. So relax in the water, and go slow. Much slower than you think. You’ll be fine and you’ll never run out of air. If you do, put your feet down. Consciously, I wasn’t afraid of the water, but I think there’s an unconscious element there that says water in face = death. Relax, and go slow, and you’ll do right.

Good luck - swimming’s fun.

Oh! And get goggles. Just goggles alone will do wonders for you. Totally eliminates the bumping into walls.

19

Remember that your ass muscles are the biggest and strongest in your body. You can tire your legs out very quickly if you kick using just your leg muscles. Watch experienced swimmers (or ask your new coach ;)) to see how they use their core body muscles (ass, abs, back etc) to kick and their whole body rocks back and forth with the motion. It helps me to think of my body propelling my legs rather than the other way around.

Same with your upper body. The strength is in your shoulders, chest and back, not your arms.

It was a big revelation to me when I saw stills pictures of a swimmer that showed how her whole body was twisting back and forth with every stroke, rather than lying flat while her arms and legs did the work.

20

hi, old (24) competitive swimmer checking in.

yeah, it’s taken me a while to bump into this thread, i see.

i’m 24 and i’ve been swimming literally since i was in my diapers.
i want to echo some of the comments, mostly of the “the more time you spend in the water, the more comfortable you’ll be” variety.

you’ve also got your 4 basic strokes (forgive me if this has been covered already) your freestyle (on chest, legs scissor kicking, arms circling around your body), butterfly (legs kicking in unison, head and upper chest raising out of the water, both arms reaching forward), breaststroke (on chest, legs kicking out, arms moving laterally around your sides) and backstroke (on back version of the freestyle).

i hated butterfly when i swam. after that was breaststroke because i was never really good at it. most recreational swimmers (that i see) just use the freestyle because it seems to be easiest.

if you’ve got a favorite stroke, i can give you more details or additional pointers, even though it’d be hard not being able to see what you’re doing.

i can’t help much on female bathing suits, but if a guy is going to get into it, just make sure your speedo (if you’re going that route) isn’t too small. nobody wants to keep their junk completely smashed.

i also recommend goggles. it’s been a while since i’ve had to go shopping for them, but they’ve got interchangable parts (some of them). if you’re diving into the pool, you might want to make sure you get one with two straps on them, so they stay on your noggin after diving in/flip turning/plain old missionary turning.
i know this from experience. nothing is better than the feeling you get when you just start a race…and the second you dive into the pool, your goggles go around your neck.