Thread: Swimming for fitness

Anyone here swim for their cross-training? I do cardio, yoga, and a lot of weight lifting, but I was recently told for medical reasons that I have to avoid yoga and weightlifting for the time being. I have a cyst in danger of rupturing, I've discovered, and those things are apparently risky because of the stretching and pressure they put on the area. I certainly don't want to take that risk, but I also don't want to turn into a steaming blob of glup while I await and recover from surgery. So I figure that swimming is a good, safe form of exercise. But I'm a pretty crappy swimmer. I can't remember anything but the side stroke. I'm slow. And I don't know how much I need to do, and how often, to get any benefit. Advice would be much appreciated!

thanks!
- Leela

Find out if there is deep water workout available in your area. I've been doing deep water workout for several years now, and I introduced it to my husband, who now does it, too.

It involves wearing a flotation belt (usually provided by the pool, but I like to have my own) and doing exercises in the dive tank or the deep part of the pool. Like many workouts, it consists of a warmup, a cardio portion, sometimes a portion targetting specific muscle groups (although this is sometimes just incorporated into the cardio), and a cool down/stretch portion.

Because the water provides resistance, you are always working your muscles in both directions when you do a movement. Also, because you are supposed to do the moves upright, with a straight up and down posture, you are always using your core to keep yourself in that position. So, it's a good, all-round workout. However, the water is also supportive and cushioning. It's a no impact exercise, and a lot of people with different joint problems and such do it, because they can't do other types of exercise. Yet, it is still a good workout. (My husband said, the first time he came, "Wow. This is not a baby workout!")

You don't have to know how to swim or know any specific strokes. On the downside, you'd have to be able to get to class at specific times, instead of just going and swimming whenever it suits you.

Other than that, when I'm at the pool, I see people doing laps on a regular basis. So, you could go and swim laps two or three times a week, if you don't want to do DWW. If you switch sides off and on, the side stroke would be fine, I think. The people I see swim for up to an hour (because that is the length of time the main pool is set aside for laps at that time of day), but if you couldn't manage an hour, you could go for as long as you can. Do a bit of mild stretching before and after.

Edited to add that our DWW instructors usually tell people not to do the twisting movements if they're pregnant, but to modify those moves to take out the twist. I think you might want to do the same, under the circumstances.

I just started swimming and am loving it!! In fact, I just got back from a swim this morning. I do laps and like you, I am NOT a good swimmer. This is one of the reasons I've started. I teach at the Y so to take swim classes there it's practically free.

I used to do the eliptical and weights, but since I started swimming, I've stopped. It's just too hard on my joints. I thinking of going back to weights a couple of times a week, though, just for variety.

The DWW sounds great, but we don't have it at my pool. ,f::

Two summers ago, I swam almost daily. I usually did 1 hour of laps. My own tempo, I'm a slow swimmer as well. I lost a lot of weight in a short time and the body tone I got was amazing. Not saying you should swim daily, but it's a very effective workout. I keep telling myself I should get started again, but I'm lazy.

Oh, and anybody know of a good swim cap that keeps long, tailbone length hair more or less dry? The hair is definitely part of what keeps me from diving in again (yes, silly pun, I know).

I'm a swimmer! Just got back into it after a long absence. It's definitely a great workout and excellent cardio. My advice is to do what you can and go slow. If you can only do four lengths now, then that's great. Make your next goal to do five. One of the beauties of swimming is that you can get a great workout even without going full tilt. If you can only do sidestroke, then that's great. If you want to mix it up, then you might look into getting a kick board, and just doing flutter kicks up and down the pool. It will give your legs a surprising workout.

Queenie,
Have you tried the silicone swim caps from Speedo? They're supposed to have a lot more stretch to them than the traditional latex.

Way back when, I did have teammates with especially long, or thick hair who took clippers to the very base of their head. They shaved about an inch (and sometimes more!) up from the bottom of the hair line to fit it all into their cap. They had so much hair left that no one could tell when they wore it down. You probably don't want to do that, but that's what the "pros" did way back when. So silicone caps! A good thing!

My advice is to whatever you can for AT LEAST twenty minutes with no stopping.
Don't go out and try to swim like Dara Torres, but instead, swim slow and strong for twenty minutes (don't touch the ground with your feet). It's a great cardio workout, burning fat, and it works your chest and shoulder muscles.

Thanks! This is so helpful. What's your favorite stroke? I feel like a chump, because after years of childhood swim lessons, now all I remember is sidestroke. I try to do the crawl and I just thrash around and sniffle.

It's safe to swim with an ovarian cyst, right? I mean, it's not gonna rupture it, right? I really need to do something physical!

- Leela

as far as the cyst goes, I don't know. I would ask your Dr.

Buy a pair of goggles and have no inhabitations when you enter the pool. For me personally, I find the easiest most relaxing stroke to swim, is the back stroke.

Flimflam,
I really don't know anything about ovarian cysts. Swimming tends to put less pressure on your body than a lot of other workouts, but you should still talk to your doctor about it. It's like anything else--there's always a risk of injury.

My favorite stroke was always breaststroke, followed by front crawl (freestyle to competitive swimmers). My best events were always breaststroke. Just a tip, but my gym has a personal trainer who was a former competitive swimmer and gives private lessons to adults. If you get cleared to swim from your doctor, and you want to improve your technique, you might look into doing a few sessions like that.