Thread: Anybody else swim?

Just wondering what your regular swim routine is. We finally joined the Y so I could swim again during my pregnancy, and I'm loving it. I'd forgotten how much I loved it and didn't realize how much I missed it.

Right now I do 20 laps (50m pool). I use fins when I swim to build my leg muscles (and, I'll admit, I like being able to go faster...). I do 5 freestyle to warm up, 5 using kickboard (legs only), 5 using leg floats (arms only), 3 breaststroke, 1 ending freestyle, and 1 backstroke to cooldown.

Anyone else??

I want to get back into swimming, although it really beats up the hair. But it's a great exercise with no impact stress on your body and even better for moms-to-be!

swimming is great I sawm and lifegueard with my first two until i have birth. the othing is towards the end my siatica never bothered me so i have to swim the first 200 500 meters with out using my legs then they started to move.

I LOVE to swim! Haven't in a long time though. I don't mind swimming laps now and then but, I really like to swim underwater. Hmmm, now I have to see when open swim is at our nearby high school...

I miss swimming... I loved water sports, but just haven't been into them since moving to Georgia. Maybe after the move I'll look into a swimming routine again.

Swimming is such great exercise! I swam during my pregnancy and really loved it.
I don't swim now because I don't have access to a pool, but I had to really mix it up. Sometimes I would "just" swim a mile, but those days were really hard. I like your plan.

If you get a really good swim cap you can keep your hair dry.

Oh, get some on the hand-things (sorry I don't remember what they are called). They help you swim faster, but they REALLY work your arms. They are like fins for your hands.

I hate it. I have to swim fast or I get cold. HOwever, it's the just about the only cardio activity that I can do fast due to hip problem. My routine is simple - I swim when the weather gets warm (starting this March!) and I stay in the water for 30 - 45 min. Doesn't matter what strokes, just keep moving continuously.

Are the hand fins and flippers really so much better for working out? I just want the exercise - I don't swim anywhere but the pool.

Originally Posted by Fotia

I want to get back into swimming, although it really beats up the hair.

Swim cap.

In the summer when the pool is warm, I do about 30 minutes of laps and 30 minutes of water exercises. Of course, it's easier when you are at home and no one is looking at you doing weird stuff in the water.

Originally Posted by Mayliz

In the summer when the pool is warm, I do about 30 minutes of laps and 30 minutes of water exercises. Of course, it's easier when you are at home and no one is looking at you doing weird stuff in the water.

Oh, believe me, the first thing I thought when I saw my man's pool at the house in Merritt Island is "figure eights and undulations in the shallow end!"

TALK about doing weird things in the H2O ..l;,

Not swimming, per se, but I do a deep water workout class once or twice every week. I enjoy it.

I'm a swimmer! I swam competitively throughout junior and high school (m$%!p years ago), and a few years ago I started to use the community pool near my house to do laps once a week . Nowhere near what I did once (every morning!), but my body loooves the water and I feel great after swimming. I sometimes struggle with insomnia, but never on nights I swim. The only thing I hate is smelling like chlorine and being incredibly cold when I get out of the pool (my neighborhood's community pool and locker room are no frills, to say the least, and San Francisco is always pretty chilly). I have to go when I can come right home after and take a long shower and wash my hair, or I smell like a chlorine factory.

As far as routine, I mix it up. Sometimes the lifeguards have a routine written up and I try to follow it, and sometimes I just make a deal with myself that I will stay in the pool for at least 25 minutes and keep going. Mostly I mix it up every two laps, except for butterfly (which I only do a few times, max). My local pool also has water aerobics twice a week and I have popped over to do that when I am in the mood. I admit I had a bias against it (too low impact, too focused on elderly exercisers). It may be the city or 'hood I live in, but the class here is a big old mix of ages, genders, and ethnicities with both male and female teachers. It is a blast.

Before you get into the water wether it be ocean or pool, please wet your hair down with regular tap or bottled water!

Your hair will swell with the regular water, so it won't be able too absorb much of the bad chlorinated/or salt water.

I have been trying to push the hubby into the pool. He wont go... He has a back injury and its about all he could do but he thinks "if its not weight lifting, its not exersize"

Originally Posted by Ahmber

I have been trying to push the hubby into the pool. He wont go... He has a back injury and its about all he could do but he thinks "if its not weight lifting, its not exersize"

Pool might be the best thing, to get started back into exercise (check with Dr. first).

There are resistance weights, and tools, that make a pool workout, feel like you're lifting weights! (A friend of mine teaches pool areobics).

I hope he gets better soon!!!

:-)