Summer is coming and you have already decided that this year you will change your running shoes for a swimming visor. Maybe you’ve hurt your knee and need a lower-impact form of cardio; maybe you just can’t get to your outdoor training class when it’s 90 degrees outside.
Regardless of the reason you chose the water, swimming is one of the best exercises for your health. It’s a full-body workout, working your arms and legs as well as your cardiovascular system, but putting less stress on your joints than most other exercises. Also, on a hot summer day, the cool water is a good place to sweat.
According to Hirofumi Tanaka, professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin, swimming provides similar cardiovascular benefits those of running or other endurance sports. Research from his lab also suggests that a regular swimming program can reduce blood pressure and soften stiff arteries in older adults.
“Swimming is a very good and underrated form of exercise,” says Tanaka. “Exercise has to engage large muscle groups, be rhythmic in nature and challenge cardiovascular functions. Swimming fits the bill perfectly.”
However, where to start? Facing the lane of a swimming pool can be intimidating for a novice. Here are some tips from professional trainers to turn 30 minutes in the pool into an effective workout.
start slow
“You don’t walk out of your house and say, ‘I’m going to run 10 miles,’” said Cokie Lepinski, an American veterans swim coach in Surprise, Arizona. “It’s the same with swimming.”
Buy a good pair of goggles (a swim cap and board can be helpful, but aren’t necessary) and start swimming one lap—back and forth across the pool—without stopping. Most commonly, people swim freestyle when exercising because it’s the most efficient stroke, but you can switch if you want variety.
Most recreational pools in the United States are 22 to 25 meters long, so one lap equals almost 50 meters, two equals almost 100, and so on. Olympic pools are twice as long, while home pools vary, so make sure you know the length. Also, many regular swimmers count a lap as the length of the pool, so be sure to clarify that if you’re working with a coach.
If you felt it was easy to complete one lap, do two with a short rest in between (10-20 seconds). Gradually increase the pace, doing more laps and decreasing the frequency of breaks, but don’t overdo it on the first day: do no more than 10 laps total.
“Swimming is a matter of consistency, so start at whatever level you’re at,” said Cullen Jones, a four-time Olympic medalist and junior swim coach. “Make sure you can tolerate what you do. You have to have the mindset that you will do it again the next day or two from now.”
focus on the shape
If your last swimming class was in elementary school, here are a couple of tips to keep in mind. First, your body must be above the water as long as possible, the easiest way to achieve this is to keep your head down and see the bottom of the pool.
“If you lift your head and see the wall, your legs are going to sink and that will create a lot of resistance,” said Fares Ksebati, founder and CEO of the MySwimPro app.
Your kicks also serve to keep you balanced on the water. In fact, unless you’re sprinting, kicking is more important for body position than propulsion. Kick just enough to keep your hips and legs above the water and not be pulled down. “The biggest mistake beginner swimmers make is kicking too hard,” Ksebati said. “The legs use the most blood, so if you kick a lot, you’ll tire out a lot quicker.”
If you’re in a race, then you can kick full throttle, like jones did in the 50-meter freestyle sprint at the 2012 Olympics. However, when swimming for endurance or general fitness, mimic someone like fondie Katie Ledeckywho barely waves with his legs, in order to conserve energy, and focuses on his balance and alignment.
Another beginner’s mistake is staying too horizontal in the water. Better rock from side to side a little. When your fingertips touch the surface, extend your arm as far as you can while slightly rotating your shoulders and hips. Try doing it out of the water: stand on your toes with one arm stretched out over your head. If you rotate your hips and shoulders up and forward, you can probably go up a few inches. Now do it in the water.
“If you can start to rotate with your shoulders and hips on each stroke and reach a few more inches, you’re basically going to lengthen your stroke, and that’s going to make you more efficient,” Ksebati explained.
Another way to increase efficiency is to create more force with each stroke. As you lower your arm through the water, try to keep your forearm perpendicular to the bottom of the pool. Your fingertips should be slightly apart—less than a centimeter—for maximum power.
Don’t worry about breathing on alternate sides if one feels more comfortable than the other. The goal is to keep a rhythm. “Every time your face is in the water, you exhale,” Lepinski said. “Every time you go up, you inhale nice and measured.”
Practice in intervals
Once you can do eight laps with ease, try interval training. Professional swimmers structure their routines like weight training, broken up into sets instead of doing 30 straight minutes.
To do this, you need to understand an interval formula that is used in almost all swimming routines. Intervals are usually described by two numbers: the number of repetitions and the distance in meters of each repetition as a multiple of 25 meters (the average length of the pool). Short rests are built into each repetition. For example, a 2×50 interval means swimming 50 meters (out and back), taking a 10-second rest, and then swimming another lap. For a 4×25, swim the same distance, but rest each time you touch a side. A 1×100 means swimming two laps in a row and resting afterwards. The three intervals are 100 meters in total, but they are swum at different paces.
Tailor the intervals to your goals. If you want a higher intensity workout, swim shorter intervals at a faster pace. If you want to work on endurance, swim longer distances at a slower pace with fewer rests. For example, a 4×25 would typically be swum in a sprint, while a 1×100 is typically a slower, endurance-focused interval.
“If you swim at the same pace every day, you won’t get as much benefit,” Lepinski said. First, interval training is more fun, Lepinski added. “And second, just challenge your heart a little better.”
Ksebati and Lepinski said a good workout for beginners or intermediates is 900 to 1,300 meters, or 20 to 30 laps, which should take about half an hour. Start with a short warm-up—perhaps a 4×50 at an easy pace—to get your heart rate up. You can mix different strokes, doing breaststroke or backstroke instead of freestyle for a bit of variety. Next, do a 4×25 using a plank to activate your legs.
Then comes the main set, or the bulk of the workout. If you want to work on speed, do 8×50 (eight laps with a rest after each lap) at a fast pace. If you want to increase endurance, try a moderate paced stair climber, going up and down the length of your intervals: 1×50, 1×100, 1×200, 1×100, 1×50.
Finally, the cool down comes, another 4×50 of swimming at a relaxed pace. You can take a longer break—a minute or two—between your warmup, main set, and cooldown.
It’s a bit confusing at first, but once you understand the lingo you can follow just about any swim workout. Do you want more structure or a goal to work towards? Apps like MySwimPro offer personalized training plans, or you can find your local swimming team. masters swimming. (In the world of swimming, masters simply means adult).
More than anything, enjoy the process. For many swimmers, the water is not only a place to exercise, it’s also a sanctuary. “It’s hard to think about the stress of the world when you’re thinking, ‘When’s my next exhale? Where is the end of the pool? What series am I on?’” Lepinski commented, “When we dive into the water, the world disappears.”