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Swimming For Fitness
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damon_dixon
- Member
- Posts: 17
- Joined: Sun 22 Jan, 2006 9:51 am
- Location: Scotland
Swimming For Fitness
Hi, im starting to get right into my training programme, and i was just wondering about swimming. Ive been reading some books that say swim for say half an hour, doing as many lengths as possible, then some say just keep treading water for half an hour. I was just wondering if anyone can shed light on this from their own personal experencies. Thanks, feedback a massive help.
Easy Come, Easy go
Er, the only possible benefit I can see from that is if you need to learn how to tread water...are these books written by people who, well, know how to swim? 
If you are swimming for general fitness, then do the same as you would with any other kind of exercise. Swim distance at a steady pace for an hour or so, and start adding sprints of 50-100m in as you become better. Tailor your stroke to the type of training, ie:
Front crawl = Arms, Upper body & good all-round stroke
Breastroke = Legs & good steady pace stroke
Back crawl = Other strokes better for general fitness imo
Butterfly = Upper body, torso & good sprint stroke
So a decent swimming workout would be swimming an hour alternate lengths front crawl & breastroke, with say six (every 10 minutes) 50m butterfly sprints.
If you are swimming for general fitness, then do the same as you would with any other kind of exercise. Swim distance at a steady pace for an hour or so, and start adding sprints of 50-100m in as you become better. Tailor your stroke to the type of training, ie:
Front crawl = Arms, Upper body & good all-round stroke
Breastroke = Legs & good steady pace stroke
Back crawl = Other strokes better for general fitness imo
Butterfly = Upper body, torso & good sprint stroke
So a decent swimming workout would be swimming an hour alternate lengths front crawl & breastroke, with say six (every 10 minutes) 50m butterfly sprints.
