swimming

this is the shit. Since i started swimming every second morning my fight gas has gone up tenfold. beats the hell outta running and it doesnt fuck your knees!

 

Exactly, I use swimming as cross training every weekend. Plus the girls are wearing bikini's get a tan. The only thing though it fucks up my MP3 player.

 

gah i wish i knew how to breathe doign freestyle or i would swim a lot more. I JUST CANT FIGFURE IT OUT UIAHWSAS

 

If you can get your hands on a kickboard you can practice the breating seperate from the arms so you don't sink. Hold the kickboard out in front of you (lying horizontal in the water) and do flutter kicks with your feet. Put your face in the water so you looking pretty much straight down. Blow air out your nose as you kick along with your face pointing down. When you need air, turn your head to the side. For the first breath turn to one side and for the second breath turn to the other side, and so on. When you get more comfortable with this, turning and breathing, see if you can give it a try without the board, but still with both hands in front. When you need air, first pull with one arm, under the water (doing the stroke, basically) and when it is bent back, turn your head to the side and breath under your arm pit. THe hand returns to his position in front of you and you wait til you need to breath in again (rememebr to keep blowing bubles out your nose) before you repeat with the other arm. This is a drill to get you used to the breathing and pulling rhythm. When you do the actual stroke, you do not pause in the front and wait to need air, you keep pulling. When you are proficient at it and swimming most distances, you do not need to breath every stroke. You breathe in odd numbered intervals anywhere from every third to every 9th stroke (9th is pushing it IMO, I find 5 very comformatable).

A quick comment about the pull, because if you have trouble breathing your pulling stroke might not be perfect either. Your arm should be fully extended in front of your when you begin the pull (this is very important for a good eficient stroke and not just splashing around futily) and the pull should be strong and steady back, feeling the power in it. It should be close to your body. When you put the hand in the water in front of you (as far out as you can remember) it should slide easily into the water (not making a splash) and should be at your body center (lef to right).

Hope some of that helps. You can hold onto the edge (instead of a kickboard) to practice breathing or kicking if you want (I do it to practice kicking sometimes). And if you really cannot get this freestyle down (I was terrible at learnign to swim, it took me forever, but now I am good at it and love it) you can do the rbeast stroke if you know it. The breaststroke is probably more dificult to perfect with the breathing and the timing, but that doesn't matter hardly at all if you are just swimming to get fit and don't care about perfect form. Doing breast stroke, try not to bob up and down too much, breath in as close to the surface as you can, and remember to pull in close to your body (not out wide) as you get way way mroe power out of it and a much better workout. I have done whoel swim workouts with just breast stroke and no freestyle at all (sometimes because of shoulder problems) and it is great. I always use goggles because I swim with contacts and the clourine bothers my eyes, but if you don't want to get your face wet, a breast stroke variation where you just don't put your face in, can be a good workout.

 

Check out this site, http://www.totalimmersion.net/ Click on the Choose Bandwidth button to watch Flash videos of body and head position. Scroll down in the window and watch the Freestyle Made Easy video, then copy.

 

Cool, thanks for posting this. I am out on injury and as part of my rehab I have to swim every other day....I've been wondering how it will affect my fight stamina once I can return to training, so I am very glad to hear this.

 

Yeah, swimming is great. That's why many triathletes use it in their routines. I think it's great exercise -It works out every muscle in your body, barely any stress on your joints, and it's great for endurance.

 

jajaja, was this a joke? Triatheletes use it int heir routines because that is what they compete in. That is like saying that running is great for you, and as proof, marathon runners base there routines around it. Of course they do! But the toher stuff you said I agree with.

 

good post

 

does it matter what kind of swimming you do (free style, breast, butterfly, etc.)?

 

I agree with you but I said Triatheletes because they are arguably the best conditioned athletes in the world, IMO.

I was just giving an example because swimming in their training routines has helped them out in competiton(I know it's a really bad example).

 

Freestyle is the quickest of the four strokes, butterfly is undoubtedly the hardest and breaststroke is probably the one which allows you to swim furthest without fatigue.

 

On the note of which stroke to use... Ive been swimming since about age 4, and swam competitivley in middle school /part of high school for an aquatics association and without a doubt owe my punching and kicking power to the butterfly. Id get stuck in every medley we did doing butterfly and so thats mostly all i did in practices too. Beyond my little ramble, id say swim as much as you can, and push yourself at least 25% of your laps to do fly.

Edit - By the way im now 6'2 230, so whether you are a cut 5'11 165lb or fall into the heavyweight class I beleive everyone can benefit from some laps in the pool.

 

Yes, freestyle is the quikest, yes butterfly is the hardest, but for your third assertation, I am not so sure. I will say maybe. A hard sprint breast stroke wears me out completely a lot faster than freestyle and I cannot even move my arms sometimes after an all out effort. No matter how hard I swim the freestyle, it never uses my muscle power that much. But for long term purposes, what stroke to guys swim the English channel or the Atnlantic Ocean using? Freestyle, I believe. But you did leave out an important contender for swimming farthest without fatigue, and that is backstroke. If you are stranded at sea sometime, or int he middle of a large lake, this might be the best choice because your face is not in the water and you can relax and not have to worry about breathing so much. You probably said breast stroke because it can be done very slowly and relaxed (and possibly with your out fo the water) where as if you slow the freestyle down that much, your feet sink and you still ahve to worry about breathing.

 

Not really, no. If you are just in it for the fitness benefits, it doesn't matter, IMO. If you are stranded at sea, or fleeing an angry shark, or training to compete in a swimming event, then it would matter. I sort of prefer breast stroke for its similarity to pullups and grappling sort of motions (both the arms and the legs) and I seem to be able to use more muscle power in that stroke than freestyle, good for certain types of workouts. But when I want a longer distance, more cardio absed workout, I throw in more freestyle, mixing in an ocasional lap of something else.

 

lol muerte thanks a lot for the help youve given on this subject and many others...

i have gotten my rhythm better but i do run short of air quickly. Something that i think i jsut need to get through with practice. Havent been hitting the pools much.

 

buy a pair of webbed gloves or other device for the hand to aid your stroke. And also buy a pair of modified fins made for the swimmer/exerciser. These items allow you to get a much longer workout. also of course a kickboard is great for isolating lower extremities and a floatation device for between your legs allows you to isolate upper extremities.

I'm also toying with the idea of getting a snorkle to use at times so i can just go back and fourth without having to come up for air. In theory it sounds like it might work.

 

god i wish i had access to a pool or ocean or lake or whatever so i could do some swimming. you guys are lucky.

 

Your assumptions are correct. I remember going swimming a couple of years ago after a hiatus of 18 or so months. I completed 100 25m laps in just over an hour all using breaststroke with sporadical laps of freestyle thrown in.

 

can swimming replace running as ones base cardio ??

my knee and nakle is bung so i cant really run consistantly