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Swimming laps - waste of time?

K

KWBish

New member
On non-lift days I try and stick to cardio, I tend to run, sometimes go out on my bike but a friend of mine has just bought a resistance pool, and he says I can use it any time and to be honest I've always preferred swimming, just never get to the pool when it's quiet enough for me. But how good is swimming laps? Am I wasting my time? Also, I worry about the effect on my shoulders, I mostly do front crawl. Any thoughts?
 
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Just felt like this thread needed this image.
fat_bellyflop-12466.jpg
 
Swimming is a good low impact cardio session.
Also depends how hard you go, like anything. There's a difference between sprints and running 10km. Same with swimming. Swim up and back, do ten squats in the water or tricep dips on the side, have a min rest and do it again. Ten of those will have you gasping for air and pumped shoulders!! Also great for midsection.


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Swimming is good I enjoy the odd free style session. It's better than sitting on your ass correct?
 
As mentioned already swimming is a great low impact sport and good for rehabilitation for injuries in regards to being an aid in muscle reconditioning.

You can use it as a cardio session, HIIT, or endurance building depending. If you use paddles/pullbouy/flippers/kickboard work which allows you can focus on resistance training. You can do drills that focus on specific muscle types aswell.

If your not a strong swimmer, i'd start with drills focusing on technique.

there are plenty of adult swimming clubs out there that you can join to do classes to improve your technique if your not sure. :)
 
I suppose at the end of the day, any cardio is better than none. I read somewhere that swimming can slow down recovery time after muscle strains but can't remember where I read it!
 
Swimming is great anaerobic exercise, but pretty easily becomes aerobic. It's not intense cardio, but if you don't do it often its a great change to a workout
 
Swimming is not a great anaerobic exercise as it only works a muscle through the positive not the negative, not sure what I mean?

If you stand in water and do a curl, friction is applied by the water, in the positive moment the bicep is working, in the negative portion the tripe is working.

Is swimming good for muscle growth? Not really
Is swimming good for joints, maybe, but that's what proper weight training is for.
Is swimming for for heart and lung health, now we are getting somewhere, but for effacy moving from one weight bearing exercise to another quickly for 15 to 30 minutes will garner better results.
 
As an aside.

The negative portion of the exercise is where it all happens, this where the stimulus for growth occurs, if you did a workout exclusively doing *heavy negative* only you would overtrain rapidly and be very sore for days, even after regular workouts.
Negative encentuated exercise doesn't tax the respitory system.

*using a weight you cannot lift on your own, using two people to lift the weight and you lower it slowly on your own and repeat, you continue until you are unable to control the weight on the negative.

So good is negative training, it can be used with rehab work.
 
Cardio is cardio.

If you are doing it for heart health just do what you enjoy and something not likely to have you injured all the time.

Nothing really special or bad about swimming.
 
The experts say that an duration of intense swimming burns 660 calories, as many as operating six miles in an time. It is rated among the best cardio exercise fitness activities. Three hours per week of swimming, if constant over several months, will bring amazing training, not only aerobically, but also with regards to muscular strength and flexibility.
 
Hey, your cardiovascular system is always engaged...when standing talking to someone, your hearts beating your bloods circulating and your lungs are taking in air and expelling carbon dioxide 24-7.

The only way to get your cardiovascular system to work harder is by performing mechanical work with muscles.
 
I've been swimming every morning for half an hour since the op. I feel fit, it's low impact and great for stomach and shoulders plus lung capacity. I enjoy it and find it hard work
 
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