What's in my swimming routine?

Question

i have been swimming aprox 3/4 times per week doing 40 lengths in just under 1 hour of breast stroke.

Tho i am unsure as to how effective my workout is as swimming isnt as intense as other cardio exercise , as to means of how far is one length? how many calories burned? should i be aiming for more lengths per hour? etc ... is is better to combine with a gyme workout or is it as effective as an hour i the gym?

Answer 1

i think doing the gym and swimming together but swimming does get you great abs!!!

Answer 2

try the front crawl, 160-200 lengths per hour (which are actually easier because its faster) is an average workout, breastroke is hardest

Answer 3

To be honest you'd be better off swimming more freestyle than breaststroke. Even if you specialize at breaststroke you're going to burn off more calories by swimming freestyle and it'll be more of an even pace and, not to mention, you'll actually have a more balanced workout.

Swimming only breaststroke builds up your muscles for breaststroke but it doesn't help with any of the other strokes like freestyle. If you want to burn more calories and not have your body go into breaststroke-only mode (a bad place to be) you should swim more freestyle.

Also as a result of not swimming as much freestyle you've actually got everything backwards in regards to how effective swimming is. Swimming is actually one of the best aerobic exercises for you, it's low-impact on your body and it takes more effort for your body to get fatigued. If you wanted to combine a swimming and a gym workout you should swim first and then use the gym, swimming will prepare you for using the gym, not the other way around as most people expect. 40 minutes in the pool is probably about equivilent to one hour in the gym, in there you have to take breaks a lot but with swimming you can just keep swimming as long as you pace yourself (also for things like tredmills but with weights it's 8 reps, stop, repeat, go to this new machine, adjust the weights ect. and you just waste too much time).

Answer 4

Swimming can be as intense as any other sport, just depends how hard you push yourself, the most I ever swam was a 3 hour training session and we covered just over 12,000 metres, which in a 25 metre pool is 480 lengths (although it was in a 50m pool), thats intense !, that was on a thursday night and still have to get up at 4am on the friday to do another 2 hour session in the pool and 1 hour in the gym.

It depends how comfortable you are with swimming, 40 lengths is fairly slow in an hour but you said you are doing breastroke, so I would say thats probably ok for the average public swimmer, however I would imagine if you carried on non stop for an hour you could get alot more done and that would be better for you, try to carry on when you get a bit tired to work yourself out, but don't carry on if you can't manage it and are starting to sink, aim for 60 lengths in an hour next time, then eventually 80 (its possible)

Swimming when done properly is one of the best things for you, and you are less likely to pull a muscle or injure yourself when swimming

Answer 5

40 lengths in an hour isn't very quick at all, especially in an hour. At my high school practices we would do about 7000 yards in 2 hours (140 laps an hour). That's kind of intense though. A one hour work-out is excellent for general health. Try doing different strokes, especially freestyle (front crawl). Take less time on the wall. Force yourself to take 1/2 the stops on the wall. For breast stroke, try to aim for at least 60 lengths in an hour, freestyle at least 80.

Yes, definetly combine with a different cardio, like running, and maybe some weights too if you have the time. An hour of swimming with a run work-out too will keep you in good shape.