The swimming thread

[Knight_Errant]

Well, I just went swimming in a pool (I usually swim in rivers) for the first time in, probably 7 years, and I really enjoyed it :) I have a couple of questions though:
1. What's the best way to warm up for swimming? I felt a bit tight during my first length
2. Got any good progressions for the main part? so far I've just done 4 lengths, rested for a minute and repeated.
Any other swimmers out there? I was surprised at what good cardio it was.

[slipthejab]

I do a fair bit of open water swimming FWIW. Swimming can be real tough on the neck and shoulders. Do you breath both sides or do you breath only single sided?
You'll want to warm them up before you hit the water. Neck rotations and be gentle going through the back... rotator cuff rotations (both internal and external), cubans etc are all for warming up the shoulders etc. You won't be going for deep long held stretches but just a enough to get the mobility going. Get some blood flowing first with some bodyweight squats, lunges and such.

[Knight_Errant]

I do a fair bit of open water swimming FWIW. Swimming can be real tough on the neck and shoulders. Do you breath both sides or do you breath only single sided?
I generally do breast stroke, but when I crawl I breathe single sided.
You'll want to warm them up before you hit the water. Neck rotations and be gentle going through the back... rotator cuff rotations (both internal and external), cubans etc are all for warming up the shoulders etc. You won't be going for deep long held stretches but just a enough to get the mobility going. Get some blood flowing first with some bodyweight squats, lunges and such.
OK, so just a general sort of limbering up. Cool.
Open water swimming sounds like the real deal. I had to give up on my favourite swimming hole recently, as I found out a family of rats were also using it. Sadness :(

[slipthejab]

Ha if I stopped swimming here because of rats or roaches or medical waste I may never get the chance to swim. :D

One thing you want to be cool with is making sure you stretch down well and that your diet is good. In the pool maybe it's not as risky to forgo that... but open water the cramp for whatever reason is to be expected. Since I was a kid we'd always wind my mom up by eating and then jumping right into the pool to swim. You've undoubtedly heard the old wives tale "Don't swim after you eat, you'll cramp and drown" ... well eating and playing the pool as a kid never did it... but... several times in open water... I've cramped in the hamstrings and I can see how it can immediately go very, very wrong. For me it came down some ZMA supplements and a rigorous post swim stretch. That seemed to alleviate it. Anywho.

[Knight_Errant]

Yes I've been through that experience myself in rivers. Stomach cramps are horrible. A relation on my mother's side actually died through having stomach cramps in open water.
So it's probably perfectly safe to go skinny dipping with the rats? I'd welcome this news with open arms because apart from Mr. Rat it's a perfectly good swimming river. There are damselflies and salmon.

[Old_kyokushin]

Go swim in your river you lucky bugger :)


Osu!

[Kuma]

Here's a few routine ideas:

http://www.stewsmith.com/linkpages/swimmingoptions.htm

Swimming is something I miss. I don't get a chance to go to pools much anymore and I was always a strong swimmer and really enjoyed it.

[slipthejab]

Ah yeah the Stew Smith stuff has been around a while. Good stuff that.

[Kuma]

Ah yeah the Stew Smith stuff has been around a while. Good stuff that.

Stew's a great guy. His workouts are intense but if you can finish them you'll be in fantastic shape. I've had the pleasure of trading e-mails with him and he's also a very approachable and generous guy. I ordered one of his programs to prepare for the Best Warrior competition (an event held by the US Army that as you progress you eventually become one of the finalists to compete in an Army-wide contest) and told him so, and he actually sent me a different program in addition to it free of charge telling me to do that one afterwards and to e-mail him any time for additional help. A hamstring pull prevented me from competing (which was my own dumb fault) but for as far as I got I was in great shape.

[Knight_Errant]

Here's a few routine ideas:

http://www.stewsmith.com/linkpages/swimmingoptions.htm

Good stuff, thanks. Of course, I'll have to build up to that- my cardio sucks at the moment.

[righty]

I've started swimming again too. It's one of the few things I can do at the moment and I've got a pool relately close so it works well.

I've been more working on getting time and distance in rather than any particular structured workouts. Got to 2Km recently which I don't think is huge for people who swim regularly but for me it's an achievement.

For warmups I don't really do anything in particular. Just take it easy with the first few laps and include all strokes to get the body moving in slightly different ways.

[Knight_Errant]

So what stroke do you favour? Personally I go for breaststroke because when I'm in the river you're less likely to disturb wildlife that way.

[righty]

I mostly to freestyle with some breaststroke in for a slower or rest lap.

I don't really have to worry about wildlife at the local pool though. The only other plaec I would swim is at the beach in the pretty blue ocean.

[slipthejab]

I mostly use the freestyle stroke... I'll swap out every other lap with alternate side breathing we go for the 500m open water length - the marks are at each 50m here on the beach. After all this time it's still not natural to breathe both sides and in events I still revert to breathing only on one side. The guy I train with is a top 10 Tri competitor in Asia and 4X Iron Man finisher with very respectable times. Even he doesn't breath both sides. Dunno though if that's because we are both hard headed. Could be.

However - to me the epitome of swim strokes has always been the combat swimmers stroke. It's just awesome!!!!

US Navy SEALs Combat Swim - YouTube

And no I cant to do it. I wish... but I need a proper bit of coaching to get it worked out. Very interesting.

[Knight_Errant]

it looks cool, but personally I prefer more 'natural' feeling strokes. It would take me a while to work that one out.

[slipthejab]

In terms of economy of movement and propulsion I think that's probably one of the best strokes out there. My take on swimming it's the rare individual who swims naturally... for people like me everything is artifice. :p I don't actually know a whole lot about the stroke - I'm guessing economy of movement, stealth and endurance are all issues. Interesting stuff anyhow. I've tried to work it out but it looks ridiculous and get nothing but laughs from all my Tri mates. :p

Some more stuff you might be interested in:

Total Immersion Freestyle Ultimate Demo - YouTube

(I've got this whole series and it's really good. There's a whole lot more going on than meets the eye. As you can see their movement, posture and ride is flawless. Very impressive. Was recommended to me by a surfing buddy who is also a competitive water polo player and too strong for his own good. Ugh.)

And of course... some good dry land drills to improve your swim game. I've used these and variations based on these to really good effect with clients who are new to swimming and new to training. Nice bit of core work that has benefits for just about everything. Some of them you may know already:

Faster Swimming Core Training #1 - YouTube

[Kuma]

Once you get it down, the CSS is amazingly efficient.