Summer is coming and you’ve decided that this is the year to trade in your running shoes for goggles. Maybe you’ve pinched a knee and need a less taxing form of cardio, maybe you just can’t handle your outdoor bootcamp class when it’s 90 degrees.
Whatever your reason for taking to the water, swimming is one of the best exercises you can do for your health. It’s a total-body workout, putting stress on your arms and legs, as well as your cardiovascular system, but it puts less strain on your joints than most other exercises. And on a hot summer day, the cool water is a good place to sweat.
According to Hirofumi Tanaka, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Texas at Austin, swimming similar cardiovascular benefits such as running or other endurance sports. Research in his lab also suggests that a regular swimming program can low bloodpressure and soothes stiff arteries in older adults.
“Swimming is really an underrated, sneaky good form of exercise,” said Dr. Tanaka. “Exercise should involve large muscle groups, be rhythmic in nature and tax cardiovascular functions. Swimming fits perfectly with it.”
But where to start? As a novice, it can be intimidating to do a lap track. Below are some tips from professional coaches to make 30 minutes at the pool an effective workout.
Start slow.
“You wouldn’t immediately go out and say, ‘I’m going to run 10 miles,'” said Cokie Lepinski, a U.S. Masters Swimming coach in Surprise, Ariz. “Same with swimming.”
Get some good swimming goggles (a swimming cap and kickboard can be helpful, but not necessary) and start swimming – down and back the length of the pool – without stopping. Usually people swim freestyle when they train because it is the most efficient stroke, but you can vary it if you have a strong preference or want some variety.
Most U.S. recreational pools are 25 yards long, so one lap is 50 yards, two laps is 100 yards, and so on. Olympic pools are twice as long while home pools vary, so make sure you know the length. Also, many serious swimmers count one lap as one pool length, so be sure to clarify if you’re working with a trainer.
If one round feels easy, do two with a short break (10 to 20 seconds) in between. Build up gradually, increasing the number of rounds and decreasing the frequency of breaks, but don’t overdo it on your first day – no more than 10 rounds in total.
“When it comes to swimming, it’s about consistency, so start where you are,” says Cullen Jones, a four-time Olympic medalist who coaches youth swimming. “Make sure what you do is manageable. Make sure you can do it again the next day or in two days.”
Focus on form.
If your last swimming lesson was in grade school, here are a few tips to keep in mind. First, you want your body to be on top of the water as much as possible. The easiest way to do that is to keep your head down and look at the bottom of the pool.
“If you lift your head and look at the wall,” says Fares Ksebati, a founder and chief executive of the swimming app MySwimPro, “your legs will sink and that will create a lot of resistance.”
Your kick will also help you stay balanced on the water. In fact, unless you’re sprinting, pedaling is more important for posture than propulsion. Kick just enough to keep your hips and legs on the water so they don’t drag you down. “The biggest mistake novice swimmers make is kicking too much,” said Mr. Ksebati. “The legs use the most blood, so if you pedal a lot, you tire much faster.”
When you’re racing, you can kick your legs into a higher gear, like mr jones did in the 50-meter freestyle sprint at the 2012 Olympics, but if you’re swimming for endurance or general fitness, imitate someone like distance swimmer Katie Ledeckywhose legs barely make waves, to save energy and focus more on balance and alignment.
Another mistake beginners make is staying too flat in the water. Instead, you want to subtly rock back and forth. With your fingertips touching the surface, extend your arm as far as possible while rotating your hips and shoulders slightly. Try this on dry land: Stand on tiptoe with one arm extended above your head. If you slide your hip and shoulder up and forward, you can probably get a few inches higher. Now put that in the water.
“If you can rotate your shoulders and hips with each stroke and reach a few inches more, you’re essentially lengthening your stroke, and that will make you more efficient,” explained Mr. Ksebati out.
Another way to increase your efficiency is to create more power with each stroke. As you pull your arm down through the water, try to get your forearm perpendicular to the bottom of the pool. Your fingertips should be spaced slightly apart — less than an inch — to get the most power.
Don’t worry about alternate breathing if one feels more comfortable than the other. The goal is to maintain a rhythm. “Every time your face is in the water, you exhale,” Ms. Lepinski said. “Every time you come up, you have a nice, measured inhale.”
Go in intervals.
Once you can easily do eight rounds, try some interval training. For serious swimmers, workouts are structured like strength training, broken up into sets rather than going for 30 minutes at a time.
To do this, you need to understand an interval formula that is used in almost all swimming workouts. Intervals are usually described by two numbers: 1) the number of reps and 2) the distance in yards of each rep as a multiple of 25 (the length of the pool). Short rest breaks are built in after each rep. For example, a 2×50 means swimming 50 meters (down and back), taking a 10-second break, and then swimming another lap. For a 4×25, swim the same distance, but rest each time you touch one side. A 1×100 means swimming two laps in a row and then resting. All three intervals total 100 meters, but they are swum at different speeds.
Tailor your intervals to your goals. If you want a higher intensity workout, swim shorter intervals at a faster pace. If you want to work on endurance, swim longer distances at a slower pace with fewer breaks. For example, a 4×25 is typically swum during a sprint, while a 1×100 is usually a slower endurance-focused interval.
“If you swim the same pace every day,” said Ms. Lepinski, “you don’t get as much benefit.” First, she added, interval training is more fun. “And two, it just challenges your heart a little bit better.”
Mr. Ksebati and Ms. Lepinski said a good workout for beginners or advanced riders is 1,000 to 1,500 meters, or 20 to 30 laps, which would take about half an hour. Start with a short warm-up—perhaps a 4×50 at a leisurely pace—to get your heart rate up. You can mix different strokes, do chest or backstroke instead of freestyle for a bit of variety. Then do a 4×25 with a kickboard to activate your legs.
Then comes the main set, or most of your workout. If you’re working on speed, do 8×50 (eight rounds with a break after each) at a brisk pace. If you want to increase stamina, try a ladder at a moderate pace, ascending and then descending the length of your intervals: 1×50, 1×100, 1×200, 1×100, 1×50.
Finally comes the cool-down, another 4×50 swim at a relaxed pace. You can take a longer break — one or two minutes — between the warm-up, main set, and cool-down.
It’s a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of the language, you can do almost any swimming workout. Do you want even more structure or a goal to work towards? Apps like MySwimPro offer custom workout plans, or you can find your local one US Masters Swimming team. (In the swimming world, “masters” just means mature.)
Most of all, enjoy the process. For many swimmers, the water is not only a place to exercise, it is also a refuge. “It’s hard to think about the stress of the world when you think, ‘When’s my next breath? Where’s the end of the pool? What set am I on?’” Ms Lepinski said. slip, the world goes away.”
Dana Smith is an award-winning health and science writer based in Durham, North Carolina.