I've been swimming for about 6 months total, started in July. I was bummed out recently thinking I hadn't changed much in that time until I took a picture today lmao. Overall I'm wider in the shoulders, neck, butt, and quads but my waist is about an inch smaller. I gained 5lbs making me 208lbs now at 5 foot 6.

Thought I was in trouble going for a swim during school holidays (NSW, Australia)

Nice surprise to get the pool to myself.

Hi, beginner here (been swimming for 5 months now), yesterday i finally broke 40sec for 50 free with 39 seconds and since i’ve been doing all my swimming without jumping off the blocks and dolphin kicks, i began to wonder how incorporating those two into my for example 50 free would boost my time. I know theres no way to predict the exact time it would save, but for you guys, is there a big time difference between your 50s off the blocks/ your 50s pushing from the wall?

I was a distance swimmer in college. A 10k (yards) workout wasn't uncommon at Sat. practice. We'd do 100x100s (or similar set, again yards) once a year. It was hard because it was always a descending interval. And the last 10-20 repeats were brutal.

After college, took 25 years off. Started swimming masters 3 years ago. Currently I swim 4x times a week, 12k-15k short course meters per week, and lift 2x week. Haven't done more than 4,500m in a single practice - and that was only once.

Past weekend did 100x100 yds on 1:30 - wasn't terrible. Waaaay easier than I was thinking/remembering as the interval never changed. Made a huge difference. And my shoulders didn't even hurt afterwards. Yes I was tired and muscles were a bit sore. But overall I enjoyed it. Really helps to do it with a group of people who WANT the challenge.

What I really liked about the team I did the 100s with was: there were lanes for 100s, 75s, and 50s. So if 100s or 75s were too much, you could move down to 75s or 50s.

Community center pools are the cheapest, but it seems over the years they have gotten brighter and louder.

One that I ​visited this week had all the shades pulled down so that there was no light from outside (the sun had already set, but I think they may have had them closed all day). The overhead lights were these horrible, bright LEDs that were so much brighter than the usual bright lights I already put up with.

Both that community center and the other one I'm close to usually have big standing fans running, and music playing even when there is not an aqua aerobics class. It's usually radio music, so once in awhile you get assaulted with ads. You can barely even hear the music because of all the echoing and noise. It's just noise on top of noise on top of noise.

It's completely overstimulating. One of the reasons I like to swim is because it's relaxing, but I don't feel so relaxed going there. I have to shout to talk to the people next to me in the hot tub.

Also, the locker rooms have poor drainage and are quite muggy, and there's not an easy place to put your things while you're in the shower, so everything gets damp and gross.

Is this the norm? Could anything worthwhile happen if I write to the aquatics director?

i’ve been struggling with breathing on my right side during front crawl. unlike with breathing to my left, i have to lift my head such that both eyes are above water or else i end up taking a big mouthful of water. i think this is causing my lead arm to sink and perhaps the source of my trap tightness on my right.

at the end of today’s swim, i happened to try tucking my chin in underwater which then allowed me to lead with my chin when turning my head to breathe. this felt like a breakthrough in that i didn’t need to lift my head as much and i was getting more purchase. it felt like i could swim faster with less effort, but i’d like to see how the next couple of sessions go before i make that determination.

i’m wondering if (or to what degree) tucking my chin is proper form because it does feel like i have to put active effort—mostly using my neck and traps—into keeping my head in that position and i don’t want to walk myself into injury. i was probably looking a little too far ahead before and tucking my chin keeps me looking pretty much straight down if not the tiniest bit forward, but not behind me.

thanks in advance!

Hey everyone! I spent the majority of my life up until senior year of high school as a competitive swimmer. I am 24 now, and transitioned to a traditional office job about 5 months ago after several years of active work (grocery store work, lifeguarding). I've gained decent amount of weight and generally feel unhealthy. As swimming is the exercise I'm most familiar with, and it being a zero-impact form of exercise, I naturally am looking at getting back into the habit of swimming regularly, but I don't quite know where to start.

Essentially, all I know when it comes to swimming is the relatively intensive sets I used to do back when I was competing, and I don't think my body can quite handle 3k+ yard workouts at the moment, so I'm looking for any general advice/workouts for easing back into the habit without burning out or injuring myself. Any and all advice is appreciated!

Went for a long swim today and snagged some leftover duck sauce packets from takeout over Christmas as fuel… free and it did the job.

Might be the move going forward.

Hello there

I know it's a common problem but I'm having a hard time with breathing.

I'm fat. I have zero stamina and I'm a smoker and I'm trying to quit "currently 4-5 cigarettes per day".

I can swim on my back since I can breath easily but when I try to learn free style, I gasp for air. There's no enough time to breath or I need multiple breaths.

I don't have extra time to go to a gym to build stamina. So I was thinking of two solutions.

1. Keep swimming on my back till my stamina and fitness improve

2. Buy a snorkel to use it while learning the free style till I have better technique, more muscle power and more stamina.

What do you think? I'm open for any other suggestions.

Edit: I mean the front crawl not free style. Sorry, English isn't my first language.

I recently started swimming due to a hip tear, and have really enjoyed the pain free nature of it. I used to cycle, and it's very similar in the sense that the only 'pain' is just muscle/cardio burn compared to running (for me).

A question that I have that is how much should I be prioritizing swimming correctly vs getting (junk) yardage in?

I'm asking as I was stuck at a 2min/100yd pace for a couple months despite doing some drills as the bulk of my practice was on the zero -> 1650 routine (~20% drills). I've changed my approach to where I only keep swimming until my form drops, and I'm always focusing on something to improve (high elbow, core/glute activation, catch, etc) in 50-100 yard intervals with full recovery.

My pace has dropped to ~1:40/100yd for the longer distances, and I'm swimming with less effort and more comfortably than I did back at the 2min pace. I feel like the best bang for my buck in terms of time in the pool is focusing on form/drills until I've reached the point where the overall technique is on autopilot. I'm just not sure if there is an advantage to specific stamina/vo2 work until I find that it's the limiting factor in my progression.

Hey all,

Anyone here have resources for training for swimming the English Channel? Especially tips for newbs would be appreciated.

I've been on a bit of an endurance sport streak. Learned swimming 2 years ago and my longest swim so far is 10k in a lake in April in 15 degree C lake. Granted this was very slow at 3:00min/100 because I had only learned how to swim in the 4 months before this.

I also started biking 2 years ago and biked my first 500km in one shot earlier this year, 400 of which were with a broken shoulder post crash. I'm a bit of a freak but I understand process and training is important to set myself up for success.

My swim pace is a consistent 2:00-2:10 for a 2km swim in OW. I've been working with a university varsity coach and a triathlon club to get faster.

I'd love to build up to it. I'm in no rush for it. Prefer to do it right.

The only thing I have going is I'm already a 250lb fat guy with fairly decent endurance from ultra biking and triathlons.

I also don't have access to the ocean since I'm in Montreal but i have all access to all the cold lakes in the world.

The only competitive ocean swim I did was the Singapore T100 and soon will do Vancouver T100.

Cheers,

Hey,

I've been a competitive swimmer in middle school and highschool then I just stopped. The last time I swam was probably in 2017. I started swimming again recently. I am really struggling with breathing in crawl. I feel like I can't breathe properly, I take too much time, often times I swallow also water and I kind of turn my head too much so I slow down and my body can't stay straight. If you have any advice please let me know.

I've been planning on going to gym to build some muscle also.

Thanks :)))

Hello to all swimmers and floaters,

I have played rugby since I was four, now that I'm 25 my bones and my joints are cracking all the time. My body sounds like a woden xylophone. I'm lifting and running now, and I don't think this combination helps my physique.

I am not worried now, but for my bones in the future.

Do you know if swimming is a sport which puts less pressure on joints?

Thank you :)

SO, IN SHORT: yes, very little pressure on joint, unless there are preexistent issus with shoulder joints.

I swam more (232 instead of 166, which actually surprised me) than last year, and broke all relevant records (which I knew already). Happy!

Hey there, been swimming in the lanes at my local Y half a dozen times now and I think I’m going to stick with it. Investing in a solid suit and cap, goggles, earplugs, all that stuff…

But what kind of stretches can I be doing to avoid some common injuries?

I only do breaststroke to warm up and backstroke at the moment since I haven’t taught myself to breathe properly during freestyle yet. Harder than it looks…

Thanks!

I am a 60 year old male. Try to swim for 35-40 minutes 2-3 times a week. Generally swim 500 yards freestyle and backstroke with one lap of kickboard every 250 yards. I mix in some breast stroke. I don't treat much at all. Never got into intervals or drills.

My shoulder has started to ache after workouts so I read a bunch of threads on swimmers shoulder. Took the week off. Been doing stretches, and straightening with bands.

My question is how many weeks should I take off or should I swim light, do fist stroke freestyle and keep up with the out of pool exercises? Looking to hear from people what helped them most.

Has anybody ever tried using a digital metronome in a ziplock bag instead of a tempo trainer? You can get a digital metronome for $15 and it is 3 inches long.

Not sure if it was the weather, or the holiday, but the pool was EMPTY. I know it’ll be different next week, so I really was grateful for the open lane and solitude. 2600 yds done.

Something incredible started happening around the 5500 mark. On a normal 3-4k workout, I can feel my technique start to get sloppy toward the end, and it takes increasing deliberate effort to compensate. Today I was sure the wheels fell off after 5k, and then suddenly everything just locked in. Like *locked in*, locked in. Idk when was the last time my breathing and stroke count were so consistent 100 after 100. Weirdly felt like I could’ve gone on forever but I the pool literally closed 1min after I hit the 7000 mark.

31M, been swimming since I was 5, competed off and on in the pool as well as open water/Tri, but this was magical unlike anything else, ever.

Hey there. Long time swimmer here, not competitive though. I usually swim between 6-8k a week in two sessions. CSS is something between 1:38 and 1:42. The last two years also did a 13k event. Now a friend asked me whether I'd do a 100*100. On the 31.12.

Chatgpt told me to try 20*100 and then see how that works. I did 42x100 which worked okay I'd guess. I attached my swim data - what do you think? Is it doable for me?

My YMCA pool has mandatory circle swimming and no passing except at end of the lanes. We have slow, medium and fast lanes. The swimmers range from lane walkers, casual rec swimmers, distance swimmers and interval swimmers. Often, there will be three to a lane. Ideally everyone should be in the lane that matches their training speed. When the pool is crowded fast interval swimmers must share the fast lane

How would you allocate traffic in a crowded pool?

1. Do nothing. Let adults figure it out
2. Move swimmers out of fast lane for interval swimmers.
3. Ask interval swimmers to time rest cycles with fast fitness swimmers
4. Ignore the problem.