Methodology to swimming laps

[alphonsis]

I've started to pickup swimming for various reasons; to lose weight (and thus, drop lead), decrease my sac rate, and general cardiovascular health.

However, I seem to lack the stamina to do lap after lap of the crawl. I find that after about 75m I get very tired and start running low on air requiring me to breathe just about every stroke.

So, would it be better to swim slower (although I don't feel I'm swimming particularly fast), change strokes, stop to take a breather every so often and maintain the same pace (what I'm doing now), or perhaps something else?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Green_Manelishi]

I've started to pickup swimming for various reasons; to lose weight (and thus, drop lead), decrease my sac rate, and general cardiovascular health.

However, I seem to lack the stamina to do lap after lap of the crawl. I find that after about 75m I get very tired and start running low on air requiring me to breathe just about every stroke.

So, would it be better to swim slower (although I don't feel I'm swimming particularly fast), change strokes, stop to take a breather every so often and maintain the same pace (what I'm doing now), or perhaps something else?

Thanks in advance.

Is there a problem with having to breathe on every stroke? If you have to breathe you have to breathe. Stick with it and if you are doing it "correctly" you eventually be able breathe less often. You might also want, regardless, to change strokes every so often just to vary the muscles involved.

 

[jchull]

Are you alternating sides on which you breathe? Make sure you glide, and keep your head down, or "push the buoy" down with your chest. If you want to learn more about technique, I bought the book and DVD from this guy: Total Immersion Swimming when I was doing triathlons, and it improved my swimming massively, I went from not being able to finish a 500m swim to middle-of the pack out of the water for a half iron (1900m) in a year. It was not my conditioning, but technique, I feel.

The things that I would look at, due to the shortness of breath description, would be long, slow strokes and deep breaths.

 

[alphonsis]

Is there a problem with having to breathe on every stroke? If you have to breathe you have to breathe. Stick with it and if you are doing it "correctly" you eventually be able breathe less often. You might also want, regardless, to change strokes every so often just to vary the muscles involved.

I guess I'm comparing myself to the other swimmers at the pool who seem to come up for air every other set of strokes.

 

[Green_Manelishi]

I guess I'm comparing myself to the other swimmers at the pool who seem to come up for air every other set of strokes.

That might be but perhaps they've been at it for some time. I swam 3-4 days per week for a few years. During the last year I started adding intervals and eventually was able to cross the pool on one long exhale. Stick with it and don't be too concerned with what others are doing.

 

[pickens_46929]

One thing that I found that helped was to alternate days where I went for distance one day and the next day I went for speed. Technique is king though. Smooth and steady.

Beyond that, mixing up the strokes helped a bit as well. So that after the bulk of the laps were done with crawl, I switched to breast stroke to get *one* more lap.

 

[northen diver]

I've started to pickup swimming for various reasons; to lose weight (and thus, drop lead), decrease my sac rate, and general cardiovascular health.

However, I seem to lack the stamina to do lap after lap of the crawl. I find that after about 75m I get very tired and start running low on air requiring me to breathe just about every stroke.

So, would it be better to swim slower (although I don't feel I'm swimming particularly fast), change strokes, stop to take a breather every so often and maintain the same pace (what I'm doing now), or perhaps something else?

Thanks in advance.

I would suggest that if you have a local YMCA that you sign up for a few swim lessons. Most of the people that teach the swim lessons are on the high school or college swim teams. You can get so much more out of a trainer from them watching your strokes, looking at your cardio conditioning and your muscle mass. Swimming is like running. What type of running do you want to do. Distance, sprints, hill training etc etc. You can just go out and run or swim and that is a really good goal. But, if you want to maximize your efforts and to crank up your distance or speed seek out a trainer before you start developoing bad habits that may be hard to break......

 

[sarita75]

I also swim and find that I have the same problem - swimming a lot of crawl. However, I have found that I trained myself to swim more and more by setting goals. For example- I swim 1 lap (down and back) crawl, catch my breath by doing side on length, then do 3 of breast stroke, then back to crawl. Use the resting strokes for resting but maintaining your movement (like walking rather than running) but make sure that you don't loose sight of your goal of doing more crawl.

As well, consider using a kickboard sometimes to work on your legs. I am not a great swimmer though, so take my suggestions for what they are worth.

And more importantly - don't get frustrated. Enjoy your swimming - zen out and keep at it! It's not a competition.

 

[dkatchalov]

The key to swimming is to slowly increase your distance over the space of several months and swim regularly.

Begin by swimming a certain distance continously (non stop) until you are exhausted. Take a short break & get your breath back. Continue to swim until you are exhausted. Rest. Continue to swim. With time you will increase your non-stop distance and reduce your breaks until you are swimming continuosly.

Some strength training (especially free weights) is useful as well as other cardio training (bike, running).

I used the above method and when I started I could not swim 100m non-stop. In about 12 months, I can swim 1.5km non-stop in under 30 minutes. Breathing and stroke technique are key though and you need to be aware of your efficiency moving through the water. Long, slow strokes are king but it will take you a while to stop thrashing around in the water and begin to glide. Stick with it, persist and with regular swimming you will be fine.

 

[divingyogini]

I recommend mixing up your strokes as your work up your stamina to be able to do continual crawls. I also recommend mixing up your strokes so you work your joints in different ranges of motion. The breast stroke uses different joint actions than does the crawl, and is a great way to balance the work load, which is a great way to prevent overuse injuries. In fact, my swim regimen is maybe 40% crawl, 30% breast stroke and 30% side stroke, back stroke and elementary back stroke (or inverted breast stroke) which is my favorite because it feels soooo good on the neck. If I were good at butterfly I would add that in too, but I never liked butterfly. I would do more backstroke, but it's hard to do that in a shared lane.

I like to do intervals of a crawl sprint length (or lap) followed by a breast stroke recovery length in addition to doing multiple laps of crawl and other strokes.

The recommendation to get a lesson is a great one - you can learn so much from a good swim instructor, even in a couple of lessons.