Hit the Pool – Swimming for Exercise
When competitive swimmer Michael Phelps burst into the public eye at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, a swimming craze swept over the nation. Parents all over the United States began putting their children in private swimming clubs. Public swimming pools were inundated with people learning to swim or trying to improve their times. People who had stopped swimming long ago were inspired to get back in the pool; some, for the first time in years. And, while most of these people might never compete at a world-class level, that doesn’t detract from the fact that swimming is great exercise, and a good habit for a healthy life.
If you’re just starting out as a swimmer, it’s important to ease into a good workout regimen. You want to start off with workouts lasting no more than fifteen to twenty minutes at an easy pace. If you overexert yourself, this could lead to injury, which would confine you poolside indefinitely. You shouldn’t work out more than three or four times a week. Once again, you don’t want to overexert yourself. A good way to make sure that you’re not overtaxing yourself is to monitor your heart rate and make sure that it’s not excessive. Once you’re comfortable maintaining this regimen, you can gradually begin to increase the duration and frequency of your workouts.
You may also want to introduce different strokes into your repertoire. People are most familiar with the freestyle, or the “front crawl” stroke. It’s generally the fastest stroke. Three other strokes common to serious swimmers are the backstroke, the breaststroke, and the butterfly. And, although they aren’t swum competitively, you could also choose to use the sidestroke or the dog paddle. There are many different styles of swimming, and it’s a good idea to pick up a few different styles so that you can vary your workout.
Swimmers who compete on the world circuit train for hours every day in order to keep themselves in peak physical condition. These swimmers must train for years in order to improve to a level at which they can swim competitively. But if all you’re looking for is a fun and easy way to get enough exercise, then you’ve found what you’re looking for. Swimming allows you to use different strokes so that you don’t get bored with your workout, and it’s a low-impact exercise, which is great news for your knees. Try it out and you’ll see that swimming is as fun as it is good for you.
