For a lot of us folks finding time to swim gets harder and harder each year that we get older.\u00a0 Work, family and the daily stresses of life seems to pile up.\u00a0 When you do find swim you may not be able to swim with a club or team and then it’s lap swim time on one’s own.\u00a0 Personally I find lap swimming the hardest form of swimming.\u00a0 When swimming a lap swim there is no coach to give you sets and no swim mates to push you and keep you honest about completing those sets.\u00a0 Then on top of all that you must navigate around other swimmers of different abilities.<\/p>\n
But with all that said a lap swim can be one of the best workouts one can do burning up an average 475 calories per hour.\u00a0Since not everyone wanting to do a lap swim is at the same ability I’m going to go over some tips to become a stronger lap swimmer for every level of swimming.<\/p>\n
The Beginner Lap Swimmer<\/strong><\/p>\n I was once a beginner lap swimmer after being out of the pool for over a decade.\u00a0 The key is to start small and build.\u00a0 My first few times swimming I just would swim a 50 or 100 meters\/yards at a time taking 15 to 30 seconds rest.\u00a0 I was only able to swim a total of 500 meters\/yards my first swim but a swim is a swim.\u00a0 Every lap swim I attempted to swim a little bit more each time.\u00a0 I added in some kicking with a kick board to get a little rest and it easily added a fe more yards\/meters.\u00a0 I’d skip the fins at first to you’ve gotten stronger.\u00a0 Fins, paddles and other tools of the pool should be used only after you have mastered the basics.\u00a0 Using swim tools can be like crutches never allowing us to get stronger and these tools can help set in bad habits.<\/p>\n The No Longer A Beginner Lap Swimmer<\/strong><\/p>\n You’ve been doing the lap swim for a while now and your are ready for a challenge.\u00a0 It’s time for a swim workout with sets and all the math that comes with swimming.\u00a0 Oh, you didn’t know your math skills would be tested while swimming but they will be, everyday!\u00a0 Here is a simple 30 minute 1500 yard\/meter workout to start with.<\/p>\n 200 Warm Up – Freestyle, we will stay swimming Freestyle until we feel strong enough to bring on the backstroke, butterfly and the oh so dreaded breaststroke. “Ready To Move Up To The Big Swimmer” Lane Swimmer<\/strong><\/p>\n You’ve done various sets you’ve found on the internet and you think you are getting better at swimming.\u00a0 Now it’s time for you to try Bench Sets.\u00a0 A Bench Set or Breath Through Set is a set that one swimmer will repeat from time to time to see if they are becoming stronger and faster.\u00a0 My old team would have us swim 10×100’s on 3 minutes all out sprint on the first Monday of the month.\u00a0 We’d keep track of our results and that allowed us to see how we were in our training.\u00a0 Of course you’d want to warm up before swimming the 10×100’s all out. Hopefully those set’s will help you get going and slowly improving.\u00a0 As for using hand paddles, pull buoys, fins and other swim tool “toys” you will need to use your best judgement.\u00a0 I usually DO NOT recommend paddles for beginner swimmers or any swimmer with shoulder or rotator cuff injuries.\u00a0 I’d also wouldn’t do more than 25% of your workout with paddles.\u00a0 As for fins don’t be a mermaid and use fins the whole time once again I’d try to stay below the 25% of your workout with fins.\u00a0 Now you can use pull buoys for all your pulling sets and kickboards for all your kick sets.\u00a0 Remember the key word for both of those were SETS and not WORKOUTS.\u00a0 I can’t imagine anyone would want to kick for 30 or 60 minutes.<\/p>\n Hope that gives everyone a basis to start lap swimming.\u00a0 Just remember to have fun and keep checking back here at Water Instinct for more workouts and swim tips.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For a lot of us folks finding time to swim gets harder and harder each year that we get older.\u00a0 Work, family and the daily stresses of life seems to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1276,"featured_media":3034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10072],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nMain Set:
\n4×50’s
\n100
\n3×50’s
\n2×100
\n2×50’s
\n3×100
\n1×50
\nThe first time you swim this set take no more than 15 seconds rest between each 50 and 100 swimming the set continuous if possible.\u00a0 That is only the basic math if your pool as a pace clock try to see your time for each part and come up with an interval.\u00a0 Find an interval that you’d be comfortable finishing the whole set.\u00a0 For example if you see that you are averaging 50 seconds on these intervals do the 50’s on 1:15.\u00a0 Do the same plus 15 for the 100’s.\u00a0 As time goes on try and make the intervals shorter.\u00a0 You may have to play around with intervals during a set to finish but that is okay.\u00a0 Just keep swimming.<\/p>\n
\nWarm Up Set:
\nEasy 300 followed by
\n4x
\n75 Drill on 1:2
\n50 Swim
\n100 Kick
\n50 Swim
\n25 Swim
\nThen move on to the 10×100’s<\/p>\n