Was wondering about the following from those who regularly workout:
-For Breathing while swimming freestyle --- should you just turn your head to breathe or fully rotate your chest/thorax to take the breath?
- Also -- what kind of nutrition do you all do before workouts? I find if I try to eat something too soon (even to just stave off hunger in the am), I get a bit of an upset stomach when I start to swim. If I eat nothing then I get hunger pangs about 3/4 way through the workout.
- I've been swimming for about 20 months (after doing no exercise for about 30 years!). I usually go for a workout 3-4 times/wk. What would you recommend as a good length of time to swim on those occasions? 30min?-45min.-1 hr. ? More?
Thanks much.
Unfortunately, yes there is. But it is counterproductive to good form in the pool. Open water strokes tend to press a lot on the entry and therefore need a lot of shoulder strength and lat strength. In the pool, you would do a lot of head out of the water swimming, like water polo. It is terrible form for pool speed, but is necessary to deal with open water issues (waves, sight lines, etc.). Pushups are a good exercise to help. Straight arm pull downs on a machine are also helpful.
As far as keeping the weight off, be very careful in your eating habits if you start swimming a lot. It will make you very hungry and you can easily eat more than you can swim off. Use a measured and balanced approach in eating to manage your weight loss or maintenance and consult a doctor if you are looking to lose a lot of weight.
Thanks a bunch.
Yeah - I'm just someone who'd like to keep the weight off and stay in condition. I've found that if you rotate more on taking the breath, it's a bit more comfortable.
What would you say if I wanted to be brave and do open-water stuff? Is there a good workout for that?
The answers you seek are mostly dependent on what you expect to derive from your exercise.
You just turn your head to breathe in freestyle. There will be some trunk rotation anyway because while you are breathing, you are also starting another armstroke.
Eating is very personal and you should make many tests to find out what and when to eat. Hunger pangs will not usually result in any lasting damage. Drinking water before workout is usually the best thing to do. Solid food will take energy away from your workout to process digestion. And give you a bellyache, too.
The length of time also depends on what you expect to do with it. If you are a non competitive fitness swimmer and intend to stay that way, one hour is plenty 3-4 times a week. If you want to compete to test your endurance or speed, 5x per week is better, with a focus on you event(s). If you have a coach, talk to him about what to do.
Welcome to USMS!
Unfortunately, yes there is. But it is counterproductive to good form in the pool. Open water strokes tend to press a lot on the entry and therefore need a lot of shoulder strength and lat strength. In the pool, you would do a lot of head out of the water swimming, like water polo. It is terrible form for pool speed, but is necessary to deal with open water issues (waves, sight lines, etc.). Pushups are a good exercise to help. Straight arm pull downs on a machine are also helpful.
I'd suggest treating open water freestyle as a 5th stroke and being quite deliberate about when you are practising technique for it. In terms of conditioning, training as a distance freestyler will get you most of the way there, with specific drills to cover the variation (although I do the odd open water swim I'm not an expert on what drills to do).
Hey - thanks for the input. Where I live it's starting to get pretty cold, so I'll have to wait till next summer for the open-water stuff.
As for nutrition - yes - it can make you pretty hungry when you swim regularly. If I go swimming first thing in the morning then I just drink a cup of coffee with sugar/splenda in it. Usually I just try to stick to protein bars and fresh fruit afterwards. I lost about 55 pounds since I started and I don't want to get anything back.
Besides - I'm 58 and I know it'd be pretty damn hard to re-lose the weight.
All the best.
AJD
