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.
Parents
Former Member
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).
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).
