Hey everyone!
I was a competitive swimmer when I was younger, for about 6 years. I have also raced motocross and BMX my entire life, until about a year ago. I had a really bad crash back in 2007 during a BMX race that all in all, left me with an incredible severe concussion, broken eye socket, and a lot of post-crash issues. Added on top of all of my other injuries, I'm a complete mess and decided it's time to get back into the pool.
Since I've been an athlete my whole life, being only a little bit out of shape and losing all of my tone that I've had for as long as I can remember absolutely kills me. I can't go to the gym anymore, I can't run, and swimming is my only option for a workout. Don't get me wrong, I'm completely excited to get back in the water! I love to swim, it's in my blood.
I just almost feel overwhelmed right now and don't know where to start. I'm being hard on myself because I know that I used to swim a few thousand yards a day, and I'm just not there anymore. I'm not terribly out of shape, only a little bit.
I'm back on my old diet, so there's no worries there- it's just the exercise portion.
I just was wondering if anyone could tell me a good beginning workout to start out with? Any tips? Thank you so much everyone!:)
Don't forget looking at the wall. Your head should be down and you should gauge the distance using the mark on the bottom of the pool.
Good call. It's also important to note that flip turns aren't the fastest or best option for everyone. If your flip turns consistently involve at least 3 of the mistakes listed here, you should probably consider open turns. If you really need to breathe, you should probably consider open turns. There's a lap swimmer at my gym whose turns go like this:
glide into wall, looking intently at it
flip over slowly
pause (note: pushoff should occur here, but it is still 6 steps away!)
turn over onto stomach
pause
look up
look right
look left (I swear I'm not making this up!)
push off with head up and hands apart
Elapsed time: around 5-7 seconds. Yeah, he should just do open turns. :shakeshead:
Don't forget looking at the wall. Your head should be down and you should gauge the distance using the mark on the bottom of the pool.
Good call. It's also important to note that flip turns aren't the fastest or best option for everyone. If your flip turns consistently involve at least 3 of the mistakes listed here, you should probably consider open turns. If you really need to breathe, you should probably consider open turns. There's a lap swimmer at my gym whose turns go like this:
glide into wall, looking intently at it
flip over slowly
pause (note: pushoff should occur here, but it is still 6 steps away!)
turn over onto stomach
pause
look up
look right
look left (I swear I'm not making this up!)
push off with head up and hands apart
Elapsed time: around 5-7 seconds. Yeah, he should just do open turns. :shakeshead:
