Are high yardage/slow aerobic swims a good method? Even the best method?
Sorry, I'm sure this topic has been covered numerous times. I've been away from the forums and the pool for a while. And I've packed on some pounds.
I just got back in the pool the other day after a 6-9 month layoff and have no immediate ambition to compete again. I'm thinking a realistic goal is to complete a 5k this summer and just focus on getting back in shape and not worry so much about the clock and sets and such. Figure I will get too frustrated and just want to swim just to swim for now.
When I was training and competing for a few years in Masters I never got too far above 2000 yards but would do hard sets (for me) of 15x100, etc.. Would I actually lose more weight if I instead swam 3-4k yards of just lap swimming?
....Also, I just read in my swimmer that Leslie Livingston has given up weights and dryland. Isn't that a complete 180?
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I really was only interested in the swimming only angle.
My diet and alcoholism is a whole nother battle that I agree if I won would be more beneficial to my weight loss. I've basically been on a 25-year binge. I think my body would respond positively to dietary changes but I don't really have the sample set to see how far it could take me. I was able to drop 20 pounds from 235 to 215 in about a year with some small changes. I was already swimming but started eating salads for lunch during the week and tried to avoid fast food, fried food, and my pizza and burrito binges. I still drank all the time but tried to cut down the microbeers in favor of light beer and Crown Royal.
I think a serious devotion to calorie counting and quitting drinking might have brought me all the way to 200 which I haven't seen since I started college.
But then I stopped swimming and now I have blown up to 240 pounds in less than a year.
For me excercise is the far easier battle to win. And I agree it has other benefits as far as just making me feel good. It also I think it has a side benefit on my diet as well. There is a salad bar at the pool I swim at. Further, when I make a point of getting my swim in I try not to drink or eat so much that I can't physically get my workout in.
...So at least I am swimming again. 4 straight days after my layoff. Went 500 yards, then 750, 1000, and today 1250. I am going to try to add 10 lengths a day, perhaps all the way to 3000 before looking at the clock or doing flip turns. The clock and the meets are what used to motivate me but I don't even want to know what the clock is telling me now. There is a certain satisfaction in just swimming. I wondered if this lap swimming approach could possibly even more beneficial. When doing hard sets I would get too burned by 2000 yards so I am curious if slowing down and doing 3k or 4k would actually allow me to lose more weight anyway, as that would be great justification for my current approach. If nothing else, I think this approach might work really well for a rebound rather than jumping back into interval training too quickly.
I really was only interested in the swimming only angle.
My diet and alcoholism is a whole nother battle that I agree if I won would be more beneficial to my weight loss. I've basically been on a 25-year binge. I think my body would respond positively to dietary changes but I don't really have the sample set to see how far it could take me. I was able to drop 20 pounds from 235 to 215 in about a year with some small changes. I was already swimming but started eating salads for lunch during the week and tried to avoid fast food, fried food, and my pizza and burrito binges. I still drank all the time but tried to cut down the microbeers in favor of light beer and Crown Royal.
I think a serious devotion to calorie counting and quitting drinking might have brought me all the way to 200 which I haven't seen since I started college.
But then I stopped swimming and now I have blown up to 240 pounds in less than a year.
For me excercise is the far easier battle to win. And I agree it has other benefits as far as just making me feel good. It also I think it has a side benefit on my diet as well. There is a salad bar at the pool I swim at. Further, when I make a point of getting my swim in I try not to drink or eat so much that I can't physically get my workout in.
...So at least I am swimming again. 4 straight days after my layoff. Went 500 yards, then 750, 1000, and today 1250. I am going to try to add 10 lengths a day, perhaps all the way to 3000 before looking at the clock or doing flip turns. The clock and the meets are what used to motivate me but I don't even want to know what the clock is telling me now. There is a certain satisfaction in just swimming. I wondered if this lap swimming approach could possibly even more beneficial. When doing hard sets I would get too burned by 2000 yards so I am curious if slowing down and doing 3k or 4k would actually allow me to lose more weight anyway, as that would be great justification for my current approach. If nothing else, I think this approach might work really well for a rebound rather than jumping back into interval training too quickly.
