Days off per week

It depends. The bottom line whether you are giving yourself enough time to recover so it doesn't affect your next workout. It's a function of your age, condition and how hard you go in practice. Your body needs recovery time so it can repair itself and get stronger. I'm 63 and swim six days a week, 12K-15K total per week, with Sundays off. But I can't go super-hard everyday, or I wear myself out. I take a couple days a week where I do more low intensity stroke & drill work, especially after days when I've hit it hard. As a concession to age, I'll also occasionally adjust my send off times, taking a bit more rest time than my training partners who are twenty years younger.

Something that I've been doing the last month or so is to check my resting heart rate after the alarm goes off and before getting up. You can do this manually or there are some apps on your phone that can do it. Samsung Health is on my phone. You'll find what's normal for you over the course of a week or so. I've noticed that the days the heart rate is 10-12 BPM higher, I have really lousy workouts and I'm tired. Overtrained. Those are the days I skip a workout or make it shorter/easier so that the body can reset and recover a bit more. And it has been helping. But to answer your question, for me, I'm training for a big race and put in a lot of miles each week. I take Thursdays and Sundays completely off.

You can go to the gym on non-swimming days to mix it up. Too much of any workout schedule will hurt you in the long run. we all need to rest our bodies at some point. At one time in my life , I ran for 5 1/2 years without a day off! The day I had my knee scoped, I asked if I might just run/jog a mile before midnight, and the Doc. said "that is how you ended up in here!!"

Thanks, Mark. I appreciate your comments. I'm 64 and just started lap swimming in June... I'm loving it! Just finished a stretch where I swam 18 days out of 19 but I'm thinking that more rest would be helpful. Took the day off yesterday and felt strong in the pool today. I've been swimming about 12k yards per week in a 25 yard pool. Thanks again, great comments!

Remember that the adaptation you are looking for from working out takes place when you rest. No rest, no adaptation, all the work goes for naught and you just wind up over trained and tired This is so true and I love the way you said it!!:applaud:

Usually I take one day off per week. Like Orca I do gym/strenght training on non-swimming days to mix it up.

Remember that the adaptation you are looking for from working out takes place when you rest. No rest, no adaptation, all the work goes for naught, and you just wind up over trained and tired.

I go along with the general thinking here. I'm an example of what not to do. I train 7 days a week and haven't taken a rest day for nearly six months now. In future, I've decided to have every Sunday as my rest day and I'm thinking of making it a two-day break every week. I'll probably go to the gym instead. I've never done gym work regularly, so this will be interesting.

I swim 4 days/wk. I have been doing so nearly my whole time in Masters Swimming,42+ years(I am 67.) It seems to work for me.

I rest on Sunday. The pool is closed.