Hello all...I'm a soon-to-be college grad in southern New England, and I'm looking to start swimming again.
I swam for my YMCA team in middle school, and for the Y and my high school team in high school. As my user name suggests, I was also a competitive rower, and being New England-level in rowing and State-level in swimming meant that crew was my focus when considering my collegiate sports options. I rowed for a full year at my D-I university, but discovered that competing at that level took away from academics too much, as well as put too much wear and tear on my body. I was not a fast enough swimmer in high school to swim for my university, so that was not an option once I stopped rowing.
The last three years I have exercised somewhat sporadically, and gained perhaps 20 pounds from my rowing competition weight (which itself is around 15 pounds heavier than I *should* be). Let's just say that I am not terribly pleased with my physique at the moment! This is how swimming came into my mind - I never had problems losing fat/toning up when I was in-season for swimming (always gained fat and muscle when rowing for some reason). The dreaded post-workout carbohydrate cravings were never really an issue - apparently I am lucky in this regard. I also actually enjoyed workouts.
I found the website for my state, and there is a Masters team at a college about 5 minutes from my future place of work. I need to join a gym, and they have a nice pool - I had meets there in high school. The idea of competing again is also very appealing since I enjoyed it so much when I was younger. Swimming is something I can see myself doing when I'm 80, and I just don't see that with any other sport or fitness activity.
The way I see it, I have two options: Workout on my own for a couple months to get back into shape, or workout with the local Masters team in the slow lane. I used to be a distance swimmer, but I haven't trained in 4 years and doubt I could even swim an easy 500 straight through. Also, I could stand to lose 30-40 pounds - it may sound silly but I don't even go to the beach looking that bad in a swimsuit. On the other hand, coaching never hurt anyone! Being the slowpoke could help me stay motivated to get back to where I was 4 years ago.
So, for those who have come back to swimming after a period away, what worked better for you?
Parents
Former Member
I agree with everything posted here. My opinion is that you should get back to the good habits you formed back when you were in shape. If that means swimming on a team, by all means, go for it.
I, too, recently started getting back in the pool after a long layoff. While I never swam competitively, I used to swim about 5 miles/week. About a week or so ago I tried one of my older, longer workouts and found it very easy to get back into my old habit. (Of course, it's also easy to slip back into the "couch potato" habit I've had for too long.)
Hopefully you'll find the same is true.
Later,
Sparky
I agree with everything posted here. My opinion is that you should get back to the good habits you formed back when you were in shape. If that means swimming on a team, by all means, go for it.
I, too, recently started getting back in the pool after a long layoff. While I never swam competitively, I used to swim about 5 miles/week. About a week or so ago I tried one of my older, longer workouts and found it very easy to get back into my old habit. (Of course, it's also easy to slip back into the "couch potato" habit I've had for too long.)
Hopefully you'll find the same is true.
Later,
Sparky
