Different Strokes

I wish you could have seen me laughing on the floor, tears stremaing down my face, while I resisted the urge to pee my pants, all because you think breaststroke is "less tiresome." Zirconium has it right. I did not say I think breastroke is less tiresome. But if you ask my wife - she says she can swim breastroke all day but freestyle kills her. She is not a Masters swimmer and has never been a competitive swimmer. I train breastroke in every workout and it is very tiring. Almost as tiring as fly. Pullouts on turns is a killer too. But I see non-competitive swimmers (casual lap swimmers) swim relaxed breastroke with their head almost above water all the time. I am a lousy backstroker so I find it very tiring too. I suppose that leaves freestyle as the only stroke that isn't very tiring.

Hi Thanks! These posts are quite informative.

Originally posted by LindsayNB Since drag increases in proportion to the cube of speed you will burn a lot more energy swimming a given distance faster than slower. Of course the "best" way to burn a lot of calories is to be very inefficient. When I looked at the calorie calculators I was surprised to see that I was wrong about this. Swimming the same distance at a slower speed burned more calories, presumably because of the longer duration required. But if you add the calories burned just sitting around for the difference in time between the two rates of swimming it evened out. I suspect that the real picture is more complicated and that, like with lifting weights, doing an intense set increase the calories you burn for a much longer period of time that just while you are actually swimming.

I agree with Matt. I think it depends also on what strokes are natural for you. Chances are you will not push yourself outside of your confort zone swimming by yourself. Also everybody is assuming that the strokes are being swam correctly. 200 backstroke is the most painful event I have ever swam. When it came to breaststroke it never hurt because I was too crap at it. I think for muscle balance and keeping your sanity, a mix of strokes is recommended. Cheers Dave