How long before improvement????

Ahhhhh the human body. It is truely amazing! Hang in there with the weight loss issue. Just keep swimming swimming swimming. A month isn't a very long time. BUT don't be discouraged! you are on the path to body/mind transformation. Be patient. What and how much you eat is 90% of the process. Remember, your body needs fuel to burn fat and to recover after workouts. I really like Body for Life's (book) regime for eating. It makes sense and it's a good starting point for revamping "old" eating habits. Good Luck.

read swim faster faster give us specific times specific dimensions and facts about you ande Originally posted by Concho Pearl How long does it take before you start seeing improvement? I know it's only be a month, but I'm not seeing much improvement in my 50 yd free time. I do however feel like my body is with standing longer yardage, without stopping. I swim an avg. of 3 days 30 mins avg. 300-400yds 1- day 60 mins avg. 800 yds. I use the workout room, 1 mile 20 min.-walk, different cable weights for 20 mins, 1 mile bike 1-2 times a week. No weight loss yet. Trying to remember that I must really be improving it's just not showing yet. Any advise??:confused:

What I have learned is the shorter distances are harder to improve and improvement is smaller. As you swim more, the distance swims will improve greatly. A month is a very short time. Also, when we try to swim a 50 fast, our stroke tends to break down. Again, a month is not long enough to teach your body to retain the good stroke at a faster speed. You also need to train speed to get speed, so once your base is at a good level, you need to train intervals a couple times a week. But training for this speed without the technique or base won't work real well.

Originally posted by Concho Pearl How long does it take before you start seeing improvement? I do however feel like my body is with standing longer yardage, without stopping. Being able to swim longer without needing to stop IS improvement. Also, as far as weight loss is concerned… this is more a factor of calories burned vs. calories consumed. While exercise will increase muscle mass, it won’t by itself reduce weight. Congratulations on your improvement.

Originally posted by Concho Pearl I swim an avg. of 3 days 30 mins avg. 300-400yds 1- day 60 mins avg. 800 yds. ... No weight loss yet. Since you are currently averaging 10-13 yards/min I would think that your first priorities should be increasing your endurance and improving your technique. Increasing your endurance will allow you to practice your technique for longer periods of times and longer distances, and in turn improving your technique will let you swim longer and further and eventually faster. Think of technique and endurance as foundations that need to be in place before you start to concentrate on speed. Keeping track of the distance you can swim should provide positive feedback in the short term while you build the foundations for your other goals. Endurance will be of the biggest help if weight loss is an important goal for you. Good luck!

Per Ande's request Concho, it's hard to offer even the most general comments absent knowing your age, gender, height, weight, swimming experience, etc. Getting in 300 to 400 yards in a half hour will be seen very differently depending on whether you are a 25 year old male with excellent swimming skills (not likely) or a 90 year old woman with no competitive swimming experience . . . my guess is that you're somewhere in between . . . other questions: any physical challenges/disabilities? what is your current 50 free time?

I agree with dorothyrde If you are fortunate to have excellent technique, it will be hard to gauge improvement in the 50. Try doing 200 or 500 yd time trials every once and a while. As a new swimmer this time should come down fast as your speed endurance improves. Also a gage of improvement will be extending your distances. You need to work up to a 500, 1000, 1500 without stopping. Just a little at a time. How are you making out with upping your non-stop yardage? Dont wait too long to incorporate interval training (like dorothyrde said, to be fast you need to swim fast!!!). This is imperative to improving good form. This good form will cary over into longer swims, where the stroke can break down from fatigue. You can start with a set of 10x25's, full recovery. Practice good form. When you get more comfortable, work up to 10x50's, 10x100's. Make sure you swim with others and get help with your form.

I'm a female age 44 soon to be 45 Currently weigh - 127lbs. like to loose another 10 I've been watching my diet for about 8 months, lost 10lbs, but have been sitting at the same weight now for maybe 4-6 months. Swam competitive for 10years- 27 years ago on HS varsity swim team. Could have gone to state, but I let life mess with my head. Like I said I've been swimming for 4 weeks. I currently best 50yds was .35 secs. 100yds 1.20 I've researched times for my age group and I feel confindent I can better my times and be competitve again. I'm trying to tell myself to give it a year. I think I'm just try to find a breaking point with my weight and swim times. If anyone see it, please send it my way.

While exercise will increase muscle mass, it won’t by itself reduce weight. Huh? Sure it will. Exercise consumes energy. A 170lb person swimming 30 minutes at a vigorous pace will consume about 500 calories. One pound of body mass = 3500 calories. The key to losing weight of course is a simple math issue: calories in www.primusweb.com/.../calculat.htm

thanks for some of your info it helps please test and provide us with times for your 25 50 100 and 200 what is your most important goal? My initial suggestions are for you to do more training attempt to do more yardage per practice and more practices per week get a coach or training partners do more stroke work to improve your distance per stroke and efficiency it would help to see you swim usually I can look at a swimmer and figure out what's the most important thing to fix first hope this helps ande