Some questions about swimming's contribution to fitness

The general answer to your question is "yes" - swimming will contribute to your overall fitness level. It will increase your endurance, strength, and keep to toned. There is a lot of "back and forth" on if swimming helps with weight loss, but in general it is a great way to burn calories and if you watch your diet can contribute to weight loss as well. As far a the knee, swimming is generally easy on the bones and joints in the body. New evidence has come to light that swimming also helps strengthen bones - once thought only to happen through "impact" exercises like running, etc. That being said, certain styles of swimming (breaststroke kick in particular) can actually be hard on the knees and you also have to be award of potential shoulder problems from overuse or improper stroke.

Expanding on "how much" swimming you need to stay in shape - it is all really a question of intensity. If I am doing a lot of sprints and fast set repeats, I can feel like I have gotten a complete workout in 30-45 minutes. I think you will find the "average" masters team practices between 1 - 1.5 hours, and puts in around 2500 - 3500 yards/meters in that time period. Naturally improving stroke technique and getting a "feel" for the water will make swimming these long distances easier. Good luck with recovery and hope you stay in the water even after you are healed!

Hi, Blade, There was a recent study published by Stephen Blair and colleagues that found swimming in men was associated with lower all-cause mortality than being sedentary or walking for exercise. This is not all that surprising. But the study also found that swimming was superior to running, and by a fairly significant amount. More research needs to be done, and Dr. Blair told me he was not willing to "go out on a limb" yet and declare that swimming is definitely better for you than running. But it appears to be at least as good, and there are theoretical reasons why it might actually be better. If you want, send me an email jamesthornton1@comcast.net and i will send you a copy of the study along with some other work done by Dr. Joel Stager on the robust health of aging masters swimmers. As far as how much to swim, the CDC recommends a half hour a day of moderate exercise. Most swimmers don't just swim straight through but rather do interval training, which increases the effort quite a bit while building in some rest to allow you to go hard again. Personally, I would recommend going to a practice for 1 hour or so, three times a week. You can always add more, but this would be an excellent base. Definitely consider trying to link up with a masters team in your area. You don't have to be good or want to compete, but you will thank yourself for joining a team. There's so much you can learn from a good coach and the fellowship of your teammates. Good luck.

I hear people all the time say that you can't lose weight swimming. Within the last maybe 17 months, I lost alot of my weight from swimming. But, I think that the key is to build up your yardage and always increase your intensity. Drop you pace 100s when you are comfortable. If you are just doing 80 laps with minimal effort, then I don't think that you will see the results as you would if you intensify your swimming workouts over time.

With all sports you get out of it what you put in. Swimming is very good at getting the heart in shape because it is required for a full body work out. To keep it in shape there needs to be a training program set in place that works on more aerobic capacity to build more strength for the heart. I am not sure how good swimming is for stregthening the knee but I'm sure there are some in water exercises that can be done for strengthening the knee. If there are huge problems then I would suggest not pushing off the walls because that is where a lot of stress would come from. Your last question would be a hard one to answer because the more fitness you will gain will allow for you to swim faster to gain more ground in a set time period. So if you swam 100 on 3 min. for 1 hr. you would get 2000 yards/meters in but if you did it on 2 min. you are getting 3000 yards in. There needs to be an assessment of your fitness to determine how long you would swim for. Also if you are swimming sets for a workout then you might cover less yardage but get your heart stronger through less rest. It is difficult to give a set amount if there is no starting point to base it off of. Good luck with training.

Short answer - it is a great way to get and stay in shape if you put some effort into it. If you spend an hour basically floating around you're wasting your time. If you work your way up to 3K yards or meters in an hour and push your self a bit, you will really benefit - of course your mileage may vary. In the past 12 months I lost nearly 50 lbs, dropped 4 inches on my waist. Good for the heart - my blood pressure is down in the solid normal rage, enough to getting off my meds. My pulse rate went from 76 to 56. So good here too. As for the knee - little stress on the joints, you can work the muscle groups in the water with the right exercise program. It chould also help with flexibility and range of motion. Kicking is a great workout for the legs. And I find it a better exercise than running - because I don't feel old and creeky as i do when I ran, and I don't miss or skip workout because my knees or back feel like they are about to shatter. I say try it out and if it works, you win. Some people just don't find swimming to be their exercise - it is harder than it looks. Good luck with the knee.

I think that's a myth. Just because some people didn't lose weight it doesn't mean it's a general conclusion. Among others, I find that swimming regularly seems to have improved my balance: when I'm standing in a moving train without holding a handle, I can balance more easily than before. I wonder if this is indeed due to swimming :confused: Core strength. Think you get that from swimming pretty easily from dolphin kicking, flipturns, etc... I find the same thing true for myself.

I think it all depends on the time, intensity, and how often you swim. Sure, compared with doing nothing at all, I'm certain you'll notice some changes. Once your body adjusts to the new exercise, at least for me, it seemed to compensate. Compared with running during a similar timeframe, I get much more bang for my buck running than swimming. After only swimming for about 8 years, I wasn't really getting anywhere...improving swimming and my weight+waist had turned for the worse. I was at 190-195# with a 34" waist. After just 3 months of running 3x/week (about 1 to 1-1/2 hours each), I dropped 20#, and my waist went down to a 30". Not only that, but my swimming also improved. Certainly in an overall fitness plan, that includes diet, various aerobic+strength exercise, and stretching, swimming does have a place.

Oh - your actual questions ... How good is swimming for the heart? I know it forces my heart to work, but is it good to keep it in shape? Definitely. Even if you are completely unconditioned, you can get in great shape given that you have sufficient duration/intensity/frequency. Is swimming good for strengthening a knee? To some extent. It is very kind on bad knees but may require supplementary exercise (weights, bike). I assume I would have to do quite a lot of swimming to make up for the lack of other exercise. How many hours a week would I have to put in (assuming I swim constant lengths with some rest in between - or as far as I can, but not just standing in the pool). "Fitness" depends on your goals. For cardio fitness probably 1000 yards nonstop 3x/week will provide bare minimum fitness. That won't do much for your knees. I highly recommend a Masters team with 4x/week structured workouts 1 to 1-1/2 hours. You will have a much higher level of fitness and improved strength with interval training and variety in the sets than if you just stick to nonstop lap swimming, and the time will pass by quickly. BTW change your mindset from "have to do" to "want to do"... :) Getting back into swimming was one of the best things I've done even though it was due to bad circumstances.

I think swimming can be as good for your heart as anything except perhaps cross country skiing and endurance (elite) cycling. But it could also probably be similar to walking. It depends on your level of effort. If you putz around on a kickboard with fins it may do little for you. If you swim intervals and make yourself breathe hard swimming will definitely improve your fitness. Runners and cyclists often use heart rate monitors to gauge their effort. But swimmers don't because the chest strap and transmitters just don't work so well in the pool. But if your heart rate is 150 in swimming - I'm pretty confident your cardiovascular benefit is the same as if your were running at 150 beats/min. I read in a Swimming magazine article that swimming tends to produce slightly lower heart rates than running or cycling for equivalent perceived effort. That is due to the constant cooling effect of water.