New York Times magazine article on the best exercise
"Let’s consider the butterfly. One of the most taxing movements in sports, the butterfly requires greater energy than bicycling at 14 miles per hour, running a 10-minute mile, playing competitive basketball or carrying furniture upstairs. It burns more calories, demands larger doses of oxygen and elicits more fatigue than those other activities, meaning that over time it should increase a swimmer’s endurance and contribute to weight control.
So is the butterfly the best single exercise that there is? Well, no. The butterfly “would probably get my vote for the worst” exercise, said Greg Whyte, a professor of sport and exercise science at Liverpool John Moores University in England and a past Olympian in the modern pentathlon, known for his swimming. The butterfly, he said, is “miserable, isolating, painful.” It requires a coach, a pool and ideally supplemental weight and flexibility training to reduce the high risk of injury."
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I do kind of wonder. In my case, doing one 50 fly or 4 fast 25s seems to be about equivalent to 500 yards of free in terms of what it takes out of me and deducts from my workout total. It is only highly aneroebic for me and it likely provides some benefit in that capacity. But I wonder if for overall health and calorie burn if I would be better off just giving it up.
My shoulders have also been a little screwed up forever, which I always thought might have been the result of butterfly as a youth but I can't prove it.
I do kind of wonder. In my case, doing one 50 fly or 4 fast 25s seems to be about equivalent to 500 yards of free in terms of what it takes out of me and deducts from my workout total. It is only highly aneroebic for me and it likely provides some benefit in that capacity. But I wonder if for overall health and calorie burn if I would be better off just giving it up.
My shoulders have also been a little screwed up forever, which I always thought might have been the result of butterfly as a youth but I can't prove it.
