I saw this in a post: I will swim 200 laps in a 25 meter pool. All free style. Non stop. This is done in 3 phases , !st 64 laps is moderate speed 2nd 64 laps is distance the balance is for endurance.
My first reaction was WHY ? If you swim like this you will never know how good a swimmer you could be !
Reasons why.
1.- Your range of motion becomes less as your muscles fatigue and tighten up. This leads to the long, smooth stroke that your first few lengths have, deteriorating into a short, choppy survival stroke.
2.- You can only train one energy system, Aerobic, the anaerobic & lactic systems are untouched.
3.- You cannot improve your technique unless you use drills in a progressive manner.
4.- Why not put in some drills to check your technique. For example 10 strokes of head-up free every few lengths to check you hand entry ?
5.- By only doing Freestyle you are setting yourself up for injured shoulders, with all kinds of impingement problems.
6.-Where are the Kick sets and fly kick sets to improve core body strength and awareness ?
7.-What about the joys' of fly, back and
*** ?
I put together this poll to see how people out there are training.
Former Member
The point of the thread seemed to me do you swim non stop or intervals with a discussion of which is better? Many posters have talked about growth hormone and organs I am trying to point out the scientific basis of the benefits of continous swimming vs intervals. This is in response to Lindsay NB who I believe is a moderator.
Today's topic is Okinawa. A group of scientists asked a simple question years ago: where do people age the best, who are the healthiest people in the world. They came to the conclusion it was Okinawa and they then conducted a scientific study to determine why. An excellent book came out of this project which I highly recommend. They do some karate and some dance and lots of walking which is basicly long slow distance, they obviously do no interval training. Thus chalk one up for continous swmming today.
This is in response to Lindsay NB who I believe is a moderator.
I am NOT a moderator. I am however interested in the relationship between swimming and health both personally and as a member of the health and fitness committee of Masters Swimming Canada. I have to say that it is harder than one might think to get beyond "swimming is exercise, exercise is good for you".
I think this thread died out long enough ago that it has been resurrected more than hijacked.
I think one of the best arguments for swimming intervals is that you are more likely to improve your speed, and that most people find improvement to be motivating and are therefore more likely to keep up a program where they feel they are making progress.
Of course different people are motivated by different things, and the same person can be motivated by different things at different times. Sometimes I have enjoyed just getting in the water and going LSD. It can be a very zen/meditative experience. I would say that several of the times I have gotten out of the pool with a profound sense of wellness have been after LSD swims. I don't know if I would want to do it every day but some would I am sure.
It would be interesting to have more information about HOW exercise affects your health as I guess that might provide clues as to what approach to exercise would produce the most benefit.
With all the talk about diabetes in the news these days it would be good to have some info about how exercise relates to this disease.
I would require more information about the Okinawa study before I would leap to any conclusions, there are so many variables there.
The reason i subscribed to this thread several years ago was to find out what people did in their workouts, to get ideas for my own. Doing just what my coach tells me is fine but i like to hear from others. The recent addition of the discussion from a medical pov is interesting, though.
It's quite interesting that lately people are taking the question "do you swim non stop or do intervals and drills" to mean "which is better." As tecumseh pointed out, there are benefits from both. What i was trying to say earlier and was interpreted as angry (and i guess i was annoyed) was that it seems beside the point since we all have different bodies and different inclinations. There are people who live long healthy lives who do not feel particularly like exercising and look at those who enjoy it as crazy. The fact that someone enjoys LSD swims doesn't mean everyone will. And, enjoyment of life is a huge factor in health, well-being, and longevity.
Knowing something about people from Okinawa, I think there is more to the story than what they do physically. There is also an indoctrination of a religious philosophy into young children that has a dramatic effect on their approach to reality, affecting their enjoyment of life and ability to deal with stress. No one knows whether, if they were to have to shift to another culture at some point in their lives, health problems would result.
Some of us have longevity some don't. Fitness and training does not have anything to do with it.
My father lived to 93 years of age and remained active during this long life by continuing to work and have goals. Every year his goal was to drive from Hamilton Ontario to Vancouver and visit with me for a few months then he would drive to California to visit my brothers then back to Vancouver and stay with us until the snow was about to start. 3000 miles to BC, 1500 to California then return another 4500 miles.
While he visited he was very active sightseeing.
Long swims short swims really do not matter, just be active.
There is a lot more to the story than exercise and unfortunately Okinawa is becoming a great case study to how important diet is, the Okinawian diet is being Westernized there are changes already in the mortality. But I point to that as a population that does no interval training and seems to enjoy great health.
Interval training note today part 4
Interval training works of course to help you swim faster and there seems to be multiple health benefits such as increased metabolic rate, greater fat burning, increases in cardiovascular fitness. The good news is that it may not take that much interval training to realize a lot of these benefits.
By this I mean like many biological systems it is not additional in nature, twice the interval training won't produce twice the effect. In fact many experts (I use that term loosely) feel that twice a week will give you most of the benefits.
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