You will be able to exercise virtually every muscle group in the body, using different strokes to propel your body through the water with a strong emphasis on leg kicks and arm movements, strengthening the muscles as you progress.
Swimming is also widely used by sportsmen and women for injury rehabilitation as there is no impact so ankle and knee joints can be rested whilst still exercising the leg muscles. It is not as effective, though, as the only exercise in a weight loss program. Though you will burn many calories whilst swimming, you would not cover as much distance in the water as, for example, running on land and the water will keep your body relatively cool during the workout as you will be submersed in water. Whilst running, your body temperature will rise due to the fact that the body is working hard, thus forcing the muscles to use more energy to release the heat and cool you down. Even at rest, your body will still be burning calories at a higher than normal level as you slowly cool down.
Interval Training
You can use the same principles of interval training for swimming as you would do for running.
A good way to start is with a steady paced swim for approx 30 minutes (without rest) using the breast stroke. This can then be followed by a short rest period of a couple of minutes and then a pyramid session using front crawl.
The pace is varied using the pyramid method and you can start with a higher number of lengths at 60% of your maximum pace and work down to one length at 100% pace with a minute’s rest in between. The pyramid structure can be as follows:
5 lengths nonstop at 60% of maximum pace followed by 60 seconds rest
4 lengths at 70% of maximum pace followed by 60 seconds rest
3 lengths at 80% of maximum pace followed by 60 seconds rest
2 lengths at 90% of maximum pace followed by 60 seconds rest
1 length at 100% of maximum pace.
The idea behind this method is to fatigue your body on the first session but as the number of lengths reduces, you are able to put more effort into the swim and so be able to complete the last length with 100% effort.
The workout should take approximately 45 minutes and will provide you with a little more to work towards than just clocking up the lengths at a steady pace.
