Hot answers tagged swimming
11
The world record holder on 1500m is Sun Yang, an analysis of his stroke per length and stroke rate can be found at Sun Yang. His stroke rate (or frequency) is 0.96 (almost a stroke per second) and his strokes per 50m length is 27.
Your stroke rate is 0.85 (48 strokes per 56 seconds) or 51 strokes per minute, i.e. slower than Sun Yang (58 strokes per ...
8
Speculating on performance in sports based on physical attributes is always difficult, there are always exceptions to whatever rule you find. My answer to your questions is split into two parts: 1) check that your weight in the the normal range for a non-athlete, this is important given your history. 2) compare your height/weight with other successful female ...
8
The rotator cuff group is comprised of four muscles, commonly referred to as SITS.
Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor and Subscapularis. Most of these serve to rotate the arm, although the Supraspinatus is responsible for abduction (movement away from the body) of the upper arm.
Caveats - All of the exercises listed should be done with light weights ...
7
The answer for this is similar to the one for triathlons, is that you get faster by doing it more. However, the kick is one of the parts of the stroke that if you aren't "getting it", then it's hard to be able to do it properly without someone showing you.
I would recommend that you have a swim instructor look at your stroke and make sure that you are doing ...
6
With a short pool, you are limited, especially if you have an efficient flip turn. Since you are a beginner, I don't think that is a problem (Not a knock, just a fact. Flip turns take lots of practice to be effective).
I would take a pull buoy with you and concentrate on form drills. As a beginner swimmer in a very technique driven sport, this would serve ...
6
I am going to assume that you are coming from a mostly non competitive swimming background.
There has to be a baseline of both, but I lean towards the emphasis that you need to be a fitter swimmer before you can really start effectively working on your form. Even if you do 2000 yards/meters in increments of 50 (two lengths or one lap) working strictly on ...
5
A similar question was asked here.
That question included data from the 2009 Ironman Triathlon Championship in Kona, Hawaii. As you may know, the race consists of a 2.4-mile open water swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride, and a 26.2-mile marathon. A version of the scatterplot matrix from that question is shown here.
The scatterplot matrix above plots the ...
5
Swimming is an excellent cardiovascular workout. You can give a very strong effort, and since there is minimal body impact, you can give a pretty intense workout just about every day. It most definitely will help with fat burning, assuming that you are eating an appropriate, healthy diet.
It will assist in muscle building, but only so much as it takes to ...
5
By gaining weight, I think you meant gaining lean muscle mass! And if this is your main concern, then here are a few rules you need to follow:
Lift weights - especially heavy weights by focusing on the major muscle groups like chest, thigh, butt, back and core. Try squats, deadlifts, benches, chin-ups, bent-over rows and lat pull-down machine next time ...
4
This is a very tough question.
A few starting questions:
1) How is your starting block reaction time?
2) How many strokes is it taking you during one length of the pool?
3) How many breaths are you taking each length of the pool?
4) How are your turns?
Training for longer distances than 200 meters can only help your swimming endurance. ...
4
The stroke that will burn the most fat in general is the stroke that allows you to get the most vigorous workout. Look up some of these questions and answers to get a better understanding of how to implement your swimming program to meet your goals:
Regarding why to use different strokes: Swimming for muscle building and fat burn
Regarding swimming and ...
4
Let me preface by the fact I've never swam competitively, and it's been a while since I've swam routinely. I do train competitively, and I do eat before training. The two biggest risks with eating before training are:
Muscle cramps--which in swimming is much more dangerous than with running or cycling, and more likely when the training is sustained such ...
3
The biggest question is going to be time to train. 1 minute is quite a large chunk to shave off in six months. I am assuming that your 3:30 time is an all out sprint, which suggests that you have some stroke flaws that are costing you time as well.
I would be prepared to live in the pool for the next few months, 4-6 times per week with 2-3000m (or yards ...
3
Since you can swim in an indoor pool a couple times a week, then here's a hypothetical workout schedule for you:
Mon - 1 hour in pool, 300m warmup, mixed strokes. 10x100 HARD freestyle, 1 min rest between. 5x200 moderate freestyle, :30 rest between. 5x100 IM, :30 rest, 2-400 cooldown.
Tue - Full body routine, squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, lat ...
3
If you are coming back from an eating disorder, then most likely you are not at your peak muscle strength, and that is probably what they are referring to when they say that gaining weight will help your swimming.
I would not focus on your weight so much as I would on eating healthy, working out hard, and doing all the exercises and dryland stuff that your ...
3
There are a few low tech methods:
Toothpaste (Smear a bit then rinse free, be cautious as some people are sensitive to toothpaste around the eyes)
Saliva
Anti Fog spray
I've had good results with the aquasphere line, but eventually all glasses fog over. I usually just spit on the insides, smear around, then rinse them out and slap them back on. During ...
3
Conditioning out of the pool is important and can be very beneficial for swimmers. As an competitive swimmer myself, I believe dryland conditioning should be included in any workout for a swimmer, regardless of level of ability.
As @Robin identifies, compound weight lifting exercises are great for both strength and endurance. Improving strength and/or ...
3
From my experience I would say swimming coupled with calorie restriction is a much better choice than any of them alone.
I was also working on burning fat first. I tried running but I could not make any significant improvement, maybe 3 pounds over the course of a month. Then i tried swimming coupled with VERY mild calorie restriction. I practice swimming an ...
3
Tips for faster free style (Front crawl) swimming:
Press the Buoy:
Your chest is full of buoyant air so if you can lean forward on it, you can literally push against that buoyancy and leverage it to move your legs higher in the water.
The simplest trick I know of for this one is to tuck your chin into you chest and feel like your neck is pulling via your ...
3
I had read to use both mouth and nose, but found that whereas the nose is good at filtering air, it's not very good at filtering the water droplets splashing around. Water up the nose isn't nice.
I ended up buying Total Immersion's "O2 in H2O, A Self-help course on breathing in swimming" and it teaches in with the mouth, out with the nose.
3
If you're kicking properly, the rate at which you kick should be tied to your stroke rate. That is, every time you take a stroke and rotate your hips and shoulders, your legs should finish the movement as a kick.
This is what's known to competitive swimmers as a "two-beat kick." In one full stroke, you kick twice, once with your left foot and once with ...
3
Any diseases that causes excess water retention could cause you to put on weight (which include many diseases)or any disease which causes bowel obstruction. These are two examples.
Also, perhaps the liquid sarcoplasm in your muscles has increased. No calories are required to increase the amount of water stored in your muscles, which will also add to your ...
3
For a small calorie-deficit and a small weight-gain it's possible by increasing water-retention in the body. Someone might have lost a kg of fat, yet gained a kilo and a half of water, perhaps some of it in the form of muscle.
But it's not possible sustained over time, with a substantial calorie-deficit.
Thus there's two possibilities: either you eat more ...
3
That sounds a lot like the elementary backstroke. It uses the same kick as the breast stroke. To me, the arm motions also feel similar to the breast stroke, but it's as if you're doing them below your shoulders instead of above.
Video example
3
Freakyuser,
It might not be your hamstring muscle. If you can touch the floor with your knuckles without bending the knees, then it is most likely not your hamstring. Also, this is beyond average (most people can't do this).
You might want to check and see if your lumbar spine is the problem of your stiffness. However, you can read the Functional ...
3
Make sure your protein intake is high enough or you could be losing muscle. 2 eggs is only about 12g of protein. Maintenance levels of protein for a very physically active person are at least 1g of protein per lb of body weight (~2g per kg). Take this with a grain of salt, as it is subjective -- depending on your current physique, you may wish to lose ...
2
My suggestion to improve your speed would be:
Try out the various drills-like one hand drill, kick drill, hand drill, etc. They develop the specific part of the body.
Increase the frequency of our kicking. Ideally, you should be kicking 8 times in one whole stroke. This will boost your speed.
Try squatting exercises, they will improve your thigh ...
2
Next steps:
Get an instructor (Not necessarily a coach, although they can be the same individual) to look at your stroke and give you drills.
Restructure your workouts. Shorter distances at higher intensity, with a mixture between threshold work and interval work.
Threshold work is swimming at 85-95% of your top pace, with short rest intervals. These ...
2
I also found a new interest in swimming and here is my take at an answer to your question
Assessment
I at my stage, i.e. beginner/newbie, I try to focus on technique. A typical practice for me is to spend about half to 2/3 thirds of an hour in the pool working on balance, streamlining. E.g. one length drill, one length swimming. The assessment there is to ...
2
It's a difficult thing to answer that, since there are a couple of factors that are constant (Such as drag of the water), and some that aren't (Efficiency of the swimmer).
The reason that breaststroke is slow is because the majority of the body is underwater, and thus facing drag. You can't get on the top of the water and plane like you can in freestyle and ...
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