Swimmin' With Mike

Now if you want to get started in lap swimming I have a few simple tips for you. Swimming is one of the best athletic activities and cross training exercises you can do. It is a very low impact sport and you are able to exercise just about every muscle in your body.

1. You need a swim suit that fits snugly. Women try to get a suit that when you pull the straps up they should not go over your head. Men either a jammer or the classic speedo will do just fine. Do not get a suit that is too big because then it will cling to everything and will show off you junk. Men you can also get what is called a drag suit that will add resistance and will help in your training.

2. Before you swim you need to find a pool that has lap swim hours and at least 25 yards longs. If you need to sign up for a membership you should do it but dont sign up for a long one. 3 months would be ideal to try it out and get in a habit to see how your body reacts. Before you swim you need to stretch out.

3. When you start swimming start out at a steady, slow pace to get your muscles warmed up and ready. The warm up should take about 10 minutes or so. The easiest stroke to swim usually is the crawl stroke or also known as the freestyle. Swim about 200-500 yards for warm up. 4 lengths=100 yards.

4. While swimming you can do a multitude of things. Drills, kicking, pulling, fins, paddles, sprints, and swim sets. Doing drills will help you work on your stroke technique and let you focus on a certain aspect of the stroke. Simple drills for freestlye are the finger-tip drag, catch-up stroke, a breathing drill of breathing ever 3-7 strokes, and distance per stroke. Finger-tip drag is exactly what it sounds. Drag your fingers along the top of the water to help with the arm strokes. Catch up is when you take a stroke and leave one hand out in front of you until the other arm catches up and so forth. The breathing drill is exactly what is sounds. Distance per stroke is try and get as much distance as possible out of each stroke.

Kicking will help build leg strength and also you can focus on making you kick more efficient. Use a kick board for kicking parts of your workout. You can use fins as well to help with leg strength.

When you pull try and use a pull buoy. It is a piece of equipment that goes between your legs and you do not kick your feet just pull with your arms. This will help you focus on your stroke to help make it efficient. You can use hand paddles if you want as well. You will be able to strengthen your shoulders more when you use the paddles.

Fins can be used with damn near anything that you want to do when you swim except with the breastroke. Fins will help you become efficient and you will go faster.

Paddles can be used with regular swimming as well as pulling.

Sprints you should do some 25's with 10 seconds rest and done fast. The more you swim the longer you can try to do sprints and at longer distances.

Here is a sample swim set style workout.

Duration30-45 minsDistance1000mPool length25m

Warm up

•2 x 50m Freestyle Swim (even pace), rest 0:15 / 50m Freestyle swim at a steady pace.

Build up (repeat 4 times)

•1 x 25m Freestyle Breath Left, rest 0:10 / 25m Freestyle swim, breathing only on your left side.

•1 x 25m Freestyle Breath Right, rest 0:10 / 25m Freestyle swim, breathing only on your right side.

Core

•6 x 50m Freestyle DPS, rest 0:20 / 50m Freestyle swim with maximum Distance Per Stroke (DPS). Concentrate on long, efficient strokes and a high streamlined body position to reduce drag in the water. Count your strokes per lap and try to reduce.•6 x 50m Freestyle Swim, rest 0:15 / 50m

Warm down

•1 x 100m Freestyle Easy, rest 0:20 / 100m Freestyle swim at a slow, relaxed pace.

5. Now get out there and get going!!!!

http://swimming.about.com/cs/techniquetips/a/Freestyl_Drills.htm

That link will give you some tips on how to swim the front crawl.

http://www.swimplan.com/?gclid=COijuYT_i5ECFRIUagoddmTUFw

This is a free website that will help you design some work outs.