Take your workout under water.
Pool Your Assets
Swimming is too often overlooked as a full-body cardio workout. Here’s how an hour a week can take your fitness to a new level.
If you think swimming pools are for playing Marco Polo and water aerobics, you are missing a huge opportunity to improve your overall fitness. When you take advantage of your 24 Hour Fitness club’s pool, you’re using one of the best all-toning, fat-burning fitness activities in the gym.
“Swimming conditions your entire body and is a great cardiovascular workout,” says Denise Sarver, a master trainer at the Ward Parkway Center Sport 24 Hour Fitness in Kansas City, Missouri. “Almost all of your muscles are involved, so if you’re just starting out, you may be surprised how quickly you’ll feel tired. For some, 10 minutes or one lap is a huge feat.”
Push yourself to two or three 30-minute sessions a week and you’ll dive into a fat-trimming, muscle-toning workout. Along with pumping your heart, swimming has loads of other benefits. Because it’s low-impact, swimming is an excellent way to strengthen back muscles and add flexibility, even for those with back aches.
What’s more, swimming burns calories like a nuclear furnace. The butterfly stroke singes off more than 748 calories in an hour (based on a 150-pound person), which is as intense as running a 9-minute mile—just without all the knee jarring.
Despite all the benefits of swimming, Sarver says the tough workout doesn’t keep people out of the pool. “People get hung up on wearing a bathing suit or learning the strokes,” she says. “Forget about that; people aren’t looking, and with a few quick technique tips, you’ll make swimming more of a workout than struggle. Once you jump in, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start it earlier.”
For most beginning swimmers, the hardest part is learning how to time breathing, says Sarver, who has several clients who have incorporated swimming into their workouts. To learn the trick, first place your head face down in the water, then turn sideways and breathe in and after facing down again, breathe out through your nose. Once you’re used to that motion, practice adding a freestyle arm stroke one arm at a time. Then, hold onto the wall and practice kicking, keeping the splashing to a minimum.
Put it all together with a goal of doing a lap. Don’t be frustrated, because swimming will likely be a lot harder than you think. Grab a kickboard when needed to keep going. To reap the cardio and calorie-burning benefits, Sarver recommends diving in for 30 minutes two or three times a week. As you continue to improve, start timing how long it takes you to swim certain distances. A benchmark she suggests: four 50-meter laps.
With a few quick technique tips, you’ll make swimming more of a workout than struggle.
Stoke Your Stroke
To help you swim stronger, longer and faster, some of your training should take place on dry land. Here are three in-the-gym moves that will make your stroke more efficient in the pool.
LAT PULL DOWN
While seated at the lat machine, grab the bar with a wide, overhand grip. Look forward, keeping your neck in a neutral position. Pull the bar to your chest, tightening your abs and squeezing the bottoms of your shoulder blades together. Smoothly return to the start position without shrugging your shoulders. Do three sets of 15 reps at a moderate weight, in the blue zone of perceived exertion.
H2O connection: Lats are the major muscle group you use in all freestyle, breast, side and butterfly strokes. When your arms pull through a stroke, your lats provide the power.
SEATED ROW
Keep your chest in contact with the chest pad and neck in a neutral position throughout the move. When pulling back, keep your shoulders down while squeezing your shoulder blades together. Do three sets of 15 reps at a moderate weight.
H2O connection: This exercise focuses on the mid- and lower trapezius as well as the rhomboids, which are activated throughout every phase of the stroke.
COBRA
If you’ve worked with a 24 Hour Fitness personal trainer, you’re likely familiar with the Cobra. In an exercise area, lay face down on top of a stability ball so that your ribcage is supported. Your feet should be about shoulder width apart and it may help with balance to place them against a wall. Put a pair of light dumbbells in front of you within easy reach. Grab the weights with palms facing down and extend your arms in front of you like you’re Superman. Move the weights to your sides, then lower. Return to start position, and that’s one rep; do three sets of 15 reps each.
H2O connection: This move mimics a breaststroke and works your deltoids, which are used in every part of your stroke.
