How Beneficial is Swimming?

jonislost

jonislost

jonislost

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I'm trying to shift some weight over the coming months, I used to weigh 20st 4lbs 2 years ago, but just by cutting down a little bit on portion sizes got down to 18st and have stuck at this weight ever since.

My stats are:

Height: 6 foot 6 inches
Weight: 18Stone
Body type: Big frame, I carry the extra weight well, people don't tend to think I'm particularly overweight

I figure that I should be aiming to be around 15 Stone. So at the moment I'm into my second week, I am basically following the slimming world plan on mostly green days. I have started bike riding 4 miles a day for 5 days a week and swimming one session a week for a mile <- are these two excerises enough? Is swimming actually beneficial? Reason I ask is because the bike riding feels efficient, but the swimming just feels... easy?

The swimming regim is (in a 20m pool):

12XFront Crawl
50Xbreaststroke
10XFrontcrawl
8XFreestyle (backstroke, butterfly, old english BS [If there's room in the pool])

So 80 lengths in total, which takes about 50minutes. Should I carry on with the swimming or switch out to another form of cardio?
 
Swimming would be a good one for someone wanting to lose weight, as it's non-impact.

However, are you really that overweight? You're 6'6", and 252~ pounds which gives you a BMI of 29, but given that BMI is a pretty crap indication of weight it's only really down to your bodyfat%.

Are you unfit? Butterfly will be particularly caning if not.

One thing you would do well would be to perfect your technique - even if it means going to lessons, I did and it makes a huge difference.

Edit: didn't mean to hit post just yet...

Cycling and swimming will be a great weight loss combination - I'd avoid anything impact wise, I'd be tempted to do the swimming twice a week if you can afford the time though. And can you get to a 25 metre pool? By the sounds of it, your 20 metre pool is a cushy one in a gym where the water is just a tad too warm and it's generally full of people who swim one length every five minutes and there's one lane set aside for proper swimming, and it's probably 4 feet deep with water level walls and no foot trench so you can't do tumble turns properly.

Just a guess :p.
 
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jonislost said:
Is swimming actually beneficial? Reason I ask is because the bike riding feels efficient, but the swimming just feels... easy?

...

Should I carry on with the swimming or switch out to another form of cardio?
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Do you enjoy swimming? If so, stick at it, as it's adding variety and variety can help shift weight as your body is getting exercised in different ways. Variety also makes weight loss and fitness more enjoyable.

It will certainly be beneficial but the extent of the benefit depends upon how you carry out the activity. If it feels 'easy' then maybe you need to up the intensity, or try some interval swimming etc.

I must say swimming for cardio has never struck me as easy but extremely knackering, as it's a full body workout.
 
I am unfit in anything apart from swimming. If I try running I can do a max of about 4 -5 mins before I'm dying. I should mention I'm now 21 and from the age of 5 to 12 had swimming lessons then from 12 to 16 was competitive swimming. I am definitely overweight, I have a big stomach and moobs to proove it. I was using the BMI as indication, and I realise this can be in-accurate, but I reckon if I lost 3 stone I would feel healthier.

I also climb, but not very well, for example I can't really do any overhang climbing as I can't hold my body weight for too long.
 
jonislost said:
I am unfit in anything apart from swimming. If I try running I can do a max of about 4 -5 mins before I'm dying. I should mention I'm now 21 and from the age of 5 to 12 had swimming lessons then from 12 to 16 was competitive swimming. I am definitely overweight, I have a big stomach and moobs to proove it. I was using the BMI as indication, and I realise this can be in-accurate, but I reckon if I lost 3 stone I would feel healthier.

I also climb, but not very well, for example I can't really do any overhang climbing as I can't hold my body weight for too long.
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Took me a long time to be able to free climb overhangs, it's more about technique then body strength.

To increase your upper body strength though you can do other things such as the 5x5, or simply circuits to increase your ability to be able to hold your weight.
 
when you say 5x5, do you mean 5 reps of 5 sets of various lifting excersise? Can you give examples of particular ones I should do please?
 
I've been swimming about 5 times a week for a few months, while I did see a weight loss breaststroke became less and less taxing on me. Now I do 50 lengths five times a week front crawl continuous which normally tires me right out, so perhaps add more front crawl to the regime if you can and it may feel like more of a workout
 
Someone was telling me swimming aint that great for fat loss but good for toning ..... they were saying that when in the water you dont sweat properly as your body stays at same kinda temp as the water.
 
Pulsar_GTI said:
Someone was telling me swimming aint that great for fat loss but good for toning ..... they were saying that when in the water you dont sweat properly as your body stays at same kinda temp as the water.
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'Toning' is fat loss (and muscle gain) :)

also you don't sweat fat.
 
Tom|Nbk said:
I've been swimming about 5 times a week for a few months, while I did see a weight loss breaststroke became less and less taxing on me. Now I do 50 lengths five times a week front crawl continuous which normally tires me right out, so perhaps add more front crawl to the regime if you can and it may feel like more of a workout
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Are you one of those people who swims breaststroke by using a long arm stroke followed by a simple kick of the legs? Not meaning to be rude, but I've learnt a lot in the last month about technique, and the longest part of your stroke should be the glide, and the kick should be kick with a knee's together and kick out technique - and with the hands don't allow them to come past your shoulders and think about swimming through a tunnel (eg narrow hand span). Then, think about moving your torso through the water like a dolphin.

As for front crawl make sure your arms are bent in the air - a good rule of thumb, if you pardon the pun, is to touch your hips with your thumbs and then run your thumb up your side until you're used to keeping your arms as compact as possible, then extend your arms fully only once they're in the water - a good practise technique is to swim with your in-water-arm fully extended until the other hand hits it. A bit weird and hard to do for long but very good for extending your glide. In addition to that you should roll your torso from side to side as you swim.

If you find front crawl easy, throw in some lengths of closed fist swimming, that should soon sort you out ;).

This may not remotely apply to you but hopefully of some use to someone, I've spent a few months relearning my technique, and even though I've been swimming for years I'm a much better swimmer now :).
 
strudey said:
'Toning' is fat loss (and muscle gain) :)

also you don't sweat fat.
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True lol ooppss :D what i mean is .....

Swimming is not optimal for burning calories for a number of reasons - the water temperature actually helps cool the body. One way exercise burns calories is due to body heat and the body's efforts to sweat and cool down. It is also evident when you analyze the calorie breakdowns. Take a 190-lb male, for example. Spending one hour jogging can burn over 1,000 calories. Swimming, on the other hand, would require a vigorous effort of doing a butterfly for one hour to burn over 900 calories.
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But swimming is better for your joints than jogging /running and maybe more enjoyable (for me anyway)
 
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Id love to start swimming to lose the final few stone. Shame the world really isnt ready to see me in trunks :p
 
platypus said:
Are you one of those people who swims breaststroke by using a long arm stroke followed by a simple kick of the legs?
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No I'm not perhaps my stroke could be improved after all there is always room for improvement, I just don't find the stroke that taxing, (snigger) I used to do 80 lengths and while that did tire me out I found it didnt get my heart rate up as much as 50 lengths continous front crawl. I wanted to be in the fat burning bpm rather than a steady state breaststroke, slowly as my fitness levels creep up I'm going to up my amount of lengths.
 
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