Starting swimming, any advice?

yer_averagejoe said:
Endomondo tells me 740 kcals for my 4k swim today. I think it's wildly inaccurate though because it bases it on time rather than effort, so I could have done a lazy 3k in the same time and it'd tell me the same calories. Are there any green light HRM watches that work underwater yet?
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I think the garmin is pretty similar - it may take some account of speed but it clearly can't tell how efficient your stroke is.
I've not seen any underwater HRM watches but haven't really been looking.
 
Anyone have issues with headaches when swimming? I went into the pool today and had a lane to myself. Glorious I thought.. but about 10mins in I started to get a really bad headache. Almost a migraine. That's a few times in a row now and it's incredibly annoying. I persevered for a while but had to stop early and for a minute or so felt like I was going to vomit in the shower :eek:

Goggles don't feel too tight, wonder if it's all in my neck? :confused:
 
Scam said:
Anyone have issues with headaches when swimming? I went into the pool today and had a lane to myself. Glorious I thought.. but about 10mins in I started to get a really bad headache. Almost a migraine. That's a few times in a row now and it's incredibly annoying. I persevered for a while but had to stop early and for a minute or so felt like I was going to vomit in the shower :eek:

Goggles don't feel too tight, wonder if it's all in my neck? :confused:
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What stroke? And what breathing pattern / technique?
 
Cern said:
What stroke? And what breathing pattern / technique?
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Front crawl, always breathe on the same side. I'm convinced it's my neck now. It still feels odd the day after. I'm going to have to learn to breathe on the other side and either do bilateral breathing or swap between sides.
 
Scam said:
Front crawl, always breathe on the same side. I'm convinced it's my neck now. It still feels odd the day after. I'm going to have to learn to breathe on the other side and either do bilateral breathing or swap between sides.
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Yeah Front Crawl is pretty tough on the neck. You may find switching to the other side will help, but it's likely this will still stress whatever is causing your headaches (be it muscular or skeletal).

Are you able to swim the Breaststroke? This is a much more low impact stroke but just as good for fitness. People think it's a slow and easy stroke, but it doesn't have to be, it can be as strenuous as you make it. However, if you're needing low impact exercise for therapy then a languid style of Breaststroke is perfect.

If you try Breaststroke, don't do the keeping your head permanently out of the water thing - this will only stress your neck. Submerge your head between breaths, keeping the water just above your browline / forehead, breathing out through your nose throughout the stroke, lifting your head just enough to breathe with your mouth before submerging again. This way you'll not stress your neck barely at all.

Breastroke is great low impact exercise if you keep the strokes long, languid and stretchy. But if you want to step it up you can up your stroke strength and rate, making it more staccatto and lifting your head and upper chest more out of the water with each stroke. Personally I find that more expansive strokes get me further than short punchy strokes, but everyone is different.
 
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I didn't find bilateral breathing SO hard, especially if you just do something like N strokes 1 side and then N the other, or even 1 length 1 way ro 1 length the other. The proper way every 3 strokes is a little harder but I found simple tips like breathing out slowly and continuously underwater helped, and you don't really need to do this for casual swiming.
 
To be honest my breathing certainly isn't the best once I get going (I'm going to have a couple lessons soon I think, make sure my technique isn't terrible - I haven't had a lessons since I was at school :p), I'm often struggling for breath after 4-6 lengths. If I can force myself slower it's a lot better though. I think I'd struggle breathing every 3 stroke rather than 2. So I'll probably just try doing a few lengths each side and swapping. Last time I tried breathing on the other side I got very confused and ended up drinking water :(:p

I can do breast stroke but I try not to. I had a problem with my knee cap so the kicking wasn't good for it..
 
Scam said:
To be honest my breathing certainly isn't the best once I get going (I'm going to have a couple lessons soon I think, make sure my technique isn't terrible - I haven't had a lessons since I was at school :p), I'm often struggling for breath after 4-6 lengths. If I can force myself slower it's a lot better though. I think I'd struggle breathing every 3 stroke rather than 2. So I'll probably just try doing a few lengths each side and swapping. Last time I tried breathing on the other side I got very confused and ended up drinking water :(:p

I can do breast stroke but I try not to. I had a problem with my knee cap so the kicking wasn't good for it..
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Ah, yes Breaststroke can be tough on the knees. Every stroke is tough on something - I can never do Butterfly because of what it does to my shoulders.

Sidestroke might be an option, it's a form of sideways breastroke usually only used in lifesaving. It might be gentler on the knees, but probably not enough.

Then there's backstroke (with crawl technique, not the lifesaving breastroke version). No breathing issues there, just collision issues! :) Actually many pools ban this stroke from public sessions for that reason, but it might be allowed in lane swimming.

Probably best to just work on your breathing technique for the crawl. Slow things down a bit, try to make your crawl more of a glide than a thrash. I hope you don't mind me calling it a thrash but if you're out of breath after 5 or 6 lengths it sounds like it might be, or you're just going at it too hard.
 
Well, got back from a very relaxing swim :p Just concentrated on breathing my 'wrong' side. My god it feels wrong. I was reading on swim smooth it usually takes about 2 weeks to adjust.. I wonder how long it takes only going twice a week.

Had to alternate between sides because I just wasn't getting much air in on my 'wrong' side. A few mouthfuls of water on the odd occasion, or feeling like I'm totally stopping and sticking my head out of the water to breathe at all. :p
 
Scam said:
Well, got back from a very relaxing swim :p Just concentrated on breathing my 'wrong' side. My god it feels wrong. I was reading on swim smooth it usually takes about 2 weeks to adjust.. I wonder how long it takes only going twice a week.

Had to alternate between sides because I just wasn't getting much air in on my 'wrong' side. A few mouthfuls of water on the odd occasion, or feeling like I'm totally stopping and sticking my head out of the water to breathe at all. :p
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Stick at it. You should start to see some improvements after a few sessions. Probably sooner than you think.
 
Hows everyone doing ?

Just back from holiday and I put on almost 4lb of fat :(

On monday pool didn't open due to low chlorine, so yesterday I swam 160 lengths (4KM) ....first time in months swimming has has left muscles stiff.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1077550730

My aqua sphere kayenne goggles decided to start leaking so just ordered some aqua sphere vistas (almost size of snorkel mask)... hope they are decent :(
 
Well done :)
I've had a bit of a sore shoulder for a while, so have avoided pushing it even though I don't think the swimming was the cause or has been making it worse. Pace has been going backwards as a result :(
The Swimathon's getting close so I did a longer swim than normal (4.2k) over the weekend.
 
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