Let’s imagine that you know how to swim and now you can go to the swimming pool for your daily or weekly workout. (We recommend to swim 2-3 times a week)
Here many people ask what do I actually do when I’m in there?
A few people in the pool may swim a slow steady pace for their whole workout, but experienced swimmers use to structure their workouts as interval training.
Intervals work well because pools are short (compared to the miles of road that a runner or cyclist would travel) and because intervals just happen to be great for improving your fitness. They also bring more variety to what could otherwise be a boring workout.
So any swimming workout usually contains these parts:
Warm Up
The first part of the warm up involves around 15 minutes of long slow swimming. It is important to swim all the different strokes in the warm up.
It takes up the first ten minutes or so. During this time, you’re reminding your body what it’s like to swim. You’ll find your rhythm in breathing, and ease yourself into the workout.
Directly after the warm up is some speed work. No matter what the aim of the session is it is important to include some speed work in almost every session.
Drills
You can move the drills section around as you please. You can include them in your warm up after your warm up or even in your main set.
Main Set
What the main set consists of will depend on where you are with your race preparation. You may be in an endurance phase where you focus on training your aerobic system with lots of long swimming with minimal rest.
The aim here is to try and maintain the same time throughout the set. Towards the last ¼ of the set should be quite difficult.
Warm Down
This is important to help your body clear the lactic acid it has produced and it will help reduce muscle soreness. Don’t take this lightly as it is still a great opportunity to work on your technique.
We are working mostly with newbies so one example of swim workout for beginners can be this:
Easy Warm up 4x 1 length (standard swimming pool length is 25) continuous swimming using your own choice of swimming stroke
Sprint laps 6×25 pause 30 secs between laps
Drills 3×50 (6 lengths)
Main set 8×25
Cool down 4×25
Total: 700 metrs
Each session can be extended or decreased due to the discretion and fitness levels of the participant.
If you want to find your perfect swimming workout consider to have some private classes and choose appropriate program with supervision of our professional swimming coach.