For: Swimmers, especially beginners.
Time: Variable, depending on ability.
Description: Good swimmers are comfortable in the water. Use this workout to help you become more intimate with the aquatic environs.
Equipment needed: Swimming pool.
There are two types of swimmers, those who are swimming and those who are keeping themselves from drowning. If you fall into the latter group, this workout will help you feel more comfortable by focusing on playing in the water, not trying to get to the other side. If you’re already an accomplished swimmer, then use this workout as a diversion from the routine.
-
Get in the pool and do anything but swim for five minutes. This can mean walking along the bottom, holding your breath, floating, sitting on the bottom of the pool, handstands, jumping up and down. One rule: you can’t just hang on the side. Get used to being in the water without having to swim, enjoy it.
-
Do 10 lengths where you push off from the wall and go as far as you can underwater. When you run out of air, come up, rest for 30 seconds, and go back under, trying to make it the rest of the way. Rest for 30 seconds when you get to the end of each length. Try exhaling as you go along, instead of trying to hold all the air in your lungs. It’s the buildup of CO2 that makes you want to stop, not the lack of O2.
-
Rest one minute.
-
Do 10 lengths, just kicking, with your head in the water (no kickboard). It can be any type of kick, flutter, backstroke, breaststroke or dolphin. Rest 30 seconds after each length.
-
Rest one minute.
-
Do eight lengths of flutter kicking on your sides. Alternate between doing a length on your right side and doing a length on your left side. Hold the arm on the underside of your body extended over your head and use it to guide you. Focus on kicking from your hip, not your knee.
-
Rest one minute.
-
Do six lengths each of breaststroke, freestyle and backstroke, no rest between.
-
Do eight lengths dolphin kicking on your back, with fins on your feet. Feel your abdominals getting a workout.
-
Rest one minute.
-
Do 10 lengths where you push off from the wall and go as far as you can underwater. When you run out of air, come up, rest for 30 seconds, and go back under, trying to make it the rest of the way. Rest for 30 seconds when you get to the end of each length. Try exhaling as you go along, instead of trying to hold all the air in your lungs.
|
Shopping:
(what is this?)