Pool workout advice, please

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violamama

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Portland Oregon
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I can use a lane in the community center's pool 2 or 3 times a week for 30 minutes while my kids are in swim team, and I'd like recommendations for swim workouts that will benefit my diving.

I'm fairly fit, though working to lose a bit of weight. I did a 10k in January and am training for a half marathon in June. Left to my own devices I would just swim slowish laps, though that seems to mainly be an arm workout. I don't know any strokes other than freestyle and back stroke.

Should I put on fins & use a kickboard (they have them there)?
Should I focus on legs more?
While I'm at it, any out-of-pool recommendations I could do on the pool deck? (squats? lunges? a practiced flick of the wrist offering my credit card for once I've decided on dive gear?)
 
The thing about swimming that will most benefit your diving is general fitness. That, and a better understanding of the physics of swim propulsion and the overall idea that in diving "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."

I'm an avid swimmer (it's 4:27am right now and I'm heading out for two miles in the pool right now) and I recommend checking out swimsmooth.com for great advice on stroke technique. No that this technique is appropriate for diving, but rather the idea that every motion should be purposeful and considered. Whether at the top or on the bottom - efficiency, not rapid movement, is the name of the game in propelling yourself through water.

Freestyle and back are fine. Take a look at the website above to make sure you've got your freestyle technique dialed in. There is ALWATS room for improvement.

Also, concentrate on breathing technique. You should be able to adopt a very rhythmic, slow, deep breathing cycle; smooth inhalation phase that (obviously) takes place during a single stroke but not gasping, followed immediately by smooth, steady exhalation phase through the mouth only over two strokes, or two-and-a half if you're doing bilateral breathing - alternating sides. You should be completely exhaling underwater; none of your exhalation should occur when your mouth comes out to inhale.

I'm not a huge fan of kick board drills for non-competitive swimmers, especially with fins. For divers, in particular, they are a bit of a waste of time as the type of kicking in lap swimming is largely irrelevant for scuba diving.
 
I can use a lane in the community center's pool 2 or 3 times a week for 30 minutes while my kids are in swim team, and I'd like recommendations for swim workouts that will benefit my diving.

I'm fairly fit, though working to lose a bit of weight. I did a 10k in January and am training for a half marathon in June. Left to my own devices I would just swim slowish laps, though that seems to mainly be an arm workout. I don't know any strokes other than freestyle and back stroke.

Should I put on fins & use a kickboard (they have them there)?
Should I focus on legs more?
While I'm at it, any out-of-pool recommendations I could do on the pool deck? (squats? lunges? a practiced flick of the wrist offering my credit card for once I've decided on dive gear?)

Well... I don't know you but I will say this. In 30 min sessions what you need to maximize benefit is stiff aerobic exercise (assuming your doctor clears you!). I don't know your age but if your heart rate is not in the optimal range for an aerobic workout then you need to go harder. If you're not getting in your optimal range with "slowish" laps using a kick-board, then step it up!

As for the core strength exercises. Yes, they will help, but you do pilates (in my view) in your living room a few times a week, not when you have access to the pool.

R..
 
Put a "noodle" under your arms/across your chest and complete a couple of length's back kick only, no hands, no fins. Then a couple of length's arm only, no kicking/fins/gloves. Give me feedback after a session :wink:
 
Put a "noodle" under your arms/across your chest and complete a couple of length's back kick only, no hands, no fins. Then a couple of length's arm only, no kicking/fins/gloves. Give me feedback after a session :wink:

A couple of lengths with no kicking? Did 2,500m this AM (100 lengths) holding a "pull bouy" between my legs.

it028761.jpg


Keeps you from using your legs and increases drag as well, while preventing your legs from dropping below you. Really allows you to focus on upper body technique... and muscles. Absolutely nothing to it... with proper technique!


I strongly suggest the OP (and anyone who wants to swim for exercise) focus first and formost on proper swim technique. The reality is that, unless you were taught/coached to be a competitive swimmer, there's a 99% chance you're doing it wrong.

The "swim lessons" most people had as kids were designed to teach you how to get to the other end of the pool without drowning, so the technique taught (and then ingrained over a lifetime) is more focused on keeping you ABOVE the water than moving you THROUGH the water. If you look at the average casual swimmer, you'll see that the vast majority of movement is spent pushing water DOWN and FORWARD. Neither of these things will propel you through the water efficienty.

Competitive swim technique is about efficiently propelling yourself THROUGH the water. Every motion is focused on pushing water BEHIND you, and therefore, moving your body forward. Any motion spent doing anything but that is wasted. (Of course a pleasant by-product of moving forward through the water is that you just happen to avoid sinking as well.) With simple, incremental, improvements in technique ANYONE can swim for extended distances comfortably. At that point, you can add SPEED to the equation.

www.swimsmooth.com

[video=youtube;IyR7JYllk9U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyR7JYllk9U[/video]
 
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If you want to develop and strengthen your frog kick, you can use a kickboard. The technique will be a bit different underwater in trim, but it is a good calf workout in fins. I also like to throw in some laps underwater. This teaches you to go slow and relax (I would do it without fins). Also gives you some experience with CO2 buildup in a safe way.

Other than that, running is better cardio.

My background: swam and played water polo competitively in high school and college.
 
When I did my rebreather class last summer the instructor had me swimming into a pretty stiff current to see what would happen. I'd been in the gym for a few months at that point on the treadmill and rowing machine so things worked out fine. I don't see a lot of crossover between surface swimming and what you'll be doing in dive gear, mainly because when diving you won't be using your arms at all and you won't have to worry about getting your mouth to the air in order to breath.
 
I can use a lane in the community center's pool 2 or 3 times a week for 30 minutes while my kids are in swim team, and I'd like recommendations for swim workouts that will benefit my diving.

Violamama,

I would recommend lap swimming using mask, fins, snorkel, and weightbelt. (Swimsuit only. No wetsuit or diveskin.) Maybe alternate laps flutter kicking only, and flutter kicking while swimming with your arms (crawl). Every lap, you might pull yourself up out of the water and then reenter and continue swimming. If your laps take you to the diving (deep) end of the pool, you can practice your surface entries (e.g., giant stride, forward roll, etc.) when you reenter. And (if your laps take you to the diving end of the pool) you can practice your surface dives (e.g., pike, tuck, etc.). You can even practice removing, and recovering and replacing your weightbelt, maybe wearing it on the odd laps, and not wearing it on the even laps. (Don't stop your forward progress to remove or replace your weightbelt.) Finish off by swimming a lap or two without any gear at all.

This will provide a nice workout in a very short period of time. And you'll have rehearsed many of the skills useful for scuba diving.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver
 
I agree with working on your swimming first, then use the kickboard for leg strengthening.

You can't do the breast stroke? Try practicing it. Unlike freestyle or backstroke, it can actually be useful underwater, lets say if you had cramped legs and needed to travel a short distance with your arms, for example. Also it teaches you the frog kick.

But diving is mostly leg exercise insofar as propulsion is concerned. So yes, practice kick-only both on face up and face down, you will be grateful if you miscalculate where the boat is (was) and have to do a surface swim.

My occasional swim workouts (for an old guy) are a mix: In 10 pool lengths, I'll do 6 freestyle, 2 breast, 2 back. Maybe do 1000 to 1500 yards of this. Then throw in a couple of intervals of two to four lengths kick only, no fins, both frog and (mostly) conventional. *those* are the muscles you'll use in the water, so make them more efficient users of oxygen and your diving will be more stress-free.
 
I recommend swimming at a moderate pace as opposed to sprints. Swim at least 300 yards per interval without stops, 400 is better. I would do 400 yards of freestyle followed by 400 yards of breast stroke (frog kick), and would not use fins. The do a thir 400 freestyle, time permitting, a fourth breast stroke, again time permitting. I would wear mask and snorkel as it removes the necessity of head rolls and mimics head movement in scuba or snorkeling. Swimming is great exercise for general fitness. Be sure to stretch out before and after as with any exercising.
DivemasterDennis
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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