If you’re looking to get closer to your health goals and in a shorter frame of time, it may be worth considering giving the weights room, fitness space or studio a wide berth once or twice a week and, instead, make tracks for the pool. Not only will introducing a new type of exercise such as swimming provide a valuable shake-up to your exercise routine, but it’ll also be kinder on your joints and provide a full-body workout that’s hard to replicate on dry land.
If you’re looking to get started, professional swim coach Arvids Freidenfelds is on-hand with a few workouts to get you started once you dip your toe in.
“In general, I would always suggest making sure that technical aspects of swimming are considered and improved before pushing hard,” says Freidenfelds. “Also, for short 30min sessions in the water, a three to five-minute dry warm-up on the poolside would be great to avoid any injuries.”
Beginner, 30 Minutes
- 200m warm-up: 50 front crawl, 50 backstroke, 50 front crawl, 50 backstroke
- 4x50m front crawl: 25 straight arms and 25 full strokes at around 50% effort, resting 20 seconds between intervals
- 16x25m front crawl: 4x pull + 4x swim + 4x pull + 4x swim, all at 75% effort with 15 second rest intervals
- Cool down: 100 front crawl/back crawl
Intermediate, 30 Minutes
- 100m front crawl, 75 backstroke, 50 front crawl, 25 backstroke
- 8x25m front crawl (50%->65%->80%->95% effort/ repeat 2x) with 15 second rest intervals
- 8x100m front crawl (2 at 75% effort + 2 at 95% + 2 at 75% + 2 at 100%) 20 second rest intervals
- 100m front crawl easy cool down
Advanced
- 75m front crawl + 25 backcrawl / 75 front crawl + 25 breaststroke / 75 front crawl + 25 fly
- 8x50m front crawl at 95% effort with 15-second rest interval
- 100m front crawl at 75% effort
- 8x50m, with fins if available: 25 flys + 25 front crawl) at 95% effort with 15-second rest interval
- 100m front crawl at 75%
- 4x50m front crawl at 100% effort, with 30-second rest interval
- 200m easy front crawl and backstroke
