How to be a water baby
YOU never regret a swim,” the saying goes, and anyone who swims regularly will concur. It’s the ultimate summer workout – you can huff and puff outdoors without breaking a sweat. But if you want to work out in the water, you’re going to have to resist the temptation to just splash and paddle. You have to work hard. If you do, the rewards are great, since swimming works all your muscles at once: your chest as you dip your hands in, your triceps and back as you pull your stroke through, your core and midsection as you hold the stroke in the water, and your hips and bottom as you kick.
NO DOGGY PADDLE ALLOWED
Jon Roberts, director of upmarket gym chain Matt Roberts (www.mattroberts.co. uk), says: “The main thing people tend to get wrong is that they don’t work hard enough in the water to achieve cardiovascular exercise and fat burning. In the water, the body is always kept cool, so you have to work harder to break a metaphorical sweat. And because of water pressure, the body works more efficiently, so your heart rate is lower than it would be on land. People doing casual breast stroke for 40 minutes aren’t going to see an improvement in fitness. Yes, it’s good for range of movement, and if you’re really unfit it’ll help. But if you’re reasonably fit, you have to work much harder than that to achieve benefits.”
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR WORKOUT
Avoid the trap of repetitive, non-cardiovascular swimming by changing it up, with intervals of sprinting. Roberts recommends kicking off with a five minute warm-up, gradually building speed throughout. Then do some intervals of four lengths at top speed so that you’re out of breath. Stop to have 30 seconds rest and repeat. Then do one length regular sprinting, followed by a length using a float between the legs so that you’re just using your arms, then a leg-only length, then a regular length again. Warm down in the final five minutes.
TECHNIQUE
Do some slow swimming to make sure you’ve got everything working properly. With front crawl, your body should be balanced and relaxed. Keep your bottom and head high and try to glide through the water. Keep everything as even as possible; for example, breathe on both sides if you can so that you avoid a tightening of the body on one side.
Control your leg action, so that the kick comes from the hips, not the knee. Feel your hand entering the water and the drag as you pull it through. Remember to roll slightly with each stroke; it’s also important to exhale entirely when you’re under water so your inhalation is most efficient.
With breast stroke, make sure you breathe out under water so that your body can remain flat, which is essential for the full-body workout and the grace of the stroke – keeping your head out of the water means your hips and legs will be too low, which throws off the balance and vigour of the stroke.
Finally, get a heart monitor: it’s the best way to show how hard you’re working since you won’t be breaking a sweat.