Swim Workout For Exercise

By: Frances Smith

Break Studios Contributing Writer

Learn how to develop a swim workout for exercise to stay in shape by swimming. Swimming is excellent exercise to help lose weight, tone your body and stay in good physical shape. Another benefit of swimming is that it's possible to use a swim workout for exercise year round with access to an indoor pool. This gives you no excuse for not exercising because of bad weather. Swimming provides resistance in the water, giving a good workout without put stress on your joints.

Develop a workout. Depending on your individual swimming ability, you can make an easy, medium or strenuous workout. Any movement in water is good exercise so start with an easy workout. Then working up to a more difficult routine is acceptable. Know the swimming pool and figure how many laps you'll need to swim depending on the length of the pool. Resting a day before swimming again will let your muscles rest.
Warm up. Begin any swim workout for exercise by warming up to get your muscles ready for more activity. Stretch your arms and legs and roll your shoulders. This will help you become more limber and flexible before getting in the swimming pool.
Swim laps. An excellent way to get a good workout from swimming is to swim laps. Decide how long you want to swim. A good workout for exercise is 30 minutes or more three times a week.
Swim using different strokes. To keep the workout interesting, start by swimming five or ten laps using the breast stroke. Change to the backstroke or a kicking technique for five to ten laps using a kick board, if needed. Keep the exercise workout motivating by changing the stroke as you like. Rotate the different strokes to make your workout interesting.
Exercise using aids. Use a pull buoy or kick board if desired. Use hand paddles to exercise with more load making the workout more strenuous. Make the workout your own using these aids for variety.
Rest for a minute. During your swim workout, take a minute to rest after a strenuous set of laps. Let yourself catch your breath before resuming your workout.