Self Love & A Swim Workout

Please enjoy these great swim workout tips by my guest poster, Greta Boris. As you read through you will also see a bit about the ebb and flow of self-love.

I always loved to swim as a child. There was nothing better than jumping in cool water on a hot summer day. However, I never swam to get a swim workout, I just paddled around and loved myself.

In high school, the fact that I had to get my hair wet and put my makeup back on decreased my love for the water. I could have just left my cosmetic bag behind but I did not quite feel right about that. Hmm…some self-love issues?

After I had babies, there was colored hair, makeup, stretch marks and cellulite. What can I say? Sometimes I’m kind of girly. Sometimes, I have an issue with self-love.

I was not willing to go through all that shame for a swim workout when I’d rather run anyway.

As I grew older yet, I found that if I wanted to reduce my rate of injury from running I had to find non-impact exercise to do on the off days. I made friends with some triathletes, they dumped me in the pool, and that, as they say, was that.

I discovered great benefits from a swim workout:

• It helps me reduce my rate of injuries.
• I can zone out and meditate my navel.
• It fixes a backache.
• It really burns calories. It’s MET is 6, depending on intensity. Here is an explanation of MET’s and more exercise equivalents.
• It got me out of my head and into my body. Self-love benefits?
• Goodbye flabby arms  <- hmm I should not be concentrating on that!

Get a great swim workout.

Here are suggestions for if you’re just getting started in the sport.

1. Join a team, a class, or get an instructor.
2. If you have never swam competitively or seriously, chances are you have some funky form habits that will slow you down. These will keep you from really getting a good workout. Your local YMCA probably has the help you need.
3. Push yourself.
4. It’s really easy to get in the water, zone out and slow down. I like to go to the pool with a swim workout in mind. Something that will challenge me. It’s also good to go with a friend who’s better at than you are and try to keep up!
5. Buy Toys.
6. Don’t try to swim in a bikini with your hair flapping around your face and no goggles. You’re not Esther Williams. Look at it this way, the swimsuit made for swimmers makes you look like you know what you’re doing. And with the ugly cap and goggles you’re kind of incognito.
7. I find that swim fins, paddles and buoys add a little variety and make lap swimming less boring. And, there is nothing for the back of the thighs like doing some kick-laps with fins on.

Here is a sample workout I might do when I go to the pool:

10 Warm up laps. For me, a lap is up and back. This would be approximately 50 meters.

Sprint ladder:

• 1 sprint lap
• 1 easy lap
• 2 sprint laps
• 1 easy lap
• 3 sprint laps
• 1 easy lap
• 4 sprint laps
• 1 easy lap
• 5 sprint laps
• 1 easy lap
• 5 laps with paddles
• 5 kick laps

2,000 meters of swim workout is now your reward.

Swim Workouts for Triathletes is a great little waterproof book in a binder that you can set right on the edge of the pool if you would like even more ideas.

Put vanity aside and jump in. The water’s great.

Greta Boris is the author of The Wine and Chocolate Workout – Eat, Drink, and Lose Weight. She was a personal trainer and weight management coach for the better part of 20 years until she morphed into a full time writer and author. You can find her on Twitter.