Having already written about cycling, it was only going to be a matter of time before I wrote about swimming – the second discipline in my own sport of Triathlon. I decided to write about it now because of the weather. Nottingham has not been kind to outdoor athletes recently and I’ve had to watch some motivational videos just to muster up the courage just to walk to the corner shop, let alone get on my bike to battle the wind and rain. It looks like we’re approaching winter, and for many fair-weather athletes this will mean sacking off their run in the rain for a hot chocolate in bed. Swimming therefore, is the perfect solution to the gale force winds outside and here’s why…
The University has a great swimming pool. Being 8 lanes wide there’s plenty of room for both the conversational and the competitive swimmer. If you’re in halls, it’s no more than a 10 minute walk. With Silver or Gold Gym membership the pool is free, and with Bronze membership there is a £2 on the door fee which is still cheaper than the gym! Another benefit which I often get a small feeling of satisfaction from is that if you shower at the pool you’re saving a tiny bit of money off your water bill (every little helps right?!). If you are quick to get bored of swimming lengths the University pool has a selection of cards at the poolside of varying difficulty which give you some advice on how to vary up your pool workout using the pullbouy and kick board.
Benefits of Swimming
Swimming is often seen as the ideal sport for the injured, pregnant, unfit and overweight as it’s the only aerobic exercise which is completely non-impact. Don’t let this distort your view of the sport; it’s great for the fit and competitive too. Muscular benefits of swimming over for example, running, are greater as both the upper and lower half of the body is engaged pushing your body through the water. Not only this, but moving through air is far easier than moving through water, so swimming is essentially a type of resistance training; a perfect muscle toner and strengthener. Some studies have shown that swimming can help improve asthma as it teaches controlled breathing.
Staying Healthy
As an aid to weight control, swimming is also very effective. The NHS website claims that for a 60kg woman, a 30 minute steady swim will burn 240 calories. To increase the intensity of your swim and therefore calories burnt, you could add interval training. Try this: swim 1 length hard, 1length easy and repeat trying to keep the time for your hard length consistent.
Social swimming is definitely the way forward if you need some motivation. You can swim, have a gossip, swim again, have another gossip, and motivate each other to do another 10 lengths. If you swim 40 lengths of the University 25m pool then you’ve done 1km! For first timers and anyone in fact, it’s always good to have an aim. To say you swam 1km is no laughing matter so give it a go!
Edited by Faiza Peeran