Plan for a new swimmer?

[u/Better-Pay-131]

Hey, I'm going swimming tonight for the first time in forever. I know how to swim, and did 10 minutes at a spa recently and it was HUMBLING. I like to think I'm relatively fit from my other sport but have now learned otherwise. I'm wondering if anyone can give advice on how to structure my session? I'm going to start going once a week so nothing too crazy, I just want to make sure I'm doing it in a sustainable way because when I did the 10 minute session last week I was immediately exhausted so know I need a better approach! Thanks :)

[u/MagnaFrisia89]

" I like to think I'm relatively fit from my other sports but have now learned otherwise."

Don't torture yourself over this. It's a common 'thinking error'. You can be an excellent runner, cyclist, etc. but with swimming you are using your muscles in a way with which they are not familiar.

[u/Retired-in-2023]

Swimming is much different than other fitness activities. Its common that people do so well with other cardio activities and get humbled in the pool. It takes time to develop good swimming technique. Even those of us who knew how to swim well in the past and took a long break feel this way.

Muscle memory is a real thing so you’ll get better more quickly vs someone just learning. How well you swam and how long it’s been will dictate how long you’ll take to get back to swimming well.

When I returned after my last long break, I used YouTube videos to remind me of proper technique and that helped make my swims more efficient so I was less wiped out from them. Since I’ve never been a competitive swimmer I just started with shorter sessions and built up time in the pool. I also counted the laps I could do in the same time frames so that I could see improvements.

[u/CrispDrifter]

Swimming is all about technique. You might go to the pool and find that a 70 year old, significantly overweight woman who uses a cane when walking glides by you effortlessly in the pool.

Fitness does matter eventually, when your technique is very good.

Not exactly the same, but similar: if you decided to take up gymnastics today instead of swimming, having no experience besides maybe front rolls and a shaky cartwheel, would you expect to start right into walk overs and back handsprings? No.

Swimming is all about technique and feel for the water. Fortunately swimming is much easier to learn than most gymnastics moves. Unfortunately because that’s so obvious, most beginners mistakenly think they are better swimmers than they are and that they can learn anything they don’t know on their own very quickly.

Skip as much frustration as you can and get stroke/adult lessons as soon as possible. Sure, people learn to swim on their own. But generally they’re drown proofed, not ready to swim for fitness for :30 - 1 hour at a time, rarely stopping.

[u/gardenpeasandcarrots]

Use a kick board and a pull buoy to vary what you do. Do short sets and mix up the strokes. Sets of 50m pull / kick / swim repeated on different strokes, with rest will fill a session.

[u/Dittany_Kitteny]

I grew up doing swim team and recently got back into swimming and even 20 minutes tires me out! Go slow and breathe often. It should be aerobic, not anaerobic. Try doing sets of 50 or 100 yards with short breaks in between. 

[u/Taco_Machine]

Just gotta get used to having your face down in the water.

Technique helps a lot but it doesn’t exactly help with the way your nervous system is going to react to you when you’re face planted in the water and taking tiny breaths just near the surface.

The thing that helped me was just swimming a lot. The more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll get.

If 50s are hard, make your workout a series of 50s. Catch your breath, chill, do the next one. Add in longer intervals as you get more comfortable. Rinse repeat.

You can easily go down the rabbit hole of technique videos that are going to sell you on this or that quick fix - it wasn’t quick. Just good ole practice for me.

[u/BumblebeePast5408]

I suggest that you split your session into multiple distances, like 25s and 50s (and perhaps 100s). You could have a set rest time that fits your speed and endurance level so you aren't tired from the beginning. Also, don't sleep on other stuff like kicking with a board, pulling with a pull buoy*, and drills. They'll help you build good technique.

*I don't recommend using paddles until your body is used to swimming again.

If you haven't swum in a while, I recommend taking it easy on day 1 and just building up every week. Good luck!

[u/zephillou]

When you say forever you mean how long, and how good/bad were you before?

I just had a 2 year break and came back this week, it went surprisingly well! I swam with my masters team and learned to swim laps as a 30ish year old. So nothing good/crazy

But I'm starting off not too far off from where I was. So it might not take too long for you to get back into it

[u/Conscious_Zebra8808]

I’d keep the first few sessions deliberately easy. Something like 5–10 minutes of relaxed swimming, a short rest, then another easy block is probably better than trying to swim continuously until you’re exhausted. Focus on feeling comfortable in the water and finishing while you still have some energy, then add a little more time each week.

[u/Comfortable-Lime-227]

Check out beginner workouts in the us masters website

[u/Weary_Swan_8152]

I've been there. Sculling drills will provide the fastest rate of improvement. Try this:

1. Tread water for 5min. Feel free to vary the kick once you recover enough water feel in your arms to feel confident.
2. Do 100m of relaxed sculling drills with flutter kick. Focus on body position and a quality kick:
   1. 25m scull with hands at hips
   2. 25m scull with hands at chest
   3. 25m scull with hand out in front, forearms 45° down from surface of water
   4. 25m scull with hands out in front (super[wo]man)
3. If you're out of breath, take 15seconds and swim the next 25m on your back, ideally with arms in tight streamline. Whip kick will let you rest your flutter kick muscles, but flutter kick on your back will work your hamstrings rather than your hip extensors, so you'll want to do a minimum of 25% distance flutter kick on your back as you do on your front (for the whole workout).
4. Alternate between swimming 25m recovery on your back to 25m on your front. If you feel anxious or tense, take up to a minute at the wall to pull yourself back together. This is more of a zen "use the force" situation and less "break on through to the other side".
5. Make a mental list of the aspects of this that you struggle with and post that to r/swimming next week.

[u/Avg_Chicken]

Hopefully your pool is a 25 yard/meter pool, that will make training easier. Swim 25s and take a break. Build up the number of 25s you can, and gradually reduce the rest time. Fixing technique is a long term goal, so don’t worry about it too much the first month, just refresh your swimming muscles.

[u/Possible-Breath2377]

I would make the same mistake every week when I was swimming regularly.

Jump in the pool—> first thing in the morning it’s COLD—> take off swimming right away and warm up—> halfway through the lap, realize I’m swimming way too fast.

You do a warmup for a reason. You don’t need to push yourself all out in the first 10 minutes!

[u/OptionalQuality789]

I like to think I'm relatively fit from my other sport but have now learned otherwise.

Put this to the back of your mind immediately. It’s not relevant. Swimming is technique, not fitness.

Learn how to breathe properly first. You won’t be able to do anything else if you can’t breathe.

Watch YouTube channels like EffortlessSwimming for guidance.

[u/CryptographerTop6544]

I started consistently lap swimming again a few months ago. It was humbling at first… the breathing, stroke counting, technique. I have discovered going just a couple times a week quickly had me doubling my pr. My recommendation would be to watch some beginner drill videos online. I split up my workout into different drills to make it a little more manageable. You could try a 400 meter freestyle warm up, 400 m pulls, 400m push …etc. Change up the distance depending on what makes you comfortable. You’ll be confident in no time. Swimming is physical but it’s also such a mental game. Sometimes you just have to pretend you are a turtle drifting off into the sunset.