Swimming Gym Workouts

Swimming can be one of the best workouts for your entire body. It allows you to focus entirely on exercise as nearly all of your weight is suspended when you're in the water. As opposed to other forms of exercise such as running or sports, working out in the pool doesn't harm the body's joints and can enhance both strength and endurance.

  1. Laps

    • Doing laps in a pool allows your body to get cardiovascular exercise. You can do laps using any stroke you'd like, from freestyle to the butterfly. However, if you're just starting out in the water, it may be better to ease your body into it by doing the sidestroke or breaststroke first. Doing laps helps work out the shoulders and legs as well as the chest, back and core. Almost all of your muscles will get a work out as water has more resistance than air. Swimming laps is also a form of exercise that lengthens the body rather than compresses it. This means the muscles in your neck and back will loosen up while your shoulders and knees will become stronger and more flexible.

    Treading Water

    • Although you aren't covering any distance when you tread water, it is an exercise that will help bring your heart rate up and give your body a cardiovascular workout. This exercise is convenient in that it doesn't require a lot of space either. All you need is enough water to submerge your body in. Once in the water, keep yourself afloat by moving your legs in a circular motion and moving arms back and forth horizontally in order to keep your head above the water. Alternating laps with treading water can break up the monotony of either exercise while also giving your body twice the workout.

    Endurance Training

    • This exercise is easy in that it involves simply pushing your body to the limit. Train your body's endurance by swimming any stroke you like for as long as you can, without stopping. Try doing this even if you can only manage to swim for a few minutes at a time. Record the duration of time you were swimming and try to push yourself harder the next time, trying to up your time swimming with each workout.

    Resistance Training

    • As water has more resistance that air, a pool is a great place to build muscle and strength. You can accomplish strength training underwater by simply doing most of the same muscle exercises that you have been doing outside of the pool. Try doing some squats in the shallow end of the pool, followed by deep lunges so you can work out your lower body. You can even do a "bicycle" workout by leaning back against the side of the pool and kicking your legs as if you're doing cycles in the water. Any kind of pushing, pulling, lifting and rowing against the resistance of water will help develop your muscles.