You see athletes relaxing in swimming pools all the time. Sometimes entire teams do fitness pool sessions, with some top level footballers even installing bikes in pools. Swimming is clearly one of the best full body workouts, but it’s not the only thing one can do in a pool when it comes to fitness. There is a long-standing relationship between water and workouts. But while getting into pools is mostly seen as a leisure activity, one can turn it into a full-fledged gym if used cleverly.
It’s also not just about exercising. Getting into a pool after a workout too has many benefits. Acting as a great cooling down process, light pool work promotes muscle recovery and helps reduce soreness. But it’s more than just about feeling good. There is a chemistry behind this.
“Focusing the majority of your energy on making improvements in the weight room will result in better strength gains. After all the glycogen is depleted in the gym, you’ll burn more fat during your swim workout,” states an article on MySwimPro.com titled, Should I Lift Weights Before Or After I Swim?
The article adds that swimming before a workout is not a bad idea, but it might not be your best bet to lift heavy with fatigued muscles afterwards. But what it might do is get you into lifting mode with an already elevated heart-rate. Choose wisely depending on what your goals are.
Then again, it could depend on what muscles you are working. You might not want to swim after a heavy shoulder day, but it could be a gamechanger after leg day. “Treading water for 5-10 minutes before trying a few gentle lengths should allow muscles to relax and core temperatures to come down gradually. After leg day, swimming is also a low impact activity that relaxes the entire lower body, leading to better recovery and less risk of injuries,” states a Hussle article titled, How To Incorporate Gym And Swim Into Your Workout.
It’s also not just about lifting. With the marathon season just ending, plenty of people are still in their running phases, and they might wonder how running pairs with the world’s favourite fitness activity. A 2009 study published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, and titled, Effects Of A Recovery Swim On Subsequent Running Performancehas led to much discussion about the effects of swimming on running. Its mission was simple. To find out the effects of a swimming-based recovery session, “implemented 10 hours post high intensity interval running” on certain performance parameters the next day. And the results were surprisingly good.
“A swimming-based recovery session, implemented 10 hoursafter the completion of a high intensity running session, resulted in a significantly greater performance on a TTF [time to fatigue] test the following day. The results of this investigation provide evidence to promote the implementation of water-based recovery sessions as a second daily training session into an athlete’s program, in order to allow better quality training in sessions to be completed on subsequent days,” the study states. It also added that this kind of programme resulted in a reduced inflammatory response from the body due to the water’s hydrostatic pressure. As a rest day activity, swimming sounds perfect.
So weight-lifting and swimming, check. Running and swimming, check. And recovery and swimming, also check. But what about building muscle and stamina?
Swimming as an activity is anyway about resistance training, but apart from doing swimming laps, one can add a whole range of other work. I am quite new to this myself, but the results are not bad. The other day, I did 10 breadths of a pool, swimming a total of just 150 metres and then ran 10 breadths while in the pool, covering a total distance of 300 metres. I ended every running lap with 30 calf raises in the pool, and my sports watch says I burnt 145 calories in a 30 minute workout with sufficient rest times. Imagine starting with a 30 minute weight-training session and ending it with half an hour in the pool, and the workout seems more complete.
Doing squats, side swings for the adductors and glutes, and some underwater lateral raises also helps. Popular swim coach Fares Ksetabi, who has more than 900,000 subscribers on YouTube, has a comprehensive 15-minute video on how to structure a swimming workout, which ranges from beginner to advanced.
The best part about the pool is that it is also a playground. One does not always have to be extremely serious about this, unless you plan to take up swimming as a fully athletic endeavour. With pool availability in gyms already low, one can start viewing it as a supplement to a daily fitness routine, rather than the main way to get fitter.
Pulasta Dhar is a football commentator, podcaster and writer.
