Being new to the sport of triathloning, and coming from a 20 year swimming background, I am convinced even more so today that swimming is the perfect exercise. It pushes both cardio and total body muscular fitness.
After two years of adding running and cycling to my workout plan to compete in triathlons, I am amazed at the frequency of aches, pains, and injuries that come from those two land based exercises. It seems like every triathlete I know tries to one-up everyone with their running or cycling injuries…including me.
On the other hand, I have never had a swimming injury, and that includes when I was doing what we all did in the 1980’s with those crazy high yardage weeks.
All I know is when I am in my 60s and running and cycling are limited, I will be in the pool!
I am not too sure on the long term effects of swimming in clorine is, or the potential ear problems. Some long term swimmers also complain of shoulder overuse injuries. I am 50 plus so I guess I am on the early train for goggles and hand paddles. When goggles were invented swimmers went from3- 5k to 10k a day practices, and hand paddles do put bigger loads on shoulders. I was coached to do butterfly with the biggest paddles you could push.
I didn’t make it a year and a half and quit the paddles due to shoulder problems. Our coach wasn’t thinking so well back in the day. Be interesting to see statistics in another 10-15 years when the kids that started out with goggles have more or less hearing problems or shoulder problems due to the long water exposure times. The reason I even bring this up is that from grade school to 40 years old, I never had a single “swimmers ear” problem, now at 52 my doc has me wearing ear plugs and wants me to try a nose plug as well to reduce sinus and ear problems.
I have to respectfully disagree. I have been injured, severely, from hiking. I didn’t hurt during the trip, but my knee still bothers me over a year after that one fateful hiking trip. That is after 2 rounds of physical therapy and me doing triathlons/crosstraining now as well.
I’ve been doing tris 12 years and I have never had a swimming or cycling injury (apart from bike crashes), I think if you stay on the bike cycling is an injury free sport as well. When I broke my collarbone the doctor recommended swimming for rehab. The guys with knee problems from cycling are often doing something stupid like pushing massive gears all the time. I had a number of running injuries in my first few years doing tris and now I haven’t had a problem for years, I think it takes time for the body to adapt, all the injuries came when I tried to increase mileage. Some people scare me when they say running causes arthritis, not sure if that is true ?
I am 46 and try not to do the same thing every day. This is the best way I know to avoid repetetive use injuries. Two days in a row of swimming and my shoulders ache. Two days of running and everything below my waist aches. Cycling every day is probably the easist for me.
Swimming is a great full body workout. If I do 500yards of kick drills my legs are tired into the next day. Lets just say after 2,500 yard in the pool, I sleep very good at night.
I have a recurring dislocating shoulder from swimming (though it was first knocked out while boxing) as well as having multiple hernia surgeries (though those came from heavy lifting after a 13k swim without a belt) - I think it definitely loosens up the shoulders making a dislocation more likely, can lead to polyps in the sinuses (I got mine from a bromine pool not chlorine) and if you dont keep up your situps/ crunches might lead to hernias, though I have been told these are hereditary. These injuries resulted from being a lunatic and a sensible, balanced and consistent athlete who knows when to rest should never experience a problem from swimming - I think it is essentially the perfect exercise as if you do at least some of all 4 strokes you will work every muscle in your body, as well as get a terrific cardio workout. Finally if you think about what you are really doing when your swimming, a lot of it is stretching - it leads to looser joints but on the whole I think the benefits outweigh the cons, and despite my injuries I still think I am first a swimmer, then a cyclist (even though this might be where my potential really is) and a reluctant runner as it flat out is bad for your joints unless you are really skinny or thick boned.
i’m a huge fan of swimming, don’t believe there is such a thing as the perfect exercise. alot of excersises are good ones. and with swimming, alot of swimmers endure shoulder problems, chlorine allergies, damage to the eye skin and hair, etc. also swimming doesn’t do anything for bone density.
don’t get me wrong–I think it’s good, but far from perfect. IMO swimming, especially in older people, is best with a routine of hiking, weight training, and stretching.
swimming is great, but I’d put xc skiing and rowing ahead of it for total body fitness. Say what you want, but swimmers aren’t exactly known for their legs.
Long answer - NO. Because - it is very technique-dependant. And very easy to do wrong, and hence get injured (“swimmer’s shoulder” being probably the #1 culprit - I have a bit of that now, f’n stupid sport)
Plus - you have to go someplace special to do it. You can’t just step out your back door and go swim, like you can for biking, running, hiking, walking.
Other reasons:
it’s not social. You never hear “Hey - let’s swim to the coffee shop!”. You do it solo, regardless of how many other people are in the pool (or lake, if yer lucky) w/ you.
no scenery - the view never changes. I don’t care if you put a pool at the base of El Cap or overlooking Machu Picchu (sp?), yer still looking at the same stupid black line the whole time.
it’s boring - see the above 2 reasons.
chlorine and urine - 'nuff said.
no cool gear. OK, so you can debate which wetsuit is better or which goggles ya like, but c’mon - there’s nothing like biking for the Gear Ho’s like me to go crazy about every little thing.
So, for me, biking or hiking are the perfect exercises. You can do them right from home, or go someplace beautiful and do them there. You can do them alone, with family, with a group of friends, whatever.
I also think rock climbing is a great exercise, but it certainly isn’t injury-free, so for those for whom that is a potential concern, then it would be offa yer lists.
With apologies to the fishies, there is nothing you can do or say that will convince me that swimming is “cool”, or fun. I’m glad you all enjoy it, just be aware that for most folks, it’s just not something that tops our list of “what do I want to do today?”
This is a funny post. I was just in the pool this morning thinking this is the worst damn thing I ever do. FREAKING MIND NUMBING. I’ll agree you can get a decent core workout and shoulder workout. But it SUCKS. I mean what the hell is there to do besides swim through and try and count the bubbles when you come off the wall. I think the best training is getting used to the “hair spray oil slick” from all the elderly ladies along the wall. It’s like swimming with all the outboard motors in the lake on your tri swim.
I am 61 and have been swimming competitively for 50 years. I have done loads of tris and 20 marathons. I always come back to the water. My knees are shot as is my brain. Not only is the water a great physical activity, it is comforting as well. Swimming burns more calories than running.
On the down side, I have shoulder surgery and while in a swimming meet the long head of my biceps ripped off. As Monty Python said, “they are only flesh wounds.”
I do need weight bearing activites as well. I keep my running to a minimum and do some of it in the water. I never have a bad swim workout.
it’s not social. You never hear “Hey - let’s swim to the coffee shop!”. You do it solo, regardless of how many other people are in the pool (or lake, if yer lucky) w/ you.
no scenery - the view never changes. I don’t care if you put a pool at the base of El Cap or overlooking Machu Picchu (sp?), yer still looking at the same stupid black line the whole time.
it’s boring - see the above 2 reasons.
chlorine and urine - 'nuff said.
no cool gear. OK, so you can debate which wetsuit is better or which goggles ya like, but c’mon - there’s nothing like biking for the Gear Ho’s like me to go crazy about every little thing.
Swimming engages much more muscles mass than running. There was an article in the NY Times comparing calroic expenditure of swimming and running. If your are training at speed swimming wins out.
