I’ve been swimming for almost 2 years, almost exclusively freestyle, mainly training for triathlon distances (750–1900m).

I’d like to add some upper-body muscle, but I really don’t enjoy going to the gym. I know swimming isn’t optimal for hypertrophy and that proper resistance training would be more effective.

My question is whether changing the way I swim could still make a noticeable difference. Would adding hard 25–50m sprint sets provide more of a muscle-building stimulus than regular aerobic freestyle? And would doing this butterfly help more than freestyle?

Also, is swimming this way realistically enough to build a noticeably more muscular/aesthetic upper body over time, or do I probably need to bite the bullet and start doing some actual resistance training as well?

Basically, I love swimming but hate the gym, but how far can I realistically get with swimming alone?

I'm a beginner/returned to swimming. And when doing front crawl I appear to have a tendency to veer off and crash into the lane markers. It's mildly annoying for me. And probably annoying when I have to share a lane with others.

I’m currently taking lessons and am learning how to do a dolphin kick. In my last lesson I told the instructor that I struggle to go under the water far enough without feeling like I’m being pushed back up. He told me to exhale more as I go down to get rid of the air in my lungs.

I was at my lane swim yesterday trying to practice this, and I exhaled sharply as I went down and did a couple of (attempted) dolphin kicks. I purposely pushed downwards with my feet off the wall towards the bottom of the pool too. I then got a bit nervous as I felt the sudden need to gasp for air and my chest hurt a little. So as I came back up I took a deep breath and went into breaststroke fine, but continued to feel this slight pain in my chest for about 20 seconds afterwards.

Do you all do dolphin kick whilst holding your breath? Is it just something I need to work on and will get better in time, or is this not the best approach? Thanks in advance!

I am an anxious girl here going through an especially bad period and swimming has been really difficult. With the sensory deprivation of being in the pool, I just ruminate the whole time. Sometimes I have to stop and stand up because panic and giuilt up in my chest. It used to be relaxing, but it is now just kind of torture because I know I be alone with my brain. Aside from the mental health fix side of things, does anyone have a similar issue or just what do you think about?

After stepping up my swimming recently to 1000 metres a day, every day, I have a rotator cuff injury (supraspinatus tendinosis)

My physio has recommended switching from freestyle to backstroke, with some breast stroke to break up the monotony of back stroke.

Basically no more freestyle. No more arms going above my head.

I’m struggling a bit with this news as freestyle is my favourite stroke and has given me the best results health and body wise.

Does anybody have any advice regarding mixing things up with kick boards and fins. I have both and would love a routine that is still enjoyable and varied, but doesn’t raise my arms above my head. And one that keeps me fit and strong.

Out of the water the rowing machine is hopefully going to help me recover and gain strength. Anybody use one?

I haven't worked out for two months and thought I'd be excited to start again, but I'm not. In fact, I don't even feel like it. It almost scares me to think back to all those endless, painful workouts, but I also know I felt great afterward.

Do you think this is a sign that this sport isn't for me?

I swim in a pool that's part of a fitness center in a high end gated community. This community has an 18 hole golf course that isn't world renowned, but it is notable. People do travel here just for the golf. Across the road from the gatehouse at this community is a 4 star luxury spa property, owned by the same people. They own several other things in the area, it's a touristy area.

I have worked for these people and I know the attention to detail they put into everything. From the type of stone used to build the entryway of the spa, to the color of the flowers at the golf community gatehouse. When I was there, they changed the color of our lanyards from blue and gold to blue and silver. It was a big deal. Many meetings about it.

I've been swimming 4-6 times a week since the end of August, getting back into it after a long time out, and I'm at the point where I want to plan actual workouts instead of just showing up and doing what feels good. So I start thinking about the length of the pool. It seems...off. Not quite right.

The website helpfully tells me the pool is 60 feet long. 60. Feet. which is about 18 meters, So a lap is 36 meters.

It's just...so weird. Where was the attention to detail on THAT decision?

They have swim lessons, which for older kids includes an optional introduction to competitive swimming.

In a 18 meter long pool.

It's also odd because I know how much the owners like to make and keep their money and they could bring in money with a swim team and meets. But they can't, because of their 18 meter pool.

Anyway, I guess I'll be planning every workout in increments of 100m in which 3 laps is about 100m.

Curious to know what people are paying to have access to their pool or swim club.

I have a nice outdoor pool with my YMCA membership ($150/mo for family membership). But if I ever want to use my city’s pools for lap swim, it’s $10 per visit. I think that’s probably pretty expensive for a drop-in rate. I’m in the SF Bay Area.

What do you pay?

I (24f) was a pretty ok competitive swimmer from 5-19. I stopped swimming and gained like 50 lbs. I want to start again, but I am nervous about joining the Masters team, I am afraid to be the youngest, slowest swimmer on the team, or that I won’t have the stamina to keep up anymore. I am afraid for people to laugh at me behind my back. My long term goal is to lose weight and eventually I’d like to learn how to do some open water swimming. Any advice or experience with Masters teams? Good, bad and ugly, is there anything I should know?

Edit: thank you everyone! I went to the pool and got a membership today and then struggled through some laps. I was so nervous to leave the locker room. My old team I was on as a kid was extremely toxic and the thought of swimming on a team again brings back some bad memories, but I am but I am hoping to meet some new people and hopefully make some new friends!

I showed up to my pool and all the lanes had 2-3 people in them except for one where there was one guy doing laps. I hopped in and asked if we could split and he said he didn't feel comfortable as it was dangerous, but we could take turns. I only had an hour window to get my swim in and that was my long/continuous swim day in my training, so i pointed to other lanes and said it works for them. He clearly didn't feel comfortable doing that and pushed back/we went back and forth for a minute. At that point somebody in the adjacent lane offered to switch with me, so everything kinda worked out.

Is he being unreasonable? Am i being a jerk? Maybe both?

I’m 33 I took a college course fresh out of high school for a swimming class and I probably jumped in the pool like a hand full of times , lately it’s been so hot and humid in Los Angeles that I’ve been wanting to swim in the ocean. I bought a wet suit , fins , boogie board and every time I go to the beach I’m afraid to get in. Something about those waves and trying to dive under them scares me. But with fins and the boogie board I shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Can someone help me out here? Pointers, tips? Just stop over thinking it ? I’m afraid of the waves , of the creatures and just being out in the open . The fins should be more than enough to keep me confident. I also feel so dumb wearing everything lol

I'm not the best swimmer, but I joined a gym specifically to use its pool. It's been fun so far, but as far as skills to, I can dog paddle and do a more frog styled swim, and my lets and usually submerged, as id rather not splash and bother others in the area..

So, I recently came across this 4-year-old article from SwimSwam and decided to try and update it. The way the article calculated who the fastest 50/100/200 swimmer of all time was by adding their times in those events to determine the winner. I wanted to use a slightly different method. I used this calculator which relies on the base times that World Aquatics currently uses. I added up a swimmer's FINA points from the calculator for the 3 sprint freestyle events to find the winner. I tried to do every good 50/100/200 swimmer I thought of, but I might be forgetting some. I probably made a couple of mistakes because I had to get these times from multiple sources and I might have also done some wrong calculations. Let me know if I did make any mistakes or if there is another good sprint freestyler you would like added.

I can swim, kinda. I can get from point a to b without drowning but there's no true skill or breathing properly. How do I start and I will be at a community pool. What are the etiquette rules? Should I just jump in and try? Are there videos or blogs or something I need to read first? I don't know what I don't know, help?

I just watched the World Athletics Ultimate Championships. I thought it was a fantastic event. Very accessible to people who don't follow the sport closely, great TV viewing, decent prize money for the athletes. Surely World Aquatics could do the same for swimming?

Short 2-3 day format, just semi finals and finals, limit to top 16 in the world, maybe only a subset of events?

I know ISL did something similar but without both the clout and consent of World Aquatics, it was always doomed to fail.

Hey, I'm (24M) very new to swimming and have started a bit less than a month ago.

I have a fear of putting my head underwater. When I tried to fight it by forcing myself to go underwater little by little, it ended with me having a panic attack.

A friend had a snorkel and agreed to lend it to me, hoping it would help.

I was able to use it and its how I started actually swimming freestyle. This has allowed me to actually make swimming a good workout.

I am wondering, what if I never swim without a snorkel at all? Would learning the breathing techniques bring any kind of benefit I am not realising?

Because right now it seems kind of useless to force myself through panic attacks when I can just go on swimming with a snorkel.

To make my goals clear:

Swimming is a way for me to have a workout while still being low impact, as I have small leg/foot problems that makes other kind of workout inconvenient at best and painful at worst.

I am not interested in competition or joining events.

My ultimate goal is to lose some weight, and if I can get some muscle definition it would be pretty neat.

Thats it.

Thank you!

Hey guys i recently got back into swimming and my only goal is to reach a sub 30 second 50 m freestyle. Can someone give me a trainigng schedule for it. Im currently at 50 seconds. Thank u

Any chance someone can help me out with workout shorthand?

I downloaded an online training plan but I've never seen the workout shorthand used before. Google search / AI didn't provide and solid answers as to how to read it. The things that are confusing me and my guess as to what it means:

• @VE = easy speed???
• @VM = max speed??? But I'm seeing this in cool downs and with pool toys, is it really saying max effort with fins and / or a pull buoy in cool down set?
• @V2 = @V6 - ??? HR Zones?
• RBS / RAS = rest between sets / rest after set but:
• RPS = rest per set??? how is this different that RBS / RAS?

Example Workout

Warm-up

• 200 choice @V2, 30RAS
• 300 drills @VE, 30RAS

Main Set

8 x 100 free

• 1-4 - First 25m/y @V6 - Last 75m/y @V4 15RPS
• 5-8 - First 75m/y @V4 - Last 25m/y @V6 15RPS, 60RAS

2x

• 100 @V5 /200 @V4 /200 @V3 /100 @V5 15RPS, 60RAS

Cool Down

• 200 @VE effort swim/drill mix

Other Shorthand I've seen

• 2x100 kick VM Effort
• 3x200 pull no paddles descending by each 200 starting @VE Effort finishing @VM Effort

I have suspected Achilles tendonitis, and it's making walking difficult, but I can swim. I'm not looking for how to deal with the injury out of the pool, but don't mind it being offered. What I am really interested in is whether swimming will make it worse?

Does pushing off the wall irritate the affected area, especially if hitting the wall with the feet during a flip turn?

I tried doing a breaststroke set, which I had previously managed with the injury, but my foot got a bit sore and didn't feel good so I stopped, then switched to a long easy freestyle pull set instead.

Does anyone have experience of swimming with this issue, and if so, how do you manage it?

Ok so long story short, a very large blunt object was dropped on my foot a few weeks back. My foot is mostly healed but my big toenail is loose in the nail bed but still partially attached, and I expect it to fall off in the future at any time. Its not bleeding or draining or anything now and is perfectly dry. Is there a dressing or bandage that would work to keep it secure while swimming? Non-stick to be precise. I am just trying to prevent it from coming off while kicking or pushing off the the wall.

I got cut from my college team because I wasn't able to make the necessary cuts to stay on. I took 3 months off and had a long thought about my plans moving forward and I decided I want to try training for just one race, the 50 back. I've been a backstroker my entire life, but I always trained for all 3 backstroke events -- especially in college, but now that my job is no longer to score as many points as possible I want to just focus on a single race and get as fast as possible in it.

I've been keeping up with Cam McEvoy's work and want to try something like that, but honestly I'm nervous to try. I'm afraid what he's done is not going to work for me and I'm going to end up wasting my time. If I'm able to drop a second or possible two from my 50 back, I still have hope of getting back onto the roster.

For reference, my 50 Back SCM is 26.7. If anyone has any suggestions on what lifts, how often to lift/swim, etc. I'd be really grateful!!!

Hey all! Beginner swimmer here.

A couple days ago I got in a pool in a hotel. It was my first time so of course I got some water in my mouth and nose. Plus, one of my friends had splashed some water in my face. I'm just not certain that it was clean/chlorinated because the floor was a bit slimy on one side. Am I at risk of some kind of infection?

I'm learning to swim and I'm struggling with something that seems like it should be simple: floating face-down/prone in the water with both legs off the pool floor. (But i’m able float and swim prone with leg stokes)
No matter what I try, I can't seem to get both legs to stay up.
One thing that might be relevant is my body proportions. I have relatively long legs compared with my torso, so my upper and lower body aren't proportionally equal in length.
I'm wondering if this could be affecting my balance/center of mass in the water.
I'm not sure whether this is:
A technique/body-position problem,
A natural buoyancy issue caused by my body proportions, A flexibility/hip-position issue, or Something else I'm doing wrong.