Maximizing Your Pool Session – 10th Dec, 2012

Lads & Lasses! With the help of Bodytrack I’ll be giving you regular blog updates with some tips & info on all things I encounter as an athlete. Hopefully you will find at least something beneficial!

With summer now in full swing we have experienced some really hot days. Hopefully your exercise routines haven’t been disturbed and more importantly, you haven’t been discouraged from exercise! If you normally stick to running or riding, maybe it’s time you made the most of the summer sun and take a dip in your local pool. If swimming is already part of your exercise routine, maybe you would like to change things up or get more out of each session.

It’s important to structure a session properly so you can get as much benefit as possible.  A good way to do this is breaking it into three parts – A warm up, main set and warm down. The best way to portion the distance for these is 20-25% for the warm up, 50-60% for the main & 20-25% for the warm down. If you’re happy just to churn out some laps, keep your mind interested in what you’re doing by mixing in other strokes every 3^rd lap or putting fins on and trying to work hard with them on and not using them as an easy option.  These are also good options to fill in distance on your warm up and warm down. Below is an example swimming session, but if you need any assistance contact the guys at bodytrack, they are more than just a bunch of friendly faces!!

Keep your body on track!

Try this:

300m every 3^rd lap backstroke or breastroke
200m fins every 2^nd lap firm

8x50m’s every 2^nd 50m – 15m sprint
6x50m’s every 2^nd 50m –  20m sprint
4x50m’s every 2^nd 50m –  25m sprint
2x50m’s every 2^nd 50m –  50msprint

100m easy – your choice
2x150m 50m kick, 50m backstroke or breastroke, 50m freestyle
100m easy – your choice