Swimming to lose weight - a question - Page 3

On 1 Feb 2004 11:49:18 -0800, grubas8@gazeta.pl (grubas) wrote:

>Did you taught yourself freestyle completely on your own? Is it possible to learn it without an
>instructor/coach? I would love to learn it, but I don't know anybody who could instruct me.

I thought most pools had a swim club and instructor, and usually a Masters team. It really is the
best way. Make enquiries at your pool.

I learned about 95% on my own, but I had spent a couple of years as a swim parent, talking to
coaches and other parents about swimming. I also read quite a few articles on the net and
watched videos.

I received a few tips from my son and his coach, but no instruction as such.

A few tips that helped me a lot:

- Relax. This is number one. Practice floating face down for a while.
- Don't breathe too often. Every 3 or 4 strokes is plenty and it really helps because rolling to
breathe disturbs the balance. Later you can breathe more often if you need to.
- Kick just enough to keep your body flat in the water. Don't try and get propulsion from the
kicking to begin with. It tires you out, wastes energy and adds drag.
- Pull straight back with the hand close to the body, not with a straight arm. The latter is
powerful, but very hard on the shoulder.

On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 21:32:32 +0100, "Olivier"
<katrin.bergmann@free.fr> wrote:

>Smith, Martin <eccentric@orbit.com> a écrit dans le message : bvahgj$ifu$1@services.kq.no...
>
>> I don't think that is physically possible, unless you changed your diet significantly. In other
>> words, if all you did was add 50 minutes of swimming per day, then you could not possibly burn
>> enough calories to lose 1kg per week.
>
>I recently was at a swimming pool with a precision balance, and I was surprised to observe that I
>can lose around 1.5 kg after one hour of hard training.
>
>This must be mostly (and quite paradoxically!) water, but I found it quite impressive, even though
>I had gained the 1.5kg again the day after!
>
>Do other swimmers here experince such a loss of weight after training?
>
>-- Olivier
>

Yes water and glycogen loss. 1.5kg seems like alot for a typical workout but not entirely
unusual. I know of couple people that have lost in the neighbor hood of 8-10lbs, 4.5kg
during an IM(Iron man not medley) That's while actually trying to stay hydrated and fueled
up. Of course that's probably an extreme case an dnot something one woudl strive for.

~Matt

1.5kg would be exceptional but not unheard of - that'd translate to approx.
2.5 litres of fluid loss...

<MJuric> wrote in message news:401e9c0d.13919099@news.choiceone.net...
> On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 21:32:32 +0100, "Olivier" <katrin.bergmann@free.fr> wrote:
>
> >Smith, Martin <eccentric@orbit.com> a écrit dans le message : bvahgj$ifu$1@services.kq.no...
> >
> >> I don't think that is physically possible, unless you changed your diet significantly. In other
> >> words, if all you did was add 50 minutes of swimming per day, then you could not possibly burn
> >> enough calories to lose 1kg per week.
> >
> >I recently was at a swimming pool with a precision balance, and I was surprised to observe that I
> >can lose around 1.5 kg after one hour of hard training.
> >
> >This must be mostly (and quite paradoxically!) water, but I found it
quite
> >impressive, even though I had gained the 1.5kg again the day after!
> >
> >Do other swimmers here experince such a loss of weight after training?
> >
> >-- Olivier
> >
>
> Yes water and glycogen loss. 1.5kg seems like alot for a typical workout but not entirely unusual.
> I know of couple people that have lost in the neighbor hood of 8-10lbs, 4.5kg during an IM(Iron
> man not medley) That's while actually trying to stay hydrated and fueled up. Of course that's
> probably an extreme case an dnot something one woudl strive for.
>
> ~Matt

"diablo" <diablo@msn.com> wrote in message news:<5OzTb.10774$2h.5299@twister.rdc-kc.rr.com>...
> 1.5kg would be exceptional but not unheard of - that'd translate to approx.
> 1.5 litres of fluid loss...
>
> <MJuric> wrote in message news:401e9c0d.13919099@news.choiceone.net...
> > On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 21:32:32 +0100, "Olivier" <katrin.bergmann@free.fr> wrote:
> >
> > >Smith, Martin <eccentric@orbit.com> a écrit dans le message : bvahgj$ifu$1@services.kq.no...
> > >
> > >> I don't think that is physically possible, unless you changed your diet significantly. In
> > >> other words, if all you did was add 50 minutes of swimming per day, then you could not
> > >> possibly burn enough calories to lose 1kg per week.
> > >
> > >I recently was at a swimming pool with a precision balance, and I was surprised to observe that
> > >I can lose around 1.5 kg after one hour of hard training.
> > >
> > >This must be mostly (and quite paradoxically!) water, but I found it
> quite
> > >impressive, even though I had gained the 1.5kg again the day after!
> > >
> > >Do other swimmers here experince such a loss of weight after training?
> > >
> > >-- Olivier
> > >
> >
> > Yes water and glycogen loss. 1.5kg seems like alot for a typical workout but not entirely
> > unusual. I know of couple people that have lost in the neighbor hood of 8-10lbs, 4.5kg during an
> > IM(Iron man not medley) That's while actually trying to stay hydrated and fueled up. Of course
> > that's probably an extreme case an dnot something one woudl strive for.
> >
> > ~Matt

Whenever i train at my local YMCA (which has a very hot pool, 86 degrees F and up)i weigh myself
before and after on their decent scale, usual weight loss after 3k to 3.5k workout is about 1.5 to 2
lbs. i can't take anymore than an hour in that pool without feeling like my head will explode.
Needless to say I try to swim there as little as possible.

I just learnt to swim freestyle by teaching myself (still improving but I'm pleased with how
its going).

I used these links (hope they help):

http://www.svl.ch/crawl/freestyle.html http://swimming.about.com/gi/dynamic...m?site=http%3-
A%2F%2Fwww.swim.net%2Farticle_archive%2Fswimming_posture.cfm
http://sparkspiranhas.usswim.net/Coaches'%20Corner/Freestyle%20Technique/Freestyle%20Technique.htm
http://swimming.about.com/library/weekly/aa031303b.htm
http://www.swimmingcoach.org/articles/teaching.htm
http://www.bridgendcounty.freeserve.co.uk/TechFr.htm http://www.totalimmersion.net/ti-workshop-
day.html

check out the videos:

http://www.swim.ee/

Its taken me about 2 months swimming 4 mornings a week before I awarded myself freestyle
swimmer status.

For the first 4 weeks I only did drills, learning one thing at a time. Like how to balance, breath,
recover my arms, etc. After that I spent about 30 minutes doing drills + 20 minutes of lane
swimming. I still do the drills now but only for about 10 minutes each morning.

I'm 45, so it was a late start. I'm glad that I've cracked front crawl, because breaststoke is
apparently not so good for you as you get older.

"grubas" <grubas8@gazeta.pl> wrote in message
news:d4cdd786.0402011149.60f83469@posting.google.com...
> Helgi Briem <HelgiBriem_1@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:<7j7t00hthcgaeootofgnv0du12ls20rdbs@4ax.com>...
> > On 21 Jan 2004 07:16:24 -0800, grubas8@gazeta.pl (grubas) wrote:
> >
> > >I am not a very good swimmer. Breast stroke is the only stroke I really know. It takes me about
> > >50 minutes to swim a mile.
> > >
> > >Now the question: Is this time well spent or rather lost?
> >
> > I think it's likely to be well spent, so long as you don't hit the burgers afterwards to reward
> > yourself. If you can, get a coach to teach you freestyle. Otherwise, breaststroke is fine. I
> > taught myself freestyle a couple of years ago and it was well worth the effort.
> >
>
> Hi again!
>
> Thank you for your advice and encouragement.
>
> Did you taught yourself freestyle completely on your own? Is it possible to learn it without an
> instructor/coach? I would love to learn it, but I don't know anybody who could instruct me.
>
> How did you go about it - or were you taught by someone else?

"john" <john@nospma.net> wrote in message
news:bvoj78$4ja$1@nntpcache-01.ops.a...nergis-idc.net...
> I just learnt to swim freestyle by teaching myself (still improving but
I'm
> pleased with how its going).

> snip <
> > Hi again!
> >
> > Thank you for your advice and encouragement.
> >
> > Did you taught yourself freestyle completely on your own? Is it possible to learn it without an
> > instructor/coach? I would love to learn it, but I don't know anybody who could instruct me.
> >
> > How did you go about it - or were you taught by someone else?
>
>
An excellent aid to technique improvement, with a coach or self taught is to get a friend to
videotape you when swimming, and look at yourself and compare what you see with good, fast swimmers.
It's an eye opener, as you see all sorts of things you don't realise you're doing!