Starting a swimming regime can add years to your life. A 32-year study by the University of South Carolina found that death rates among men who swim were reduced up to 50 percent in age groups ranging from 20 to 90 years. These findings were made through comparative analysis of male swimmers with their running, walking and sedentary counterparts. Begin your swimming workout slowly, taking time to learn good form and to increase your fitness.
Warm Up
Because you are new to a regular swimming routine, warming up your muscles is all the more essential. If swimming is a supplement to other physical training – with weights or other aerobic activity – place swimming last in your workout order, because your metabolism is maximized for fat-burning. Otherwise, tread water for a few minutes and follow up with stretching on a mat. Most strokes elongate your body, requiring flexibility in your muscles.
Exercises
Going from no swimming to regular aquatic training taxes muscles previously underused. Begin exercising with your legs by focusing on kicking, with or without a kickboard. For example, when doing the freestyle, alternate kicking sides to correspond with your extended arm. Move to arm workouts, such as sculling, in which you move down the lane solely on arm power, your elbows fixed while your forearms and hands sweeping like oars.
Laps
The number and length of laps you swim depend on the pool size and your endurance. Aim at a goal of ten lengths of an Olympic-size pool – 50 meters. As with any form of vigorous exercise, monitor your heart rate regularly and take time – at least 45 seconds – to recover after each lap. Breast stroke and freestyle are less grueling than the backstroke or butterfly. Augmenting this workout by 100 to 200 meters per week is a reasonable goal as you are just starting out.
Drills
As a male orienting yourself to a swimming regime, focus on stroke mechanics and other drills to optimize your performance. The position of your head and the alignment of your body are important aspects of stroke execution. One drill that emphasizes these requirements is the free/back combo drill: alternate freestyle and backstroke every five or six strokes, keeping your head from weaving by breathing only during the backstroke and fixing your gaze on one point. This drill also makes you conscious of remaining on the same horizontal plane when rolling your hips to change strokes. And it forces you to maintain a regular kicking rhythm, regardless of the stroke.
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