We, here at The Big Blue Swim, know that when you love swimming, you want to spend as much time in the water as possible. We even built our entire open water swimming holiday experience with this in mind! One of the things our guests enjoy most about our swimming holidays is that they’re free to swim at their own pace with the knowledge that they can come aboard our escort boat for a rest at any time. Other guests prefer to swim at a more competitive speed and we’re often asked for advice on improving swimming endurance. With that in mind, here are our top tips for those of you who want to swim further for longer.
If you’re lucky enough to be able to swim every day, chances are you’re already making great strides with your physical fitness. Many of our swimmers, however, find they don’t get to spend as much time in the water as they’d like due to busy schedules or lack of local facilities. Don’t worry, there are plenty of things you can do to improve your swimming endurance without even dipping a toe in the water.
Try to incorporate more cardiovascular exercise into your weekly routine. This can be in the form of running, cycling, high intensity interval training (HIIT), or even dancing. Then, set yourself small goals to work towards. For example, aim to run a little further or train for a little longer every week. This will gradually increase your fitness level and prevent you from feeling too tired too soon when you do go for a swim.
Swimming is a full-body exercise which engages lots of muscles in your arms and legs. The stronger those muscles are, the more you’ll be able to use them without feeling fatigued. Many people are put off by the idea of weight training because they think it’s only for bodybuilders, but there are plenty of weight lifting exercises you can do that are designed to increase your endurance rather than drastically changing the size of your muscles.
The trick is to work out with a lower weight for longer. If you’re a complete beginner, try finding the heaviest weight you think you can lift for 10 repetitions (reps), then choose one that is a couple of pounds lighter and go for 15-20 reps instead. Do five sets of 15-20 reps with a 30 second rest in between each set and gradually increase the number of reps each week until you feel ready to move up to a higher weight.
It’s important to remember that swimming in the open water is much different than swimming in a pool. Whilst our Greek open water swimming holidays won’t have you encountering any dangerous currents, you will have to work with the sea’s natural ebb and flow and this will put a little more strain on your body. If you can, try and swim in the open water whenever possible. Even if this is something you can only achieve once a month. This will give you valuable experience and build muscle memory that will help you when you do decide to tackle longer open water swims.
Swimrun is an endurance sport in which you run and swim along a set course of cross country/trail runs and open water swims but you don’t have to take part in Swimrun to sign up to our Swimrun training camp. Our camp takes place at the end of May and is a one-week training course perfect for beginners and long-time competitors alike. Designed to help you improve your endurance both on land and in the water, our Swimrun training camp is ideal for anybody looking to improve their overall fitness so that they can get the most out open water swimming.
We hope you found this blog post helpful. If all this talk of swimming has got you itching to spend some time in the open water then make sure you book an open water swimming holiday with us today!
27 February 2020