Swimming for Cardio?

[RexStunnahH]

I started swimming last week,My doctor told me I shouldnt be walking for excercise because my back will get worse,So He told me swim for excercise.....Swimming,I dont feel like I am doing any hard work,but when I come home like an hour after,I am so exhausted! Im So hungry too!
My doctor gave me this thing called phentermine to help me lose weight,since I been gaining weight and I have been eating little,I dont get hungry and when I do,I cant finish more than something the size of my palm,like a sandwich is kinda too much.
Im just wondering how many people do swimming as cardio here?Also how long do most of you guys swim for,I spend about 2 hours in the pool,But I dont use my legs,cause it causes these electric shockingtype sensations up my back,so I sorta bring my legs up and breast stoke backstroke for the 2 hours Im there.....Also anyone know any excercises I can do in the pool to help with my work outs?
Thanks!

 

[Perdido]

Swimming is great for general conditioning. Virtually and injury free sport unless like anything else you over do it.

I used to swim allot - for hours and hours. Never kept track of the time and didn't even care if it was good for me, just loved to do it.

My daughter is a competitive swimmer and when she is training will swim for up to 4 hours after school.

 

[Ben dur]

i dont know...
ive done a couple 1 mile swims
and i must say

a 1 mile swim is much more exausting than a 5k or even a 10k run...

 

[rookie325]

what kind of workouts are you looking for? i was an all state swimmer, id be happy to give you a couple things to do. are you looking for exercises in the water? or swimming workouts?

 

[Gazhole]

Depends on the intensity of the exercise. Like anything else, the more intense it is the shorter the training session will be.

What i usually do is treat lengths like reps, do a few sets of 4 lengths, with a rest interval between each set.

Or you can swim more lengths slower but without stopping.

Or you can do HIIT in the pool, thats a real killer.

 

[Hoglander]

As you get more efficient it's less of a workout, IMHO. If you REALLY go for it over time you can make it work for that, IMHO. Most get good and do it for long bouts of lazy efficient "effort," that I have seen.

Being good at swimming can come in very handy. If you spend enough time around water you will see trouble, fact. It's a good workout getting to that confident level of effortless swimming and good to have under your belt.

 

[Minhkey]

I'm on the waterpolo team and season started roughly two weeks ago. Over those 2 weeks I lost 10 pounds because of morning and afternoon practice. Overall in one day we practiced around 4 hours, so doing more than that might be a little overkill. Additionally we did not just swim for 4 hours straight, we did a lot of treading and ball work. As long as you swim with high intensity you will probably lose weight.

As for intensity, try to get a clock and put it on the side of the pool deck, and time yourself. For our highschool warm up, we swim 50 meters in 50 sec 10 times. Another example of a swim set is 10 100 IMs. Sometimes I think its good that you do other strokes besides freestyle because you might get bored or your shoulders might get strained. Also if you are gonna be swimming alot make sure you stretch or you might injure yourself. Especially your shoulders.

 

[Griffon]

Trying to swim as a means to lose weight is quite difficult as most people don't know how to swim well enough to maintain the right intensity.
Apart from this, swimming really makes people overly hungry in comparison with running or cycling. Reason is that you cool off so much more.

Make sure you dry yourself off immediately after you leave the pool and get dressed ASAP. It also helps to have a sportsdrink to sip from the start so it may make you less hungry/tired.

I suppose you can't ride a bicycle?