Sophinisba Solis (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophinisba) wrote2010-05-27 09:17 pm
sophinisba) wrote2010-05-27 09:17 pm
Entry tags:
swimming?
I have a few friends on LJ and Dreamwidth who like swimming laps for exercise. For a while I would read their posts and think "Yuck!" because my main association with swimming is humiliation in junior high gym class. Only lately I've been reading them and thinking "Huh," because, hey, I used to have the same associations with running, but that is now something I enjoy and get a lot of satisfaction from. So, I've been wanting to give it a try and would love some advice from those in the know about how to get started.
This week I've taken steps! On Monday I went to the gym and asked about their schedule, which has open laps time and also learn to swim lessons. I'm not good enough to swim laps, but I can't take lessons because I won't be around all summer. They said it was okay to go during laps time and do swimming-like things. If it was busy I could just talk to the other person in my lane and let them know I'd just be hanging out at one end. Yay!
Yesterday I thought about going to the pool, but I put on my old bathing suit and realized it was way too big and I would need a new one. My roommate told me about a good deal at Marshall's, but they only had one suit similar to the one she'd bought and that one was too small for me. Then I went to Target and I was even more frustrated, because they had this big section for swimsuits and lots of mix and match tops and bottoms (a lot of which were actually pretty cute!) but very few one-piece suits of the kind that would actually, you know, stay on while you're swimming!
(I also noticed that of the few one-piece suits most were in larger sizes, and same thing goes for more modest styles of two-piece suits, like if you're bigger you're supposed to cover up but if you're small you'll automatically want to wear something skimpy? WTF, Target? It was disappointing because I get a lot of my clothes there and I usually like their styles and prices.)
Then I went to Sports Authority and they had a few different suits that were nice and simple and practical but they all cost more than $50, and that seems like a lot of investment for a sport that I'm not even sure I'm going to get into at all. Bah. I gave up and came home.
Today I decided to go ahead wearing my old suit that's too big. This went a little bit better than I'd expected. I looked pretty bad but since I was in the water most of the time no one could see. :) The water was warmer than I'd expected and the pool was not at all crowded, so there were a few people swimming laps but there were also a bunch of free lanes, so I didn't feel like I was getting in anyone's way. I was embarrassed, mostly at the thought of the lifeguard watching, but since I didn't have my glasses on I couldn't see her face, so I could forget about that most of the time.
Unfortunately, I don't really know how to swim. I mean, sure, I took swimming lessons when I was a kid, and then there was gym, but that was mostly about horror and humiliation so how was I supposed to concentrate? I was always so far behind everyone else and I could never breathe right. The last few days I've been looking around for some kind of instructions for beginners. It's easy to find websites and books with advice for beginning runners and weightlifters, but I can't find anything about swimming. Do you really just have to go to lessons and have someone show you? That makes me sad. I like self-taught kinds of things.
What I did when I went in today, I tried just kicking forward and keeping my head above water...is that the doggie paddle? I don't know. Anyway, that didn't work so I got a kickboard, and then I would mostly hold on to that with my left arm and do that big swimming motion with the other arm and try to remember to breathe in when my arm was up, and I kicked. This seemed to be working okay so I tried putting my face in the water to breathe out and that was pretty awful. For a while I was switching which arm I used to hold on to the kickboard, and that went better, and I was breathing in on both sides and kinda sort breathing out into the water as I turned my head.
I stayed in the water for about twenty minutes and then I left. My legs were a little tired but it was mostly okay.
Is this a reasonable way of getting started, or am I wasting my time? Should I go back and try the same thing or something similar in a few days, or should I wait until the fall when I can sign up for lessons? And where the heck can I find a reasonably-priced one-piece swimsuit?
This week I've taken steps! On Monday I went to the gym and asked about their schedule, which has open laps time and also learn to swim lessons. I'm not good enough to swim laps, but I can't take lessons because I won't be around all summer. They said it was okay to go during laps time and do swimming-like things. If it was busy I could just talk to the other person in my lane and let them know I'd just be hanging out at one end. Yay!
Yesterday I thought about going to the pool, but I put on my old bathing suit and realized it was way too big and I would need a new one. My roommate told me about a good deal at Marshall's, but they only had one suit similar to the one she'd bought and that one was too small for me. Then I went to Target and I was even more frustrated, because they had this big section for swimsuits and lots of mix and match tops and bottoms (a lot of which were actually pretty cute!) but very few one-piece suits of the kind that would actually, you know, stay on while you're swimming!
(I also noticed that of the few one-piece suits most were in larger sizes, and same thing goes for more modest styles of two-piece suits, like if you're bigger you're supposed to cover up but if you're small you'll automatically want to wear something skimpy? WTF, Target? It was disappointing because I get a lot of my clothes there and I usually like their styles and prices.)
Then I went to Sports Authority and they had a few different suits that were nice and simple and practical but they all cost more than $50, and that seems like a lot of investment for a sport that I'm not even sure I'm going to get into at all. Bah. I gave up and came home.
Today I decided to go ahead wearing my old suit that's too big. This went a little bit better than I'd expected. I looked pretty bad but since I was in the water most of the time no one could see. :) The water was warmer than I'd expected and the pool was not at all crowded, so there were a few people swimming laps but there were also a bunch of free lanes, so I didn't feel like I was getting in anyone's way. I was embarrassed, mostly at the thought of the lifeguard watching, but since I didn't have my glasses on I couldn't see her face, so I could forget about that most of the time.
Unfortunately, I don't really know how to swim. I mean, sure, I took swimming lessons when I was a kid, and then there was gym, but that was mostly about horror and humiliation so how was I supposed to concentrate? I was always so far behind everyone else and I could never breathe right. The last few days I've been looking around for some kind of instructions for beginners. It's easy to find websites and books with advice for beginning runners and weightlifters, but I can't find anything about swimming. Do you really just have to go to lessons and have someone show you? That makes me sad. I like self-taught kinds of things.
What I did when I went in today, I tried just kicking forward and keeping my head above water...is that the doggie paddle? I don't know. Anyway, that didn't work so I got a kickboard, and then I would mostly hold on to that with my left arm and do that big swimming motion with the other arm and try to remember to breathe in when my arm was up, and I kicked. This seemed to be working okay so I tried putting my face in the water to breathe out and that was pretty awful. For a while I was switching which arm I used to hold on to the kickboard, and that went better, and I was breathing in on both sides and kinda sort breathing out into the water as I turned my head.
I stayed in the water for about twenty minutes and then I left. My legs were a little tired but it was mostly okay.
Is this a reasonable way of getting started, or am I wasting my time? Should I go back and try the same thing or something similar in a few days, or should I wait until the fall when I can sign up for lessons? And where the heck can I find a reasonably-priced one-piece swimsuit?
Re: Via the network
I normally f-lock health/exercise posts but I thought, hey, someone might stop by from network or Latest Posts and have something helpful to say! I'm so happy it worked!
Re: Via the network
Then basically you alternate the frog-kick and arm-sweep (with some overlap in timing so your momentum stays smooth).