A Low Impact Alternative

Running, plyometrics and other high impact exercises are great for burning calories and building muscle, but too much can cause problems in your joints. Swimming is a great low impact alternative, which offers many of the same benefits as land exercises.

Swimming not only builds endurance, strength and cardiovascular fitness, but it also tones your entire body because it uses almost all of the body’s major muscle groups. This means that you will also be scorching calories!

If you find that just doing laps in a pool gets boring, try the following swim workout. It will allow you to develop your swimming skills further and make the time go by faster.

Keep in mind that the following drills are in yards. A common lap pool is 25 yards each way.

Warm up: 

• 200 slow freestyle stroke

• 50 catch up: Swum like a regular freestyle stroke, except one arm is stationary, always extended forward, while the other performs the stroke. When the working arm “catches up” with the stationary arm, they change places.

• 50 empty pool water drill: Freestyle, but fling as much water as you can out of the pool.

• 100 3-5 breathing: Take a breath of air every 3rd and 5th stroke.

Pre-work:

• 5*75s build (slow, moderate, fast): Start your freestyle stroke slow for 25m, moderate pace for the next 25, then fast for the remainder. Repeat 5 times.

Work set:

• 6*100 race: Sprint for 100, rest 30 seconds and repeat 6 times.

Kick set:

• 200: Using a kickboard 

Cool down:

• 100: Slow freestyle.
  

Read more!

Sunday 1/23: Total Body Workout

Today’s workout consisted of twenty minutes of cardio followed by a few intense circuits and cardio intervals. The entire workout took me about one hour and ten minutes to complete. By the end of the workout, my polar heart rate monitor indicated that I had burned six hundred and fifty calories. My heart rate still feels elevated a few hours after the workout. Burn baby burn…..

Go through each circuit three times with little or no rest, then move on to the next circuit and do the same. I used an eighteen pound versa bar as a weight, but these exercises can also be done with dumbbells or a barbell, if you’re really buff. : )

Warm up: 20 min jog/run

Circuits:

1. a) Jump roping (30 seconds)

b) Push up into a twist (10 reps, alternating sides)





c) Walking lunges. (10 steps)
Hold weights in each hand at the sides of your hips while keeping your shoulders back. Take a big step forward with first leg. Lower your body by flexing the knee and hip of your front leg until the knee of your rear leg falls just above the floor. Lunge forward with opposite leg and repeat.

d) Upright row to shoulder press (10 reps)
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and with a slight bend in the knees. As you exhale, pull the dumbbells up along the outside of your body until your elbows are parallel with your shoulders. Once the dumbbells reach shoulder level, rotate your arms so that your palms are now facing forward and the dumbbells are above your shoulders. Press the dumbbells up above your head until your arms are straight. As you inhale, follow these steps in reverse by lowering the weights, rotating your arms and lowering the dumbbells to starting position.

e) Front shoulder raises (10 reps)

f) Walking lunges (10 steps back to original position)










2. 10 minutes of interval sprinting: 30 seconds sprinting, 30-45 seconds recovery, repeat.

3. a) jump roping (100 jumps)

b) Ab pull ins:
Lie on the floor with your hands under your butt, your palms down, and your legs extended. Bend your knees and pull your upper thighs into your midsection. Return to the starting position.

c) Reverse crunches (20)
Lie on the floor on your back. Put your hands by your sides with your feet up and your thighs perpendicular to the floor. They should not go down lower than this during the movement. Using your lower abs, roll your pelvis backward to raise your hips off the floor. Your knees will now be over your chest. Return slowly to the starting position. You can use ankle weights to make it more difficult.

Read more!