Build Your Stamina for Swimming

Have you ever watched the Olympics and wondered where those swimmers got the energy to do so many laps? The answer is they have a great amount of endurance or stamina. If you want to become a swimmer with great endurance or stamina, start with step 1, below.

Steps

Before Swimming

  1. Set up a routine. Start small - maybe five to ten minutes a day. Try not to be thrown off by people who appear to be doing better than you. Damaging your self-esteem will get you nowhere. Though this may seem irrelevant to stamina, remind yourself that every time you swim, you get better at it.
  2. Keep a schedule. By doing this your body will get used to what you do each day, though be sure to keep daily workouts varying. Beware that a change in your workout on a day may throw you off.
  3. Don't just do swimming in your schedule. It is important you practice other activities to improve stamina in swimming. Whatever you do with your body will not damage your stamina. Some activities are actually better at this than swimming!
  4. Have a good balance of proper diet, proper rest, and proper motivation. Try to stay away from all of the junk food.
    • Naturally, your body performs at its best when you are eating a properly balanced diet, and for swimming, this consists largely of carbs and protein. Carbs provide the energy needed to burn during practice and meets, and protein helps build your body into the proper "swim" structure - rice, pasta, or oatmeal are foods that always help. Eat a filling meal 30 minutes before practice runs.
    • Rest is self-explanatory. Go to bed at a realistic time, set yourself an alarm so you don't oversleep and most important of all, make sure the amount of bed-time you get falls somewhere between 8 and 12 hours. Nobody can last very long in swimming when they're half asleep.
      • Tennis, soccer, and other sports that involve a lot of running
      • Running and cycling have the added benefits of teaching you about pacing, which will help if you need to swim for a long time. In these activities, just as in swimming, knowing when to push yourself and when to take it slower is very important. They also strengthen and tone your legs, which will also be a great help.
    • You can motivate yourself by getting yourself excited. You won't perform very well while you are bored or afraid.
  5. Drink plenty of water beforehand and bring a water bottle to the pool so you don't get dehydrated.
  6. Do a small warm up set in the pool. Perform flip turns if you know how; these help build up your stamina.
  7. Now that your body is loose, swim! Don't take a break except to drink water. Count every length you swim, either by length or time.

Building Strength by Changing Variables

Variables such as pace, timing and stroke can be toyed with to increase stamina and get the most out of practice.

  1. Build on your swim time. Perhaps try 5-20 minutes longer every time you practice if it doesn't mess up your schedule. The amount you increase by should depend on your existing endurance.
  2. Vary the pace of laps. Some laps may be swum at a slower, more leisurely pace, others at a moderate pace, and others at a sprint, mimicking a race and allowing you to dictate how intense the training is. The level of intensity should increase before a race, allowing you to become more and more "race-ready" as the swimming meet or competition approaches. Overall, your stamina should gradually increase as time goes by, allowing you to swim at a high intensity for longer with shorter breaks in between.
    • Long distance at a steady pace, or Long Slow Distance (LSD) swimming helps. You will gain endurance because you are swimming continually at the same pace. These laps also help you focus more on breathing and stroke, which tends to deteriorate as you tire.
  3. Don't just practice one stroke. If you feel comfortable doing a different one, increasing key factors in other strokes can carry to the other(s).

Building Strength Through Exercise

Tackling swimming head-on can be a useful method for developing skill.

  1. Swim often. In order to build stamina for swimming, it is very important to swim often and for progressively longer periods of time in order to train both the muscular and the cardiovascular systems involved in swimming. Not many people realize how taxing swimming can be, particularly on the upper body, and so the best way to build stamina is to train your muscles with interval training and longer time in the water.
  2. Build arm and leg strength by pulling or using a kick board, because this will help you swim longer and faster, while also improving your stroke. Mix in puling and kick board work in your workout, as well as sprint sets. Sprint sets help train keeping your breathing steady and increase your stamina as well.
  3. Engage in aerobic exercises. Aerobic exercises help build endurance and your cardiovascular health (this means more efficient breathing). If your aerobic health isn't great, you will need to start small and gradually build to a higher level. If your aerobic health is already pretty good, work to improve it further.
    • Aerobic exercises include:
      • Long-distance running (most effective)
      • Cycling (also very effective)
  4. Strengthen your upper body. At first, unless you participate in sports that use your upper body muscles extensively, your body is not used to using the upper body strength that is required to be proficient at swimming. Therefore, strengthening and toning your arms, shoulders, and chest is a good idea. Swimming itself can help do this, as can resistance training and lifting weights. (But remember that your goal is to be fit, not bulky.)
  5. Know when to take breaks. Your body has a limit. Everyone's body does. It's very important that you don't push your body past its limit, or you could end up seriously injured. If you feel worn out while training, slow down for a while until your strength is regained. If you feel exhausted during training, stop. It's also important to alternate what parts of the body you exercise on different days ("leg day" and "arm day"). Your muscles need time to recover after exercise, and twenty-four hours is usually sufficient time.
  6. Join a swim team or a community pool! You can meet people, make new friends, and have fun!
  7. Don't be afraid to demonstrate your endurance. Those who care will be happy for you, and you'll be happy with yourself for taking care of your health and mind.

Tips

  • Gradually increase the time or physical activity of your exercise routine!
  • Don't be afraid to show others how well you swim. But don't brag about it.
  • Try having yourself go a little farther each time. Soon you'll have much more stamina.

Warnings

  • Remember to take things gradually. Pushing yourself too much could lead to injury, and then you would be out of the count for swimming.

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