Sunday, March 1, 2009

Swimming – GREAT Cross Training!

A few years ago, I thought it might be fun to try swimming once or twice a week. As a knee injury and the approach of big “4-0” came along, swimming seemed to be a logical cross-training option.

I had been a competitive swimmer in high school, so it easily came back to me. The cardiovascular benefits quickly benefited my running and biking activities as well.

As I train for a triathlon this year, I find myself truly working to better myself in this area of the event. Some personal training with a coach really helped. I’ve also helped a few of my regular “workout buddies” make the leap into swimming with great results. As we’ve committed to training for the Hy-Vee Triathlon this summer, they’re progress in just several short weeks has been inspiring!

I guess my point here is that swimming is a GREAT cross-training activity if you’re seeking one. It exercises so many muscles in the body and is low in impact. The cardiovascular challenges of swimming compliment literally any other form of fitness activity.

Bev Sklar recently posted a great article about getting into swing of swimming on http://www.thatsfit.com/. You can check it out at http://tinyurl.com/cs9xsn.

1 comment:

Coachhrd said...

Our health club offers swimming lessons for adults. I believe some of the bigger YMCA programs do as well. I'm very fortunate in that our health club offers a pretty wide variety of swim instruction for adults including triathlon training.