reeniereindeer

Hey there, I'm a medical student, so please take my advice with a grain of salt!! Generally, from what I've learned so far, pain is your body's way of telling you that something isn't right. If you have knee pain when you do the breaststroke, then it might be a joint problem rather than a muscle problem. The breaststroke kick does have a funny way of using your entire knee joint, so please be careful!! My advice is to back off breast for a while and try to strengthen your legs with freestyle or squats. If you find that doing squats or any other exercise involving your knees becomes painful, STOP and get that checked out by a professional. I think a mistake that we all make nowadays is to "push through the pain" because we think that pain is necessary in order to become better at something, but sometimes we should listen to our bodies and know that it's okay to stop and get things checked out. This is just an aside, but the other month, my friend kept complaining about knee pain from doing kung fu. I told him to get it checked out, because it isn't normal to feel knee pain every single time you kick. He thought he just had "bad form" or something, but finally, after he went to the doctor... he found out that he has osteoporosis. Now, I'm not insinuating that this might happen to you, but I am just merely relating this story to tell you that it's better to be safe than sorry. I wish you good luck with everything! P.S. The only other advice I can offer you is to Youtube the breaststroke kick and see how the professional swimmers do it vs. how you do it. Maybe you can change the way you kick so it won't hurt anymore --who knows?

Congratulations and good luck on your goal!!! I think that's really badass. And you're in luck! There are a ton of things you can do to help you be a pro at swimming! In fact, there are way too many things to list to help you get started. I'll just give you a few tips off the top of my head, and feel free to ask any more specific questions. I'd be more than happy to answer 1. If you can, find a swimming buddy. Not only can you and your buddy keep each other motivated and challenge each other to do better, but you can also critique each other's stroke. I find that one of the hardest things about swimming is NOT knowing what you are doing wrong. It is incredibly helpful if you have someone there to watch you and tell you how your stroke looks so you can improve. 2. Consistently hit the pool every week. This is a no-brainer, but if you consistently go to the pool and swim a minimum of X meters every time, it will get easier with time. I think that swimming is particularly hard to dedicate yourself to, because it is a very "loner" sport. It is just you and the pool, and it can get very frustrating at times (particularly when you hit a stump in the road and can't figure out why you aren't progressing as much as you'd like). But don't give up! That's why we're here for you at NF. Post your workouts in the swimming forum and tell us how you're doing. 3. Learn your breathing technique the correct way the first time through. Trust me, it'll help immensely. There have been a few topics with regards to breathing; check them out or ask me here. If you can do it correctly, then swimming longer distances will become tremendously easier. It should come second-nature to you. 4. If you are willing to spend a few extra bucks, invest in hand fins and flippers. Especially if you are swimming by yourself. As a former swim coach, I am a strong fan of using fins. There is only so much you can learn by watching other people swim. Using equipment is your best personal coach, because you will find that there is only ONE way you can properly use them to accelerate in the water, or else, they won't work for you. Fins are designed to help you be more hydrodynamic in the water (in other words, they're designed to help you swim faster/better). So if you pay attention to what your body is doing while using these fins then try to maintain that same stroke technique without using fins, you will develop great technique. 5. Remember that the key to swimming is to be as hydrodynamic as possible while using the least amount of movement. I've met olympians before who take a total of 9-10 arm strokes per lap. They don't take 50 arm strokes to complete a lap, because they don't need to. I remember meeting Kristy Kowal (200m breaststroke silver medalist) as a kid, and she could swim an entire 25 meters in 2 breastroke pulls. I was AMAZED, and that was when I realized that "doing more arm strokes" doesn't necessarily mean you swim faster in the pool. It is all about how much power you use per pull, per kick. It is about efficiency. When you feel more comfortable in the water, start doing stroke count. Start counting how many pulls it takes you to complete a lap, and ask yourself how can you decrease your number. 6. Speaking of which. This is just me being a silly swim coach, but make sure to close your fingers when you pull water! It's all about being hydrodynamic. If you have loose fingers in the water, then you're letting all of that water escape. You are pulling less water. Close those fingers (cup your hands), and pull that water! If you can get your breathing technique and stroke technique down in the pool, then you can swim long distances in open water. It will be harder to swim in open water vs. the pool, but as long as you have the basics down, you can do it!

Wow, that is a very impressive goal to have!! My suggestion is to honestly pretend as if you are Goku from Dragon Ball Z and give yourself your own training regimen. Instead of training in 1x gravity (aka just holding your breath underwater), train in 10x gravity instead and swim entire laps without breathing. In other words, train yourself to do something harder than holding your breath underwater. Go to the pool, and swim your heart out. Train and challenge yourself. I think one of the hardest training exercises I had to do back when I was swimming competitively was to swim 50 meters underwater, no breath. And the funny thing was, this challenge was NOT something we had been training for. We had always been trained to swim as fast as possible for competitions --NOT to hold our breaths underwater for an entire 50 meters. In fact, I don't think any of us had even considered holding our breaths for that long. But, the cool thing was, we could actually do it!! Half of the team (myself included) completed the challenge, even though we had never trained ourselves to do it beforehand. I'm pretty sure you're going to get bored of timing yourself every day to see how long you can hold your breath underwater over time. What you should do is focus on how can you expand your lungs, and the best way to do that is by exercising in the pool. Swim a few laps, and challenge yourself to take the minimal possible amount of breaths per lap. Grab some fins and see how many laps can you swim completely underwater in a row without taking a breath. Or do it all underwater, no equipment allowed! (And believe me, if you tell yourself to do 8 x 25s underwater, no breath, and do it on a 45-second or 1-minute interval... if you can complete all eight 25s without taking a breath during any of them, then bravo!!! Sounds easy, but believe me, it is a tough cookie. Even during my prime, I could only do a total of three or four 25s.) And the key thing is to do it consistently. If you constantly push yourself every day, to put your lungs to the test in this new training environment, then your lungs will adapt as well. The more training you will do, the more your lungs will expand, and the longer you can hold your breath underwater. I promise you that if you hit the pool 3-4x a week and keep it up for a few months, you will definitely be able to hold your breath for 2 minutes. If you don't commit, then you won't get those results. Be your own Goku. Good luck! Keep us updated on your progress!!

This is my favorite breathing exercise to do in the pool, and it's called bobbing. Basically, you do squats in the shallow end of the pool while breathing properly. Stand at the shallow end of the pool. Inhale and then submerge yourself underwater. While you are underwater, completely exhale (blow as many bubbles as possible), and when you are ready to go back up into the air, JUMP. Use the ground to jump up to immediately get air. Then repeat the process again. Inhale with air, submerge, exhale underwater, jump. Basically, bobbing is breathing in rhythm with water. If you can bob at a certain pace where you are exhaling when you are underwater and inhaling while you are above water (one breathe per bob), try to see how long you can go for. Aim for 10 in a row at first. Then work your way up. Personally, once I get a certain rhythm down, I really feel amazing. It's like meditation but working with the flow of water. So, there are two reasons why I am recommending you the bobbing exercise: 1. This exercise helps you get used to the idea of you ALWAYS breathing OUT when you are underwater and breathing IN when you are out of the water. Notice how this holds true for when you do freestyle. You breathe out underwater and then you breathe in when you tilt your head to the side. This exercise should help you breathe naturally while in the pool. 2. If you find yourself panicking while underwater, you can immediately jump for air. You always have that to fall back on. You will not drown. You can always reach for air within less than a second, within a jump. Finally, you can alter this exercise to make it more challenging. If you are comfortable with bobbing in place, try bobbing for an entire length of the pool. (Note that you MUST touch the ground every single time you bob so that it will be easier for you to jump and immediately get air. Use your arms to help you reach the bottom of the pool faster. I like to think of it as doing jumping jacks underwater when I get to those deeper ends of the pool.) Bob for 25 meters. Bob for an entire 50 meters. See how fast you can bob for 25 meters. And when you bob, try to take in the entire sensation of how it feels to breathe with the water. Don't fight it. Work with it. Then, when you go back to freestyle, try to apply this breathing technique to your stroke. It's mind over matter. You got this!!!!!!

What I usually tell my kids when I used to coach was to stick their stomachs out like Santa Claus. There's something magical about using those hips to help you float. Now, that's for floating on your back. When you are swimming on your stomach (e.g. freestyle), I suggest using flippers to try and get you used to swimming, especially if you're using swimming trunks to swim (and not jammers or briefs --I know that stuff looks crazy, but it actually helps). The reason why is because swimming is a core sport. You need to be able to work out all parts of your body in order to stay afloat--your abs, your arms, your hips, your thighs, your calves, your hands, your legs, your head--EVERYTHING needs to be in synchronization in order for you to glide across that pool. Or even floating --if you ask me to just float on my stomach, I assure you that I am using every single muscle of my body in order to do so. What the flippers will do for you is that they will help you develop your form better. They basically FORCE you to swim a certain way; otherwise, the flippers will drag you down even more. Try to alternate between swimming with flippers to get a feel for how it's like to "swim without iron boots on" and then try swimming without the flippers. Maybe even try swimming with one flipper on, one flipper off. Focus on generating power from your thighs/hips more so than your calves. Your calves should be following your core muscles --not the other way around. Ronin is completely right in saying that you will sink if your head is above water, but the only reason why that happens is because your core muscles aren't strong enough to keep your head above water. You can theoretically swim with your head above water and not sink; this is called the Tarzan drill... and it is one of my least favorite drills to do it really hurts your neck! But yeah, keeping your entire body in line will absolutely help. If you ask yourself, "How can I be the most hydrodynamic? How can I make my body easily cut through the water like a boat, using the least amount of movement/energy?" and you can answer those questions, then you, my friend, have mastered swimming. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope this helps --I'm much better at explaining/demonstrating in person than describing it in words :/ P.S. Kudos to the Zelda reference. Love that!

Staci. This post goes out to you. I completely hit bottom in every single aspect of my life last week. I just kept breaking down into tears every day, wallowing in self-pity parties. I decided that I was going crazy; I needed to change. So, I did something that is scaring the crap out of me: I put school at the bottom of my priority list and moved exercise higher. More specifically, I moved swimming higher up. First off, I want to clarify that I used to be a competitive swimmer back in the day, maybe over a decade ago. Swimming was MY EVERYTHING. It was the reason why I could beat every single boy in my grade and the grade above me at practically any field day event. As a fifth grader, I could do 15 pull-ups and 25 chin-ups. I could do over 100 push-ups or 50 burpees in a row (mainly because that was our penalty for being late to swim practice, and boy, I was always late thanks to my parents!). I could swim one lap completely underwater without taking any breaths and do this 4 times in a row. I thought it was totally normal to do those things as a kid. I quit when I was 13 years old, but I continued swimming by becoming a local swim coach for summer league teams. I eventually moved on to giving private lessons to kids/adults and helping them either with physical therapy or learning how to swim for the very first time. Since I started medical school, I have fallen out of swimming. Even though I haven't really exercised as much as I did over 10 years ago, I can still do 25 push-ups without fail, 7 pull-ups, 10 chin-ups, and maybe 10 burpees before I fall over. I never had a problem with doing these things, and I owe a lot of that to swimming. I don't really know how to describe it other than there's just something amazing about being in the water and disconnecting yourself from the world --completely focusing on YOU. And you know what? Lately, I haven't focused on me, on the good things about me. I've just been focusing on my unhappiness and how much of an idiot I am. Well, I am proud to say that I went to two swim practices this week! I decided to try out a local group that meets every week for swimming practice. They cater to "adult swimmers of all ability levels" and they state that they are a "growing family of swimmers who are improving their fitness, enjoying the water, and challenging themselves to meet their goals." The first practice was tough. I had such a hard time swimming more than 200m at a time. Though most of the sets were freestyle, I switched it up and added in backstroke or butterfly to make it more challenging. I felt like I was dying in the pool, but it was really great. The coach there was a huge self-confidence boost to me; she kept complimenting me and said she hadn't seen a swimmer like me in ages. I was really happy to have a complete stranger believe in me; I hadn't had something like this happen in a long time. (In person, not on the internet! Thanks bluekiwi1 and monicalane!) It made me realize that I just needed someone watching me, keeping track of me so I wouldn't fail that person. I'm great with making up my own sets and what not, but I am horrible when it comes to self-accountability. It really helps when I know that someone is actually there and is counting on me to do a good job. The second practice was a complete 180. Though I swam about the same amount, it was just awful. Why? The coach was different. She didn't care about being there. She was NOT a good coach. This lady just kept jabbering on with her daughters or the lifeguard and looked bored as hell. Again, the sets were all mainly freestyle and were actually easier than I expected, so I switched things around to try and make it more difficult for me. That was fine. I was okay with that. What I was not okay with was when I have some lady telling me how to swim and not giving a damn about anything she says. When I finished the last set, I looked around the pool to see where the coach was. She already packed her bags and shouted, "Good job! Bye!" across the natatorium and left, just like that. I was just shocked. These two practices made me realize how important it is for me to lean on someone. I always thought that swimming is a very loner sport; usually you just do your thing and that's it. But these two swim practices made me realize how incredibly different they were from each other. It made me more appreciative of people, of strangers who can believe in you within seconds. It made me more appreciative of the community here. And it made me realize how alone I feel, not because I have no support, but because I haven't reached out to anyone. Last thing I realized: I don't need a coach or mean students at my school to tell me that I'm doing a good job or bad job. (Though, their words can really hurt sometimes!) As long as I have my friends and family supporting me, as long as I actually talk about my life to someone, I can do this. I swam 2000m the first practice and 1900m the second time. I managed to barely swim a 50m butterfly. I plan to do more than 2000m next week and hopefully will be able to swim 50m butterfly with more ease. And you know what? I am very proud of myself for starting this road to recovery, to believing in myself again.

Ugh... no success at all. I've actually been really overwhelmed with medical school lately. I haven't made the best of grades, and for a while, I thought I was going to fail. I also have been having some really bad anxiety issues with my classmates. They aren't exactly the nicest of people... and plus I've never been in such a competitive, hostile environment before in my life. For instance, I had one girl tell me the other day that she couldn't believe that this doctor chose me to be his mentee and that it wasn't fair. My anxiety has gotten so bad now to where I just stay at home and pray that I can focus enough to study. So, I've failed my goal I know that school isn't a very good excuse for not working out, but it's just been overwhelming to me. I have just been trying my best to stay afloat. However! I realized this week though that I needed to change. I've been opening up to some people about my anxiety issues, asking for help on how to deal with people who don't like me, trying to build up my self-image and self-esteem... so, I'm coming more and more to terms with it. It also dawned on me that I should refocus all of my panic attacks into working out or de-stressing. It didn't have to be swimming (though I wish I could, SO BADLY you have no idea --I just didn't want to leave my house because I was afraid). I had to start small. So, I moved my PS3 and TV, and I put it right in front of my treadmill. I told myself that if I ever want to play video games, I HAVE to walk and do it at the same time. That was yesterday, one mile. Today was three miles. I guess now, my goal is to survive. To stick up for myself, to be proud of who I am, to make myself happy. Thank you so much, both of you, for replying back to my topic. It means the world to me.

Hey Nerd Fitness community! I've been receiving Steve's blog posts for half a year now, and they've been really inspirational to me as a medical student, a video gamer, and most importantly, as a person who wants to stay healthy and love life. Thanks to this six-week challenge, I want to get involved and level up! I used to be a competitive swimmer until I quit over a decade ago. I coached a few summer leagues and gave private lessons to a lot of people who didn't know how to swim, but I quit after I started medical school. It's been almost three years now since I've hit the pool, and I want to get back into it. So... here it is: My goal: to become a swimmer (again) ---> Swim twice a week ---> Swim more than 2000 meters in one practice ---> Swim a 200 IM in under 3 minutes. Bonus: do the last two goals in less than a month. Bonus x2: do 100 meter butterfly without stopping. I'm joining a group that practices regularly this week, so wish me luck! P.S. My life quest: Do better in school.