Swimming??

lads,

I'm curious does anybody swim for fight training? what are its benefits, or is is best to jus stick to running?

I swim for cardio as well as running - whether I have a fight coming up or not.

It's low impact, so it's nice on the joints - I often get shin splints with running if I overdo it, but this is obviously not an issue with swimming.

It's also more full body - sprint swims totally shag your shoulders as well as everything else.

I'd do both, but there's no harm in having a nice long swim or some interval sprints every now and then. Do both - why not? It can't do any harm! :)

Buakaw por pramuk swims alot as part of his training.

I am currently in 'fight training' and I try to swim twice a week. If you do sprint swims and limit your breathing between lengths, it does wonders for your anerobic fitness, as well as increasing lung capacity. As NORM states, it burns your shoulders out, as well as your legs!

IT's great, much harder cardio than you'd expect and low impact on joints.

Cheers

Try swimming in the sea (if you have the luxury), against the tide with a boat alongside you for safety.

i used to work and train with a channel swimmer and we would do that once/twice a week her for her channel attempt, me for the challenge

one of the hardest things i ever did in any training session - 2 hour of swimming as hard as you can and not getting anywhere, builds the mental systems as well as physical

swimming is great for all round fittness for every part of the body but only if its done right like everytin else.ive seen some people do about 500m in an hour(that are good swimmers) thats goina do fuck all.you have to push urself to make it work.also if you can ask some1 that knows about it + get a program made up for urself(just like in a gym)dont just try swim up + down doin the same thing everytime u'll get board + wont work the parts you want worked.try differnt drills + sets.if its done right you should see big improvements in weeks + months

mugger's right . Swimming's great , but the problem is some people swim much better than others so the same amount of exercise will effect two people differently making it difficult as a trainer to gauge how hard they are working. Running is pretty much as tough for one person as another so when making out a program for someone you know how hard X amount of miles etc will be for them. Swimming for me though is prob the next best thing if you have fighters with joint pain/injuries.

if you want to push yourself in the pool ask the lifeguards if you can join their pool fitness training sessions, they will do something like 4 lengths, climb out 50 crunches back in, 2 lengths out 5o press ups back in and so on- water circuits...

The hardest thing will be getting in and out of the pool - that kind of thing will really push you to the limit

Can do the water circuits - they're wicked. Could also try sprints...

1 length (should be ~25m) sprint, 1 length recovery etc for as many intervals as you want. Use a width sprint, 2 widths recovery if you want shorter sprints or are a crap swimmer. Work up to as many lengths as you can.

OR

1 timed length sprint, rest for the time it took. Then sprint another length, rest for the time that took etc.

Yes the more efficient swimmers will get less tired if doing long distances but sprints will knacker everyone! Swimming is even better if you have crap technique 'cos you use twice as much energy going the same distance as a good swimmer!

In relation to a cardio work out, not related to swimming but its very good, find a bar about waste height (hand rail or bike rack whatever) and vault over that using your hands.
About 20 of them should leave you gasping. Very good for the explosivness in the legs and to sort of get that bounce in your movement.

I was just told about it recently, tried it, seems very good. I believe Ricky Hatton incorporates it into his routine.

If anyone has any additional info on how many sets is good or how they incorporate it into a routine, cause as I've said I just heard about it, maybe you know from experience, do pass it on. Cheers.

thats great lads, thanks 4 the feedback, i will also ask the life gaurds at my local gym about their fitness swims!

try doing lengths using only your hands, so front crawl but using only your hands or butterfly using only your hands. whack a float in between your legs to remove temptation.

would using flippers make swimming more effective as a workout??

so, is swimming as effective as running then? serious question coz i love swimming but cant fooking stand running and would happily swim 5 x per week instead or do swim circuits...something tells me no but i live in hope lol!!!

i swam competiavely since i was a kid for years before startin thaiboxing + even now iam still a swimming teacher.flippers are used to strenghtin the legs if you hav a weak kick or want to build ur kick up more.if ur doing a legkick set with them on you should do more sets or the same on a faster time because you will go alot faster with them on.another good kick drill is standing out of ur depth cross ur arms using just leg kick to keep ur head + shoulders out of the water every1 will be differnt to the amount they can do.it doesnt matter what u do in the pool use the clock time ur sets,rest + keep track of what you do.every week increase the number of sets or the speed slightly so you get fitter.
ah realy good drill for ur lungs + breathing(the best i tink)is spriting as fare as you can without breathing(just take 1 big 1 at the start).or trying to swim as far as u can under water.it forces ur lungs to get bigger.wait till you get ur breath back + go again.do about 4 lenghts to start with.you will see the differnce down the gym inbetween rounds.BE WARNED this can be Dangerous some people have been knowin to faint + there have been cases of death.so if you are doing it DONT do it on ur own,make sure u tell the lifeguard what you doing,most of all when you realy want to take the breath take 1.the death cases were the 1s that were trying to break records en that + pushed themselfs to hard.

norm i understand what ur trying to say with 'swimming is even better if you have crap technique' but thats not true at all.yes some1 with good technique will find it easyer to do the same distance + time over some1 with crap technique but the better person shouldnt be doing the same session they would be doing a faster or longer set so they are both worked the same.getting a better technique can only do you good as it allows you to do alot more in the pool.also it means you will use ur musles better + not work 1 side of the body more than the other.sorry if the spelling on my posts are off.i cant spell for shit

thanks mugger, never thought about using flippers (would prob have 2 wait until my pool is empty though lol)

swiming is no substitute for running!

mugger... point taken :) Think I've been taken out of context though (mainly due to my crap writing on the internet :p). All I was trying to say is that if you are fight training, don't go crazy about learning efficient stroke etc - just swim. You don't need to be at the olympic level to gain benefits from swimming - oh the downside to early morning posts :p

That said, if you're doing a swim sprint with crap technique, you're going to work twice as hard and still take longer. I'm not advocating this, just pointing it out. In the same way that the guy who has no clue how to skip and takes massive jumps will get knackered mega quick doing 3minute skipping rounds. I'm not advocating skipping like an idiot, just illustrating a point :)

If you're an efficient swimmer, of course you'll need to be doing extra/adapted stuff - my point made sense in my head but didn't come out that well :p

cheers mugger!!

Swim with your clothes on that makes it really hard, wear some boots in the water even harder.

Before i joined Police i worked in Leisure Industry, used to compete and also work as a surf/ beach / pool lifeguard as a teenager then onto Gym management. Taught kids swimming and lifesaving etc.

I trained with a Channel Swimmer and was also taught Technique by ex Empire games Gold medallist (who also qulaified me to teach swimming and lifesaving etc).

IMO Swimming is not as good as running for fight training but has benefits such as when injured, rehab, variation, trains different muscle groups, it will help you to monitor breathing and also help with movement and breath co-ordiantion.

Very beneficial to asthamtics.

It's wicked if you get shin splints too! :)

Paul, thats what i thought lol but would be ace if it was

ah ye i know what ur sayin there norm.fighters only want the work out not to waste time learning,but if ur realy bad it might not be a bad idea to do afew lessons in ur off session when not training for a fight that way you dont have to worry about pushin urself as much + learn abit more.as its been said b4 runnin is better for fighting but its no harm to put it in ur training for afew weeks + see how it works for you.especialy if injured.
anyway all this runnin + swimmin only makes you fitter.ur training for a fight so more time down the gym sparin,pads etc is best for every1