Interval swimming training: how to swim to lose weight

Do you know how do most people usually go swimming? Usually, a person comes into the pool, takes a lane, and swims monotonously at the same pace, alternating swimming styles. If the visitor has come with friends, then about 40% of the time will also be spent on communication. Such monotonous swimming is ineffective for losing weight. Of course, you will lose calories, strengthen muscles, and heal the body as a whole. But in order to lose weight, you need to swim in a completely different way.

Interval training

There is interval training in swimming, with which you will lose weight much faster. Due to the interval training method, you should alternate work at the maximum of your capabilities and rest (or slow swimming). If it is done correctly, you lose your weight within two days after it! This happens due to the fact that the interval load makes the bodywork in different modes and speeds up the metabolism much more than the usual monotonous load. Thanks to accelerated metabolism, weight loss speed is significantly increased. In addition, during the workout, you will also lose more calories.

How to make a plan for training?

For a good interval training, you will need only 10-15 minutes. The training goes like this:

– 30 seconds you swim almost with the whole strength, preferably butterfly style (if it does not work out, choose a freestyle);

– after that swim 15 seconds at a low, relaxing speed. This is one interval;

– then repeat 30 seconds and rest – the second interval.

The first time will be enough to practice 8-10 intervals. As your physical abilities grow, you need to strive to reduce your rest time to 10 seconds and increase your “intensive” time to 40 seconds, as well as to increase the number of intervals to 15. Studies have shown that those who practice interval training lose fat 9 times faster than people engaged in traditional methods while spending half the time. A very important thing is that you should exhaust yourself; by the last interval, you should already be sailing with your last strength.

The rules of the pool interval training 

Before starting the interval training for 5-10 minutes, swim at a warm-up speed in different styles. The “complex” butterfly stroke, back, breaststroke and freestyle are perfect (2-4 times each style);

Intervals in one workout should be equal in time to each other! You can’t rest, for example, in the first interval, for 10 seconds, and in the next 15;

You can not rest for more than 15 seconds and work in the exhausting mode for less than 20;

If by the fifth or seventh interval you start to suffer and swim with your last bit of strength – it means that you are doing everything right. If you give up earlier, you should reduce the load in the next workout (increase the rest by a couple of seconds, reduce the time of the intensive part by 5 seconds, or reduce the number of intervals by 1-2). If on the 7th interval you feel that you still have the strength (at least a little) – you have chosen too low a load;

After finishing your workout, swim at a slow, relaxing speed for 5 minutes.


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