Swimming is considered one of the best ways to work out because it exercises the entire body. Water provides the kind of resistance that means your entire body needs to be moving and your muscles need to be working in order to stay afloat.
We all start out at the beginning, so you can’t expect to get into an intermediate or advanced swimming workout session if you haven’t mastered the basics yet. Swimming takes time to get good at, if you want to use it to work out when you’re not an expert swimmer, there are some beginner workouts you can use that may be a good fit for you.
How do you find the right level of workout for you? You have to consider how much time you spent in the pool and what kind of experience you have. If you’re not sure which level you’re at- beginner, intermediate, or expert- then it would be safe to assume you should start out at one of the lower levels for a workout session.
What you can do is start out with a 30 minute swim workout for beginners and see how that works for you. See how difficult the maneuvers are to pull off and if you feel like you could do something more complex and advanced. If so, then feel free to try to move up to a higher level and test out a more difficult workout. Until you’re sure of yourself, it’s a good idea to start at that beginning level see how that workout plan works for you.
What to Do before Your Workout
Before you take your workout to the pool, you want to make sure that you’re fit enough to handle a pool workout session. This can be a very strenuous and tiring workout, so make sure that you have a strong core. Do core strengthening exercises like planking, leg raises, sit-ups, and pushups. This will help build up your core so that swimming becomes easier.
Also make sure that you have enough space in the pool for your workout session and enough time to do the entire workout. If you haven’t been in the pool in a long time, you may want to plan a longer session time to give yourself a period to get used to the water. It’s a good idea to warm up before your exercise, warming up first outside the pool and then warming up inside the pool.
You can warm up in the water by floating on your back, swimming around for a few minutes, and practicing holding your breath underwater. These little exercises will help you feel more comfortable in the water, especially if you haven’t swum in a while. They will also help you determine your level of comfort and skill in the water before you start your session.
Kickboard Workout
You will need a kickboard for this workout, and you also need some space to work. Expect to travel a distance of about 900 meters, which comes out to about 36 pool lengths if you’re working in a 25 meter pool. It’s best if you can have an entire lane of the pool for yourself or its equivalent during this session.
You can start warming up with 100-meter front crawl and two 50-meter breaststrokes. Once you have warmed up, you can get into the main set.
This will cover a distance of 500 meters, beginning with a backstroke with a kick will do this for 50 meters twice, holding a kick forward or a float in front of you, with the kickboard position vertically. Use your legs alone to hold the kickboard.
The next exercise for the main set is the front crawl, which is a 50 meter exercise you can do four times.
Follow that up with 100 meter front crawl and try to move as fast as possible.
Finish off the main set with a 50 meter backstroke with a kick, which can be done twice. Once again, you’ll be holding the kickboard in front of you using gesture legs, with the kickboard or float position vertically.
You can then cool down using 100 meter front crawl and 100 meter breaststroke.
This 30-minute swim workout for beginners it’s not too technically difficult, but it can be kind of high intensity. It is designed for people who are physically fit and who are competent enough to perform these maneuvers in the water with ease. You should go through these exercises slowly at first to test them out and see how manageable they are for you before you try to cram it all into a quick 30-minute session.
Super Easy Water Workout
There’s a list of different exercises you can do for this workout, and you can switch them around as needed. You don’t have to do them in a specific order, because this is all about easing you into a water workout. For someone who is not sure that they’re fully comfortable in the water, especially working out in the water, this is a good series of exercises to start with.
Your typical 30 minute water workout will be kind of intense, starting out with a warm up and then moving into a high intensity phase, often bookending the main set with really rigorous exercises, and then finishing off with a cool down period. This may be a little too intense for some people, so we provided this easier swimming exercise list that doesn’t need to be done with any kind of intensity. You can take it as easy as you want, and it may take you longer than 30 minutes, which you should definitely expect for the first few times you do it.
You can alternate laps of backstroke and freestyle swimming for 50 yards and do this four times, with 20 seconds of rest between each lap.
The next exercise is the flutter kick with board, which you can do for 25 yards and repeat seven more times for total of 8 laps. Rest for 15 seconds afterwards.
Next, go for 25 yards with the backstroke and then a freestyle, alternating between the two for a total of eight reps. Give yourself 20 each of the laps.
Rest for one minute before resuming more exercises.
Start back with a 50 yard freestyle lap, resting for 20 seconds at the end of each lap, and doing 4 laps.
After that you can do a 25 yard freestyle of eight laps, resting for 15 seconds between each lap.
You want to finish off strong, and we suggest a 25 yard lap of easy kicks alternating with sprint kicks, resting for 10 seconds at the end of each lap. You can do this eight times as your final exercise.
These are just a couple 30 minute water workout sessions you can try, and both of these are designed for people who haven’t really done water workouts before. There’s nothing too strenuous or taxing here and nothing that should be very complicated to pull off. If you’re ready to move on to a more advanced water workout, there’s plenty of those available online. If you are curious, you can also find more beginner workouts for a 30 minute session if you search online.
Make sure you choose a workout plan that is comfortable for you and manageable based on your health and swimming ability. If you struggle with any of the exercises listed above, you can find alternatives that may be more suitable for your skill level.
