Laps and Interval Training for Endurance

You enjoy swimming laps? That's great!

Instead of swimming those monotonous laps back and forth, how about creating a structured work out? It's not just about swimming laps. Try intervals or drills to increase your speed, endurance, and overall fitness.

Divide your swimming schedule into different lap sets. When you're starting, you should aim to finish 5 laps at a time, then rest. As you get better at swimming, you can finish larger sets. Good swimmers can do 25 to 30 laps without stopping.

Laps

Most standard work out pools are 25 meter. This is one end to the other, so when one refers to a lap they mean from one side the other. If one says do 100 freestyle, this means 4 laps. A set in swimming consists of numerous repetitive laps. An example of a set would be 5 x 200 meters backstroke. For beginners putting a set on a time is not necessary or recommended.

Variety

Incorporate different strokes into your lap sets. Start by completing 4 laps of freestyle, then one lap of a less intensive stroke, such as breast stroke, side stroke or back stroke. Then rest and begin your next set.

Begin with a few smaller sets such as 4x50 meters or 2x100 meters. Each time you swim increase the amount of laps you swim.

Timing

Time yourself while swimming. A workout schedule is more effective the longer you can maintain a steady pace. Start by swimming for 30 seconds and resting for 30 seconds, repeating the cycle 10 times. When you can do it easily, increase the swimming time (to 45 seconds, then a minute, then 90 seconds) while reducing the rest time (to 20 seconds, then 15, then 10).

You may also be interested in keeping track of how far you went in one work out. 4x50 meters and 2x100 meters is 16 laps or 400 meters.

 Class for College Students

One of the new physical education options offered to students this year was swimming. Students enrolled in the course were instructed on basic swimming skills. As part of the course, students learned the proper techniques for each stroke including freestyle, backstroke, elementary backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly.

In addition, students were introduced to several rescue skills, proper diving techniques and breath control. They also learned how to retrieve objects from the bottom of the pool, how to tread water, and how to swim fully clothed.

Our physical education teacher and swimming instructor reported that all classes put so much hard work and effort into their swimming. The students truly love coming to class and can't wait to get in the pool and swim. We're is so proud of the tremendous progress they made throughout the semester!