[music] Heather: Fatigue is a limiting factor in so
many sports, especially when it comes to swimming. You might have a great aerobic engine and
think of yourself as relatively fit, yet you can jump in the pool, swim a couple of lengths,
and suddenly you're gasping for air. Today, I'm going to be looking at why this happens
and helping you to swim further before you get tired.
Breathing is probably the first aspect that actually springs to mind when I think of people
struggling to maintain their stroke. It's that either buildup of carbon dioxide or not
getting in enough oxygen. Trickle breathing is often a solution here. It's basically when
you breathe out gradually throughout the whole of your stroke until you turn your head and
then you take your next in-breath. If, however, you're holding your breath whilst
you're swimming and suddenly letting it all out in the explosive style of breathing as
you turn your head, then you're likely to feel that need to gasp for air because you've
had a buildup of CO2 and that's what gets that really panicky feeling and will soon
tire you out. If you're not used to this trickle breathing style, then just practice it. If
you're comfortable doing kick, maybe pop some fins on and practice purely doing some sidekick
with your face in the water and then blowing up bubbles constantly until you turn your
head and take your in-breath. Alternatively, you can just practice it in
full stroke, but concentrate purely on the breathing. You want a constant trickle until
you turn your head, and then you should be nice and relaxed, ready for that inhale.
[music] How efficient is your body position? Is your
body potentially causing more resistance than it needs to? What about your legs? Are they
sinking? If so, it'd be making your kick inefficient, but also acting like a bit of an anchor. If
you think of your body like a seesaw, it's a good idea to address what position your
head's in because if your head is too high, your legs are likely to be too low.
Then we come on to breathing. Are you turning your head too far to breathe on each stroke?
It's a really common mistake to see in swimmers. As they start to get tired, they naturally
turn their head further to try and get more oxygen in. You're not going to be getting
any more oxygen by turning your head further, all you're going to be doing is disrupting
your stroke, and in the end, making yourself more tired. It becomes a vicious circle. If
you watch top-level swimmers, you'll notice that they'll only breathe with part of their
mouth out the water. In actual fact, you'll probably never see all of their mouth above
the water when doing freestyle. Following on from body position, streamlining
and flexibility can also have an effect on how far you can swim before you get tired.
How streamlined are you? You can do a little bit of an experiment of pushing off the wall
and seeing how far you go. Why not try pushing the wall with your head up and then with your
head down, just to notice what a big difference your position can make with that?
Can you even get into a properly streamlined position? That would be with one hand on top
of the other and your arms out straight, basically squashing your ears. If you're struggling
to get into that position, it could show it's limiting your streamlining, but also it can
end up affecting your strokes. As you get more tired and more fatigued, your muscles
are likely to get tighter, which is going to make your stroke shorter and less efficient.
Mobility work could be in order. You can do this on dry land. Also, some strength conditioning
work can complement it, too. [music]
If you're purely looking to swim further without getting tired, then you can look at changing
your environment. This isn't going to actually make you a stronger swimmer, but it will get
you the result of going for longer or going further. Head to open water, for example,
where you could be using a wet suit, or maybe you're swimming in the sea, so you're going
to have the added buoyancy, which just makes everything that much easier.
The water temperature can play a part, too. If it's too cold, you'll find that your body
is naturally going to have to work harder to keep you warm. Sometimes, in extreme heat,
that can also be equally exhausting and tiring. On that topic, you need to consider hydration.
If you are dehydrated, that's going to reduce your swim performance.
[music] An old one that might sound obvious, could
you be going out too hard? Pacing plays a key role in being able to swim further. If
you are going out too fast at the beginning, you're going to straight away feel out of
breath, and you're unlikely to recover from that and actually find your rhythm. It's about
knowing your ability and knowing your pace. Even maybe going out a little bit slower than
that. You can always build throughout. That's known as negative split when you swim the
second half faster than the first. It's a good way of feeling in control and not having
that panicked feeling of getting too tired. When you go for a training session, don't
just head there and do a straight 1,500 meters, break it up with some rest. You have a warm-up,
then you have some rest, then you have a main set of, say, 100s with rest in between, finishing
up with a warm-down, and making sure that you have enough rest that you know you need.
If you do keep everything at an aerobic pace, you'll naturally be able to swim further.
Save the sprints for a different day. [music]
Your legs have a combination of the largest musculoskeletal muscles in the body. You've
got your quads, your hamstrings, and your glutes. If you kick excessively, these muscles
are going to be demanding a huge amount of oxygen just to work. Notice, when you, say,
sprint for a short bit, the biggest difference in your swim stroke is probably going to be
your leg kick. You'll also notice how quickly you feel out of breath as a result of that.
The opposite goes if you're doing pull work or basically eliminating your leg kick. You'll
probably find that your heart rate and breathing rate are much lower. If you are someone who's
guilty of doing a lot of kick or you've got an excessively strong kick, try to reduce
this. If you're struggling to do that, maybe do some work with a pull buoy as well.
[music] This one might sound too obvious, but the
fitter you are, the further you're going to be able to swim. Having a fit and healthy
heart, lungs, and a strong aerobic capacity is great. You do need to know that just because
you can cycle and run for miles, it isn't necessarily going to directly correlate to
your swimming. Swimming's fitness is very specific, I'm afraid, so it means you're going
to have to spend more time in the pool working on building it up and following a training
plan. [music]
I was a little bit reluctant to include this one as I know it's not as simple as clicking
your fingers and making you relax. In actual fact, if you've got someone shouting at you
to relax, it's quite likely to have the opposite effect. If you are really nervous, then you're
going to be wasting mental energy, and quite often, physical energy, which you could actually
be using to propel yourself forward. Work on your water confidence, whether that's doing
some floating, exercises, swimming with others, and using some swim aids, anything that's
just going to make you feel more natural and comfortable in the water.
[music] To round it up though, technique has the biggest
impact on swimming. Focus on that and you'll see a noticeable difference in how far you
can swim before you get tired. Let us know what you feel restricts you with how far you
can swim. You can do that in the comments section below. Give us a like and also check
out our social media channels. You can follow GTN there as well.
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