Swimming is a brilliant activity, whatever your reasons for doing it. Whether you swim as a fun family activity, swim to keep fit and stay in shape, or do both, it’s a great way to spend time. If you’re wanting to swim to keep fit and stay in shape, however, then you’ll need to come along to one of the lane swimming sessions available at any one of our 110+ pools across the country.
Before you get started, however, there are a few things you should know. These include things like etiquette – the dos and don’ts of lane swimming, as well as all the benefits.
Lane Swimming Etiquette
Just like on the roads, there are a few rules that you need to follow in order to keep everything flowing smoothly in each lane and stop you crashing in to other swimmers!
Swim in the Right Direction
This might sound pretty simple and, we’ll be honest, it is. Each lane will usually have a board at each end indicating whether or not you should be swimming in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction. Make sure you stick to this, even if the lane’s quiet as it just makes it easier for everyone, including you, other swimmers and the lifeguards.
Let Faster Swimmers Past
If there’s a faster swimmer behind you, then it’s really important you let them past. Not only is it less than polite to keep faster swimmers behind you, but it can cause a tailback behind you, clogging up the lane for other swimmers. If you want to let swimmers past, wait until you reach the end of the line, pull to the side and let all the faster swimmers behind past before continuing to swim.
It’s also really important you also don’t start swimming in front of faster swimmers, let them all past before you begin. If you are being regularly passed, then you might want to consider moving into a slower lane.
How to let Slower Swimmers Know you want to Pass
If you’re being held up by a slightly slower swimmer in front of you, then the commonly accepted thing to do is to give their feet a little tap. Remember, not all swimmers will be able to sense your presence, and may not even feel a tap, so be patient. If they’re following this guide, they’ll pull aside at the end of the lane and let you past.
Stay out of the way if you’re Resting
If you need to take a rest after swimming a few lengths, we completely understand. Swimming is hard work and it’s important you don’t push yourself too hard, especially if you’re just starting on your exercise journey. When you do rest, however, it’s important you stay out of the way of those swimmers that are continuing. So stop at the end of the lane and move as far to the side of the lane as possible to make sure you don’t get in the way
The Benefits of Lane Swimming
We all know that swimming is fantastic exercise. It works muscle groups all over your body and is great for helping develop both your muscle strength and your endurance too. It’s also an important life skill to keep practising and lane swimming is the ideal environment to train yourself to become an even stronger swimmer. You never know when you might need it.
Lane swimming is also a fantastic training ground for swimmers who may take part in amateur events, such as open water swims, triathlons or even charity events like the Aspire Swimathon.
Lane Swimming for Fitness
Swimming, in all its incarnations is a fantastic workout. Not only will regular lane swimming sessions help build your endurance, make you fitter and help you lose weight, but it will also help you lose weight, burn fat and build muscle. This is all because of the extra resistance the water places on your body. Water offers six times as much resistance as air, meaning you need to put six times as much effort into moving yourself through it than you do through air and it’s this resistance that makes lane swimming such great exercise.
Lane Swimming to Avoid Injury
This extra resistance that water offers, however, is also great for helping you avoid, or recover from, injury. This is because it supports the joints and it means that there’s no impact going through them, meaning you’re much less likely to contract an injury while exercising, while it also helps you build up strength after am injury without the risk of making it worse. This means you’re much more likely to reach your fitness goals because you’re less likely to get injured and so you’ll keep exercising and keep improving.
Lane Swimming is great Training for Events
If you take your swimming a little more seriously, then lane swimming is the perfect way to train for specific events like triathlons, open water swimming events or swimathons. Not only will you clock up the miles needed to help you get fit enough for all these sorts of events, but it will also give you an opportunity to work on your stroke technique.
When doing this, it’s a great opportunity to make use of the fantastic Swim Smooth functionality that you can get as part of your membership with us here at Everyone Active. It’s full of useful hints and tips to help you improve your stroke technique, helping you to swim further, faster and for longer.
Find your local Everyone Active pool to discover when our lane swimming sessions are being held and head down there right now!