Swimming FAQs

I have been around long enough to face all kinds of questions regarding swimming. When someone finds out that I am a swimmer, especially a new acquaintance, questions about swimming as well as being a swimmer always find their way in our conversations. Most are the general stuff while others involve certain myths which I could only shake my head in disbelief. It is understandable, of course. Swimming has yet to be the commercial sport akin to basketball and football. Therefore, very few understand the competitive nature of the sport which influences the behavior of swimmers the world over. Until swimming does become (hopefully) a sport recognized and understood by millions much like basketball, I will use this opportunity to answer some frequently asked questions about swimming and swimmers. 

1. How many laps do swimmers usually swim a day in to be as slim as they are?

    

In all my years, I have never really kept track of the number of laps I swam because I wanted to get slim or have the finely sculpted muscles flaunted by world-class swimmers. I kept track of the laps because I wanted to get better at my sport and be as fast as I could possibly be. To that end, swimmers usually swim anywhere from 3000 meters to 10,000 meters a day depending on which part of the season they are in. If they are preparing for a big meet say the UAAP, NCAA or National Championships, daily workouts would range from 8000 to 10,000 meters and will gradually go down to around 2500 to 3000 meters the closer the meets get. If it is the off-season, workouts are designed for stamina and stroke maintenance which would total anywhere from 2000 to 3000 meters. The slim bodies just comes as a by-product of all the hardwork and sacrifices they make in honing their crafts.  

*3000 meters = 120 laps in a 25 meter pool, 60 laps for 50 meter pool

*10,000 meters = 400 laps in a 25 meter pool, 200 laps for a 50 meter pool

2. If I am not really into competitive swimming but I wish to swim just to get fit, how many laps do you think I should be doing? How often do I swim too?

Swimming has been considered as the best cardiovascular exercise known to man; when you swim, every major muscle group of the body is completely utilized and worked on. In contrast to running, swimming is also the "safer" cardio exercise since there is no unnecessary stress on your knees or the soles of your feet when you swim. Moving on, slow and easy would be the basis of any suggestion regarding the number of laps you swim as well as how often you should swim. Start by swimming 20-30 laps of freestyle for three days a week. Once feel that it is becoming too easy for you and that you are starting to get comfortable in the water, increase the number of laps you do by 10. Keep on increasing the number until you can do 100 plus laps. 100 laps ought to be a manageable goal to anyone who does not have a competitive swimming background. 

3. When aiming for that magic 100, do you have to swim non-stop? 

No, you do not have to swim non-stop during you swims. You can opt to do that but trust me when I say that you are setting yourself up for unnecessary boredom. What I would recommend is doing what competitive swimmers usually do. Breakdown your targeted total laps into short, manageable sets which will give you enough time to catch your breath and rest. If your goal is to do 40 laps, break the 40 down into five sets of eight laps or 5x200 meters. That way, you get adequate amount of rest in between sets. It is up to you if you want to do speed or stroke variations. The most important thing to remember is to make it easy and simple for yourself. As I said before, swim your laps slow and easy.

4. Do guy swimmers shave their legs and armpits on top of their heads? Will shaving those body parts really give you an advantage during a race?


I cannot really give a straight answer for this because it really depends on the swimmer. Some do shave or wax their excess body hair in as much as other do not. During my last two years in the UAAP, I finally decided to have my armpits and legs waxed. Since I was going to wear a Speedo LZR Racer full bodysuit in 2009 and an LZR Elite Jammer in 2010, I decided to go the whole nine yards and finally adhere to this "ancient" swimming ritual. What the hell? I thought told myself. As for the million dollar question if my waxing helped, well, I would like to believe that it did at the time. Though I cannot support this with hard, scientific facts I can attest to feeling a bit smoother in the water which I assume is an indication of lesser drag. So yeah, shaving or waxing helps. It probably will not lead to a drastic improvement of your best time; at most, maybe a few hundredths of a second. Psychologically, it should be helpful--a placebo, if you will.

5. Do all swimmers follow certain diets year-round? Or are most much like Michael Phelps with his alleged 10,000 calories a day diet?


In all my years of swimming, I have never met any swimmer who adheres to a strict diet. Most of my teammates eat like a disposal unit; place food in front of them and they will devour it without thinking twice. I even had a teammate who could eat a regular spaghetti meal after eating two pieces of chicken, five pieces of lumpiang shanghai, a cheeseburger and five cups of rice. And his stomach does not even get big even after eating all of that food! Truth is, I spent most of my glory years before sports nutrition became mainstream. It was only during the twilight years of my career that the advent of sports nutrition came about so I missed that ship, figuratively speaking. Going back to the question, I would say that swimmers these days consider what they eat more than my generation did. While some are indeed following Michael Phelps' prodigious appetite, I would not be surprised at all if most swimmers follow some sort of diet which will help them swim faster and last longer.

I sincerely hope that I sufficiently answered these swimming FAQs. If you have anymore questions about swimming or the life of a swimmer, feel free to leave a comment or two and ask away.

Take Your Mark!