Swimmer's endurance.

[zhul4nder]

Being a swimmer myself, I seem to have a hard time enduring during my practice sets. I'm doing fine until about midway through the entire practice session. Then I feel like I'm lifting bricks every time I stroke and my stomach burns every time I hold my breath longer than 2 -3 seconds underwater. Obviously, I can push through it, but with all those sensations going throughout my body it's excruciatingly slow paced; I rarely make the sets on time and hug the wall way too much.

So my query, what can I do to improve my endurance in the water? Obviously, I can take some of my own time and swim, swim and swim away...but apart from that, something on dry land? Can I also change my diet to improve my endurance?

-edit-
Another thing that I'd probably like to improve on is my ability to focus. I tend to lack the ability to focus efficiently if you know what I mean. For example, on FFR, the first thing that comes to mind, I get the hardest parts out of the way with all perfects, then I miss one. I don't know what happens, I just randomly miss it in the easy spots. How can I improve my focus? And if I can intertwine the ability to focus and swimming, that'd be just awesome.

[Breakdown16]

Critical Thinking? I'd put this in Chit Chat, but here goes. Try cross country or any type of running; long distance running helps improve one's heart strength. As for focusing, are you suffering from lack of sleep? More sleep definitely improves my concentration.

[25thhour]

Just like Breakdown said, Do Cross Country running. I am in CCR and It has really been helping me with my endurance those hills are a b*tch.

[Go_Oilers_Go]

Try a diet with lots of proteins and carbs. Proteins should help with body strength, while carbs give you energy.

[pntballa18]

go running. thread over

[infinity.]

dont drink sodas.
dont eat anything high in sugar.
dont consume any caffeine,

do work out exercises for abs and chest (crunches, 6 inches, leg lifts, etc)

[Pladdy]

Don't make lame threads that makes everyone want to cut off there necks and grill it for supper. >

[Spenner]

A lot of it has to do with yourself mentally. If you worry, you tense up- you should very well know that swimming tense makes for quite a short swim.

Relaxing is the most important thing-- put nothing in your mind. You know how to swim. You can do everything perfectly. Think otherwise, or have any doubts what so ever, and you WILL miss something.

If I was training you, I'd want you to train your mind first. If I was simply recommending physical training, I'd say running until you drop every so often as well as any cardio workout that makes you feel shaky and sick after doing it. Repetition of the same thing just creates more fatigue, so for overall cardio I'd switch it up every so often (eg, from jumping jacks to running on the spot quickly to burpees, etc).

EDIT Pladdy, are you five? It's their.

[p-at-rick]

umm I guess you should just exercise every now and then.
I'm a swimmer too and I am actually pretty good at passing because of the exercise I do every once in a while.
You should also just keep doing the swim test so that your body can get used to it.

[Crashfan3]

I have to agree with most of the posts in this thread, running is a good way to get your cardiovascular strength up. Also try jumping hurdles while doing it, I've done that and it really helps with your leg strength, which [obviously] is important in swimming.

[zhul4nder]

thing is, i'm a pretty good runner, but i still my endurance sucks. It's like i know how to push it on land, yet i can't do it in the water.

[Crashfan3]

Hmm... do you practice swimming much outside of your actual school practice sessions? Perhaps you're just not used to it? I'm not sure, I'm really not much of a swimmer myself (slow as ****), so I'm getting to the point of guessing here. :/

[blackbuterfly451]

I'm not a swimmer, but if it feels like your arms are heavy then you probably need to train or practice more. Doing other sports or exercises that involve upper-body strength might help. :3

[Quigly]

Originally Posted by Pladdy

Don't make lame threads that makes everyone want to cut off there necks and grill it for supper. >

Wow you really need to stop posting. And if I'm not mistaken you made a thread claiming you were a zombie which is A LOT lamer than this thread (which isn't lame at all). Hypocrite.

[Spenner]

Heavy arms could mean many things- for one, it could be that you've worked your arms all the way through well, but in swimming, the muscles in your arm aren't isolated to achieve such a thing.

It's probably from tense shoulders- and the only thing I can recommend is learning to relax your shoulders. It takes an incredibly long time to learn how to relax muscles yet work them hard and keep them that way; basically all I can say is that when you're swimming, make sure that your shoulders aren't flexing a hell of a lot- though when you're getting used to it, you might as well be learning to swim all over again.

That is, of course, if your shoulders are causing fatigue in your arm's endurance.

[pntballa18]

if you claim your arms are getting heavy during your swim, it's probably from a buildup of lactic acid. if you're doing separate drills, make sure you don't completely stop moving in between them. keep your muscles moving, that way the lactic acid wont have time to build up in your arms.

[dore]

Practice more sprinting than endurance swimming. I've always found it more beneficial to swim long sets of sprints on the clock rather than to do long swims. Be sure to take plenty of breaks, but forcing yourself to swim no a clock is a good way to build up your endurance.

[blackbuterfly451]

Originally Posted by pntballa18

if you claim your arms are getting heavy during your swim, it's probably from a buildup of lactic acid. if you're doing separate drills, make sure you don't completely stop moving in between them. keep your muscles moving, that way the lactic acid wont have time to build up in your arms.

If there was a buildup of lactic acid, it would most likely cause cramping and soreness, which doesn't sound like the problem. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[pntballa18]

lactic acid, at least for a runner, causes limbs to feel heavier than normal. i doubt that would be different for swimmers, but then again, i know nothing about swimming.

[zhul4nder]

@dore

Yea, i find that sprinting is much easier for me than sets. Usually, i get pwned after about 5-6 sets of 100-125's with usually a 1:35-1:45 time. After then it's more like 1:50-2:00...

I'll see what i can do about it. I just started to swim again, so I'll just try to push harder.