Is swimming better than normal cardio?

[JoNeS]

Hi guys, I have been doing a lot of swimming lately in place of my normal joggin/eliptical cardio sessions. I wanted to know if swimming is a real good way to lose fat, and is a better substitue than standard cardio, because I have never seen a non ripped swimmer. Also, because swimming involves a shit load of different muscles, I want to know if that is going to hinder my normal weight lifting sessions... ie)less strength and recovery time.

 

[sconoscuito]

me too...

but I think swimming is good... and like you said everyone that swims is pretty much ripped(im talking about swims on daily basis and for a long time) my brother is the same way..im gonna start doing it instead of cardio unless theres something negative baou tit

 

[JoNeS]

and also, I can do an 45 mins of intense sweating cardio and burn like 500-600 calories. But almost immediately after I stop my normal cardio I still feel fairly energetic and am not breathing hard....and most often I have enough energy to do abs or something. But after I get done with say 30 mins of swimming, holy shit man.... I have a tough time standing in the shower and definately have the occasional head daze/body wobble.

 

[Babyfaced Assassin]

I have been told that swimming won't burn as much fat but it's all non impact and does a great upper body workout too

 

[Sydneyboy]

Parkerjones you hit the nail on the head when you said that you have not seen a swimmer who is not ripped. Swimming works the total body and is not as hard on the body as say running. Just go and try a few sets of swimming sprints and then see how you feel!

 

[sawastea]

Swimming is a great all around workout and easy on your joints. If you do a 400 IM, you'll be hurting afterwards

There are many exercises you can do in the water that will benefit your strength training. I took swimming as an elective in college. I thought it was gonna be a BREEZE where we all threw the football around and played Marco Polo. Ha, I was in for a surprise. First day they timed us on the 1k and I was WIPED OUT

 

[n3rvegrind3r]

i wanted to switch it up the other day too from normal cardio. I went on the rowing machine for 20 minutes which i havent done for years and it kicked my ass. I had no energy to do anything else, but a nice little workout and change from running nonetheless...swimming is great though

 

[ZKaudio]

I swim from tiem to time, I just hate what it does to my hair. There are several members on here who use swimming as cardio to keep the abs tight and what not. I remember reading that AAP swims.

 

[BabyMuscles]

As far as hair goes, my hair dresser told me to wet my hair and put conditioner and wear a swimming cap. The conditioner is supposed to saturate your hair so that it doesn't absorb as much chlorine. Didn't keep swimming for too long so I don't know that it made a big difference, but its worth a try if you wear a cap anyway.

 

[ZKaudio]

I pamper myself when it comes to grooming. I do have several leave in conditioners designed to protect from chlorine damage. However, I chemically straighten my hair from time to time and as a result, it's halfway dead all the time. Chlorine just puts the finishing touches on it. It also lightens up my hair a lot. It's an annoyance, but I still consider swimming's benefits to outweight the strain on one's hair.