h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

They say you should confront your fears. Well I've never been a big fan of the water, so I'm taking up swimming. Mainly hoping to get a bit fitter. I might even get a nice, friendly girl as swimming partner. The problem is I don't move forward in the water very much. I'm quite skinny and scrawny and I think I just don't have the muscles for it. So any ideas about what muscles I should try and exercise to be able to move faster in the water. Just to get to an acceptable level. The other people swimming around all have the head above water, but I don't float which means my swimming seems to only take place below the surface. I imagine I could try and push upward at the same time, to stay up. But I don't know if I have the strength.

As far as I know, swimming is done mainly with the arms, so any sort of weight-lifting should help.

This may seem rather obvious, but...taking up swimming will help develop your "swimming" muscles.

"Swim, Forrest, swim!"

RF

Don't worry about keeping your head above water. A good swimmer spends most of the time with the head under water only coming up to breath every other stroke, sometime every third stroke depending on what stroke you are doing.

Lift you head out of the water and your feet go down and your body presents more resistance to the water. Concentrate on keeping your body as horizontal as possible and that means keeping you head in the water. Develop a good breathing technique which is just as important than muscle development.

For a beginner the easiest stroke to learn is the breast stroke. It is relative easy, not to tiring and builds confidence for more strenuous strokes later.


Donald

Well done for taking up swimming! I'd guess that if you don't move therough the water very well, your style probably needs some attention. I don't like putting my head under the water, so I prefer to swim on my back.

When I swim at all, that is - can't be bothered with all the changing & getting wet, getting semi-dry & dressed again.

Donald, I don't have my head at the water surface. I move about half a meter under it. So I have to stop swimming and stand up when I need to breathe.

My style probably does need attention. Other than two gym classes I have never had any instructions on how to swim. I learned it from watching other people, and those old Goofy cartoons

I think it might be worth trying to correct that Xanatic, because if you ever have fall in a river or something, the standing up and breathing is likely to be tricky...

You could try breaststroke - that should bring you higher in the water.

I have the opposite problem by the way - hate putting my head under the water.

sprout

Good luck with it Xanatic, I took it up about 2 1/2 years ago because I did my back in and didn't want it to become a chronic thing.

I could barely swim 2 lengths without getting exhausted then. Now I can do over 2 km, I can butterfly stroke with speed and have taught myself at least reasonable technique for all strokes barring back stroke which I'm not really bothereed about.
I was amazed at how much I enjoy it.

As Donald said, body position in the water is far more important than kicking and arm movement for speed through the water. Don't worry about muscle strenght too much. I reckon I'm pretty good these days but I still get little weakling girls streaking past me (I'm 230 lb with a very powerful build).

I learnt my technique by just browsing websites on swimming techniques. Very useful although I daresay a proper coach would be more ideal.
The swimming itself will build up your muscles so as I said at the begining, good luck

'body position in the water is far more important than kicking and arm movement for speed through the water'

Hmm, that reads rather stupidly. Of course if you have perfect body position you still won't move unless you kick and swim
More important than kicking speed and arm strenth I should say.

In that case Xanatic I imagine that it is you bum that is causing the problem. Keep it down! You don't worry about it leaking, it's pretty water tight!

As an exercise just try floating on the surface head down with your arms stretched out in front of you level with you ears and your palms on the surface. Legs strait and feet together. You should be able to hold onto that position for at least thirty seconds.

Slowly breath out with your head under water then slowly bring your arms down and lift you head and take another lungful of air. Bring your arms round in a circle till they back where they started and your head under the water again. Practise that a few times and you have the start of the breast stroke.

If you are so far underwater Xanatic it strikes me you could rise up a bit by simply bending your neck backwards. If you lower your head you will sink, if you raise your head you will rise towards the surface if your body is in a good position.

Some people don't float, I know someone who really struggled with swimming and they discovered it was because he didn't float. There's a test you can do I think. He just sank to the bottom when he tried it.

The only group of people that I have comes across that have difficulty in floating is those of African origin. They have a more denser bone structure which makes them poor swimmers but excellant runners.

You only have to look at the difference in an Olymic swimming pool to the athletic track to see that, especailly the sprinters.

There is no reason why a Northern European shouldn't float providing that have some air in their lungs. Expel all the air from your lungs and everyone will sink.

Donald

Oh I'm not sure Donald, my other half always said he had "negative buoyancy" - I laughed, but having seen him in the sea, the boy don't float....well not without a LOT of effort. He snorkels like a demon though and there's nothing wrong with his swimming technique.

Luckily I'm a bit of a sea otter so can quite happily lie on my back in the sea for hours on end without sinking....in the event of shipwreck, he'll hold on to me!

My son & I don't float very well. I reckon it's because we're too skinny - probably the wrong mass/weight ratio or something.

There's a very good reason why Xanatic wouldn't float. He doesn't have any body fat. My brother used to be built like Xan. He could walk along on the bottom of the pool at the deep end.

Well I'm skinny, or at least I was when I was spending a lot of time in the water. I was 10 1/2 stone with a 28 inch waist and had no problems floating.

I didn't start buying in my trousers and underwear from the mens department till I was 35 - VAT free you see.

Donald

Exactly Gnomon. I can lay at the surface of the water and relax, and just slowly sink towards the bottom. I do have a slight bit of bouancy in salt water though.

I also hate getting my head under water. Part of the reason why I have put off swimming for so long.

My fiance doesn't float either, and has a similar build to you Xan. I wouldn't believe that he didn't float until he proved it by taking a really deep breath and lying back in the water. Even with all that air in his lungs he still headed bottomwards. He can swim though, does a breast stroke fairly well but has to bend his neck upwards to keep from sinking. His strokes go slightly downwards in the water too so he gets lift as well as propulsion. He gets tired far more quickly than I do when we swim together because he has to work much harder - it is great for his shoulder muscles though

When I was really fat he used to use me as a buoyancy aid it has come as a bit of a surprise that I don't float as well as i used to.

Are there any instructors a the pool? It might be worthwhile paying for one or two 1-2-1 lessons with them so they can help you develop a technique to get you started - so that you don't get too put off.

k

They have some beginner lessons, but they cost quite a lot. I guess I just need to find myself a fat swimming partner. But you girls have it easy, you got two flotation devices positioned right beneath your head to keep it up.