I just don’t believe that swimming is good for fat loss. It could be a different metabolic effect of the heat exchange in water, or it could be the reduced forces of gravity, or maybe the effect on appetite - or all three…but I’ve never seen anyone get lean by swimming. And I’ve seen quite a few people try. I knew a woman who swam for an hour a day, then taught multiple water aerobics classes, and she was quite chubby. I know quite a few people in my neighborhood who swim in our university pool as their main form of exercise…none are lean. And I’ve seen quite a few people start swimming in a pool when beginning a diet, to lose weight…and they didn’t lose much weight (if any). This is not to say it couldn’t possibly happen. But I’ve seen a LOT more success with weight dropping off people who start running, for example. This is all anecdotal so I don’t hold it as a strong belief, but I would like to see someone get really lean by swimming, because I’ve never seen it.
Being bad at swimming technique would actually increase calorie expenditure. It takes more energy to thrash around with poor swimming technique, and the hallmark of good technique is the most efficient forward movement Efficiency is bad when your goal is to burn calories.
I have used a calorie-burn estimator device and found that the more fit or efficient you get at an activity, the fewer calories you burn. The factor that trumps everything for calorie burn, though, is gravity. Walking uphill is the best way IME to burn the most calories with the least fatigue and the least (negative) impact on recovery. It might even help recovery. The physical work of overcoming gravity resists being reduced by fitness/efficiency, so you keep burning nearly the same calories no matter how much you do or how long you keep it up. My favorite calorie burner is hiking hills, maybe with some weight like a Camelbak backpack. A stair mill should be similar (though I haven’t spent enough time to be sure, but for a few minutes it felt like similar work).
Ha ha I just saw this post, and me too! I can’t swim more than 25 yards! When I was a kid I could swim non stop forever … add 100lbs of muscle and I sink like a stone lol swimming and BB don’t go together at all!
Wait, someone shouldn’t swim because they can’t do it efficiently and it burns excess energy??
That’s exactly what you do want. Familiarity with a movement is what blunts the EPOC response. Can’t swim well? good! EPOC used to the the darling of exercise, but it is losing its luster.
Also the fat being redistributed subcutaneously is not going to happen over night. It isn’t going to happen with the quick extra metabolic work you are going to do as opposed to the hours that swimmers that always and only swim. It’s like the horseshit myth that metabolism drops when you skip a meal. “goes into starvation mode” That is a pile of crap and always has been.
The calories burned from extra work, please quit calling it cardio, is pale compared to what you can do by restricting calories.
Cardio. Worthless name. Try a balls out set of squats. Heart not getting worked? You’re not squatting hard.
Fat burning zone. Horseshit.
Target heart rate. Horseshit. Look up the origin of that.
Calorie deficit, you are going to lose weight. Resistance exercise helps shift the composition of the weight loss. Weight gain is the same. Excess calories causes weight gain. Heavy resistance work determines what that is going to be.
Vogue stuff comes and goes. Food combining, for instance.
I’m hoping I don’t have to be good at swimming to lose some weight doing it. One of the writers on the main page argued that if you are bad at something you will be inefficient and so burn more calories doing it. Plus, I’m a heavy guy, so I should burn a lot of calories in the pool. My Y has a long pool, but I have to be careful about my timing or won’t get a lane.
Right now I am working on a program that is three days a week, 45 minutes in the weight room and 45 minutes in the pool. The weight work is focused on cleans and presses, squats, and super set upper body work, all of which helps get the metabolism up. The mirror says I’m losing fat but the scale says I’m holding steady, so I hope I’m gaining muscle at the same speed.
AHA! Sadly, I went to swim a couple of laps the other day and had shoulder mobility issues. Getting a good stretch on my stroke was more than a little uncomfortable. And since I refuse to acknowledge I’m getting older, I blame powerlifting.
I swam a lot in my younger years bc of my father, and think it is an excellent form of cardio and also mobility…
That being said, as a BB 10 you will sink right to the bottom and instead of propelling forward you will always be fighting to stay at or above water line.
2) It can not only be difficult for most bigger BB to actually rotate the shoulder as much as needed but can lead to injury if they are not primed for it…
In my humble opinion, any type of cardio/activity is good for fat loss. whats more important is the way its done. We all know HIIT burns most fast and Steady state burns higher percentage of fat when compared to glycogen (which makes it sound great but its not).
Most competitors are doing 1-2 hours of cardio towards the end of their prep… WHY?
Bc they have simply become Efficient at it (which is great for an athlete, but terrible for a BB). Efficiency means its no longer difficult thus it no longer requires the same amount of energy/fuel… which equal less fat loss…
I believe in hard intervals, HIIT, and even steady state being implemented but constantly changing and revolving around each other… I wouldn’t do a session of HIIT when having a reefed or even day after (defeats the purpose of trying to store glycogen)