Swimming training for Lifeguard Recertification
Water rat or not, swimming is the ideal sport if you want to train and maintain both your fitness and muscle strength. Thanks to the low risk of injury, it is also the ideal complement to another sport. Nevertheless, it remains an excellent workout in itself: whether you train in a club, with friends, or completely solo. Read our five tips for the perfect swim training for Lifeguard Recertification beginners here!
Start with the right swimming technique
Swimming training for beginners: you can just jump into the pool and swim until your arms fly off. Which can. With that, you’ve had a serious workout.
But you can’t keep up like that. That is why it is extremely important that you use the correct swimming technique. You will reap the benefits in the long run, because you minimize your risk of injury and swim much more efficiently. To build up slowly and seek professional help where necessary.
Choose a stroke today, but another one next week
Unless you just want to break records with your phenomenal butterfly stroke, it’s best to vary your strokes.
There are four major groups in swimming, listed below from ‘easy’ to ‘difficult’:
- Breaststroke: focus on legs and chest muscles
- Backstroke: focus on back and biceps
- Crawl: focus on upper body
- Butterfly stroke: focus on gluteal, arm, and shoulder muscles
- Note that this ranking in itself has little to do with the objective difficulty of the battle. Your whole body is covered anyway, although there is a certain focus. You basically make the technique as difficult as you want.
Combine long distances with short ones
Remember: you are doing swim training for beginners. Swimming is a tricky full-body workout, so build up slowly. In addition, it is important that you vary enough in your training: so vary sprints and long-distance sessions in your sports schedule.
Because as you could already read here, you get the most benefit from your training when you alternate wisely. And so it remains doable – and above all: fun!
Love your strong core
Yes, swimming in itself gives you a solid core workout. But as with all sports, it is best to supplement your swimming training with specific core training.
Pro swimmers regularly alternate their training in the water with strength training. In the swimmer’s world, this is called ‘dryland training’ – training on dry land. You don’t necessarily have to sign up for a second subscription at your local gym. On the contrary, a few simple, effective exercises can do wonders for your core. In this blog, you can read exactly how to do that.
Hungry? Eat healthily!
Who swims, who eats. With the serious dose of energy that your swim training demands of you, you need to recover with the necessary nutrients. Healthy nutrients. So make sure you get the right carbohydrates, proteins, and vitamins through your diet. Try to avoid unhealthy, refined sugars as much as possible.
If you have medical complaints that may affect exercise while swimming, it is advisable to discuss these medical complaints with your doctor before starting swimming.
If an exercise or movement doesn’t feel. Right while swimming, stop doing it. If necessary, report to the pool staff or the trainer if support is needed.
Feeling acidification of the muscles during an exercise is not bad, but this should not cause stabbing pain. In the latter case, stop the exercise in question or even stop your swimming session altogether. The same goes for your breathing. It is best to be out of breath while swimming, but this should not lead to hyperventilation.
Never swim alone. This applies to both the pool and the open water. If there is a supervisor present in the pool, you can of course just swim. If you would like to swim in open water, always ask someone to accompany you and supervise you.