When is the best time to eat before working out?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 12:53 pm

well that makes good sense, Corey! I'm going to try this. I'll baseline a mile, start interval training, and then time my mile every 2 weeks or so. Thanks for explaining all that! Maybe I'll even get up to doing 2 mile swims sooner.

I'll try eating the Luna bar 90 minutes before I swim, too.

Post by **sita** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 1:47 pm

For my PT test my plan is to exceed minimum expectations so I'm starting to train now. I know that I can pick any stroke to swim so which one would you suggest. I was planning on freestyle. My reasoning for taking swimming lessons is for form. I figured that form and breathing etc. would be the crucial factor for speed. Thanks for all the advice cause I sure need it. I think I have the push-ups covered though. I'm being taught how to cheat on military push-ups from a former army ranger

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 1:52 pm

Freestyle will get you there faster, and if you have an efficient stroke, I recommend it over any other. The lessons will help. Make sure they critique you a lot and fine tune it. Don't neglect your kicking. Most people are very inefficient with the flutter kick and waste tons of energy, make a big splash and might as well be dragging those legs. When you are training, at least at first, you may want to vary your stroke. I find breast stroke to be very powerful but also energy conserving, so when I'm tired, I switch to breast stroke.

You go girl!!

Post by **Gretchen** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 2:11 pm

I could never stand freestyle. It had to do with the breathing. I guess I am just a breathing failure! I likethe breast stroke the best. You should see me butterfly! Now that's a sight!

Post by **Rain Man** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 5:11 pm

The front crawl is inherently faster than breast stroke (though, again, you'd be amazed at how fast someone can move doing the breast stroke), so, if you're allowed to, do that. To compare front crawl to your breast stroke, do them. In that I mean do a 100, or maybe 200 for "time" after you've warmed up one workout. The next workout, do the "other" stroke for time and compare a) the time it took you and b) your level of fatigue after you've finished the timed distance. Compare not only how fast you went, but also which stroke you can maintain averaged over the whole distance. More swimming will, or course, improve your endurance, so both times/energy levels will improve. Another factor is turns. Don't linger on the turns trying to "sneak" rest, it'll only slow you down and give you time to think about how tired you are. A body in motion doesn't notice how tired it is as much as a body that just FINISHED motion. Assuming you are a beginner, I might be stepping a little far in asking if you can do flip-turns. But, if you can, a even a semi-decent flip-turn will shave 10-20 seconds off the total time. It's also a good thing to work to exceed the minumums, I mean, think about that. The minimums are set to "weed out" trainies, so being barely minimum doesn't say much for you.

Try to blow the mins out of the water (yeah, I know, ha-ha, fitting the discussion). A good goal is twice the min, if you can. Really give the instructor/test proctor something to smile about and be proud of who they're accepting into the armed forces. What branch are you entering, sita? Oh, one other thing, relax. Being tense in the water will wreck your stroke almost as badly as if someone cut off an arm. I might start to sound existential here, but bear with me....just think about sliding through the water...about being smooth and fluid, almost like a work of art (and no, not a Picasso, that would just be funny). I understand swimming is new to you and you might not like it nearly as much as I do (I'm more comfortable in water than on land), so listen to the instructors at the Y and try to visualize yourself doing what they're saying. How much time do you have before the test?

Post by **sita** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 5:47 pm

Twice the minimum might be out of range for me on some of the tests, that would mean I'd have to do 60 something pushups in a minute. Who knows though, I've got at least seven months to train. In addition to swimming lessons I plan on getting my lifeguard certification so that I know I can pass the basic red cross water tests. I have applied for Officer Candidate School with the Coast Guard. I won't know if I get in until the end of May, but I'm planning on being ready anyway. By the way - Front crawl is the same thing as freestyle? I know in a separate test I have to do 25 meters of front crawl and 75 of any stroke. I also checked and the swim test is 17 lengths in 12 minutes to meet minimum standards. So based on what you guys have said I'm not so worried anymore about the swimming since I'm giving myself so much time to get ready.

Post by **Artsay** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 8:28 pm

I taught myself how to swim freestyle in college. I asked people in the pool all the time for pointers and got some pretty good ones.

First off, you'll be happy to hear that swimming is a lot like climbing (more like sport) in that you turn your hips as you extend your arms to reach out in the water further. Also, I found that when I was swimming regularly I was also climbing my hardest. It seemed to me that (this is just Michelle logic speaking...) swimming freestyle taught my muscles how to work more efficiently with less oxygen because I had to regulate my oxygen intake to one breath to every four strokes.

So anyway, when you swim think about swinging your hips back and forth with each stroke. This will not only help you extend further but it will help keep your center (hips) on top of the water easier.

Another tip I was told about is for the stroke. It's hard to explain but I'll try...
Basically, when you take a stroke try not to throw your arms out of the water at your back and sides (you'll see a lot of people doing this). Instead, think about rolling your shoulders so that your elbows are out of the water and over your head as close to your body as you can and bringing your hand out of the water at your head instead of your back or side. A swimming exercise to practice this is to roll your shoulders (as described above) as you take a stroke and lightly drag your fingertips across the water from about your ear to way out in front of you until your hand pulls through the water. Performing and perfecting this stroke will save you time and energy exertion.

Good luck!

Post by **StephyG** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 8:50 pm

Wow, artsay me too!
Actually, I remember seeing you at the university pool. You were hard to miss in that hot pink ruffled swim suit!!

When, I started out I recall feeling like I was about to drown after just a few laps. However, after a couple trips to the pool it started feelin' natural.

Gretchen, you said that the breathing part screws you up. I had the same problem. I found that if you try and breathe every stroke you never get a complete inhale. You start getting light headed and the whole swimming experience is quite pleasant; however brief!

If you want to swim a little longer, try breathing every three strokes. That will also allow you to alternate sides. It is tricky at first!!

Post by **Horatio Felacio** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 11:51 pm

man, you guys are badasses! i feel like puking my guts out when i swim/ float/struggle from the reservoir in campton to the other side to the rocks to jump off of. swimming is insane. another time i swam approximately one lap and couldn't lift my arms anymore, so i had to float on my back to and kick to reach the shallow water. kudoes to all you swimmers!

here's a question though for the eating/working out thing: does anyone workout pretty hard, feeling almost like throwing up when quitting, then feels like they should eat since they haven't eaten, but can't because they don't feel hungry? does that make sense?

Post by **Rain Man** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 12:40 am

Artsay, I am unable to SEE exactly what you're trying to explain on hip/body movement, so I don't want to speak critically, since you may be saying what I'm about to. A streamlined stroke (yes, sita, front crawl is generally refered to as Freestyle, though, technically, in a Freestyle event, the swimmer may travel down the pool however he/she chooses, it just so happens that front crawl is the fastest and so it was thus "tagged") requires that the hips do NOT move. The body ROLLS about it's axis as if a large steel shaft were shoved up one's butt to the base of the neck. Extraneous hip movement breaks the "line", causes turbulence and increases drag, and drag is a swimmers worst enemy. When you breath, actually try NOT to move your head to breath, but rather roll your body as you are bringing your trailing arm back up front after a stroke. this rolling motion not only keeps the hips in line, but also helps the lead armget into better position to begin it's pull on the water. Unfortunately, good swimming technique cannot be taught via text and email, especially to someone not completely familiar with the bodies movement while swimming.