Fundamental Fit: Swimming Laps

By: LL
Summertime brings with it the perfect opportunity get back into a fundamental fit, which is swimming. I can still remember as a kid ... weeklong trips "up north" with my extended family, where we stayed at my aunt and uncle's cabin on a lake. We spent our days paddling around the lake in a canoe, having wood splitting contests, and swimming ... oh the swimming! It was almost like the turn of teenage-hood once you were able to swim out to the buoy in the middle of the lake, then turn around and come back - without stopping. All those winters at the high school pool learning to freestyle, backstroke, sidestroke ("pick the apple and put it in the basket"), and finally, butterfly! The summertime was ideal to perfect and show off technique. Exercise while having fun ... it doesn't get more fundamental than that!

I've realized as I've gotten older that when I'm at the pool or the beach, I spend less time in the water swimming and more time in a lounge chair, reading magazines and relaxing in the sun. What happened?

In an attempt to regain some of that fun and challenge my rusty skills, I ditched the chair and sunglasses and hopped into the pool this weekend. I was a little out of practice and struggled to get down and back the 30 meter length of the pool. But, I forced my way through it, switching up the strokes and taking it nice and slow. I'm not going to lie, it was tough. I was very sore after only 40 minutes in the pool, but I felt invigorated and young again.

Out of curiosity, I logged into my computer to see about how many calories I might have burned. And, even at my slow pace, I burned around 400 calories! I used my health insurance activity tracker to calculate my calories burned, but here is a decent one.

So I say, the next time that you are laying around at the pool, worrying about your uniform tan, pop into the pool and test out your swimming skills! You might just find a great way to mix up your summer workout routine.