Michael Busher
Many people, including Michael Busher Nxsystems director, like to use swimming as their main form of exercise, due to the fact that it provides a great workout for the entire body, without putting any pressure on your joints, back or knees. It's a particularly good choice for runners with old injuries, as it allows them to keep their fitness levels up, without affecting sore tendons or muscles.
In addition to this, because it's an aerobic exercise, it is ideal for those who are concerned about keeping their heart healthy. However, in order to ensure your underwater workout is truly effective, it is important to have a good swimming technique. Here, we offer some tips which should help you to get the most out of your time in the pool.
If you're not a particularly strong swimmer, or haven’t swum in a while, it's a good idea to take some lessons. Friends of Michael Busher say that all too often, those who are new to swimming waste far too much energy splashing and flailing about in the pool, without actually moving very far down the lane, simply because they don't have a good understanding of the basics. Once you have mastered these, it's time to start planning your workout.
Try to break your time spent in the pool into intervals. Rather than, for example, simply swimming for twenty minutes straight, you should do a few gentle laps (maybe three or four) to warm up your muscles. Then, do six sets of three laps - swimming at a much faster pace - and rest for about thirty seconds in between each of these sets. You can then cool down again with three more gentle laps. A lot of swimmers like Michael Busher Nxsystems director also try to mix up their swimming strokes, doing a combination of butterfly, backstroke and freestyle, so as to make use of all of their muscle groups.
In order to ensure that you don't get bored of your workout routine, you may also want to try out some water aerobics, or water running classes. These are challenging, but fun - friends of Michael Busher find them to be a great change from just doing standard laps of the pool. You could also join a swimming club - most towns and cities have one, and these are useful if you're interested in varying your workouts and having someone else (i.e. the swimming coach) monitor your progress.