How to maintain swim fitness without pool training
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No pool? No problem. Jonathan Cowie explains how you can maintain your swim fitness with some dry land training, including running, HIIT and pilates.
With bills rising and the cost of living crisis hitting families hard, not everyone can afford the luxury of a swimming pool membership – especially if you have spent the spring and summer swimming for free in wild bodies of water.
As well as issues of cost, for many outdoor swimmers the thought of being confined in a chlorinated tank just doesn’t appeal. If, for whatever reason, pool swimming is not for you, how can you maintain a level of swim fitness over winter when our natural bodies of water are too cold to swim in for extended periods of time?
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While nothing can replicate actually swimming to keep you swim fit, taking a holistic approach to your fitness – especially if combined with regular cold-water swimming throughout the winter – will leave you fitter, stronger and mentally more resilient when you return to the open water in the spring. And best of all, there is no need to spend money on expensive gym memberships.
By combining strength, flexibility and fitness into your daily exercise regime you will soon see the benefits. If possible, try and do as much of your exercise outdoors so you can replicate those feel-good endorphins we get from swimming outside. And the challenge of trying new ways of exercising will also help you feel good as your fitness improves.
Focus on your core and flexibility
The following examples are what works for me – play with what works for you and your body.
Core strength is essential for swimming – a strong and stable core allows you to hold your body in the water in a streamlined position and connect and coordinate the different movements that make up your swimming stroke. Strength exercises for the core are ‘the core’ of the swim-free swim fitness regime!
Secondly, flexibility and a good range of movement will help you be a better swimmer – I like to practise yoga and pilates.
Take up running
Thirdly, keep up your fitness so you have the endurance to power yourself through longer swims. Running or jogging is easy to incorporate into your weekly routine. There is a wealth of free fitness resources on YouTube if you are unable to pay for classes or gym membership.
Joe Wick’s Body Coach channel is a great starting point for Hiit and bodyweight exercises to strengthen your core, or design your own programme and daily routine of exercises that you can do at home.
Yoga and pilates are excellent ways to improve both core strength and flexibility. Again, if you can’t afford classes there are lots of online resources available for free on YouTube.
If the thought of all this exercise at home is giving you lockdown flashbacks, don’t worry! Start your weekend with your local Parkrun 5k run – as well as improving your fitness you will be connecting with a welcoming community of runners. Parkrun is all about community – it doesn’t matter if you sprint or walk, you will be supported over the finish line. Much like the outdoor swimming community!
Read more of our swim training articles.
Abigail Whyte
Abi writes swimming news stories and features for the Outdoor Swimmer website and manages the social media channels. She loves to swim, run, hike and SUP close to her home in Herefordshire. While she’s a keen wild swimmer, Abi is new to the world of open water events and recently completed her first open water mile. She has previously written for The Guardian, BBC Countryfile Magazine, BBC History Magazine and Ernest Journal.
