Workouts for Beginners

Before you start doing the workouts described here, you should be able to swim at least 500 yards (twenty lengths of a standard, twenty-five-yard pool) without stopping. Once you’ve learned how to swim freestyle, or one of the other strokes described in Chapters 7 through 10, it will be fairly easy to build up to 500 continuous yards. Don’t be intimidated. The trick is to increase your yardage gradually. If you can swim 50 continuous yards now, in a few weeks 500 yards will be a piece of cake.

The following is a program you can follow to build up to the 500-yard level. If you find them too easy, you may want to skip the first few workouts: begin at your current level of ability and fitness.

I recommend that you swim only three times a week at first. As always, if you are over thirty, be sure to have a medical exam before starting your program and once a year thereafter.

Here is a three-week program to get you ready for the fitness/lap swimmer level of training. The first workout will take you only ten to fifteen minutes. That’s enough for the first time. By the time you finish the ninth workout, you’ll be swimming almost a mile, and it should take you between forty and fifty minutes. Now, let’s get started.

Workout 1

Swim 50 yards. Rest 1 to 3 minutes.

Kick 2 × 25 yards with a kick board, resting between laps.

Swim 50 yards.

Total: 150 yards

Workout 2

Swim 75 yards. Rest 1 to 3 minutes.

Swim 50 yards. Rest 1 to 3 minutes.

Kick 3 × 25 yards, resting between laps.

Swim 50 yards.

Total: 250 yards

Workout 3

Swim 100 yards. Rest 1 to 3 minutes.

Pull 50 yards with a pull buoy. Rest 1 minute.

Kick 2 × 50 yards. Rest 2 minutes between fifties.

Swim 100 yards.

Total: 350 yards

Workout 4

Swim 150 yards. Rest 1 to 2 1/2 minutes.

Kick 2 × 75 yards. Rest 2 minutes after each.

Pull 2 × 50 yards. Rest 2 minutes after each.

Swim 100 yards.

Total: 500 yards

Workout 5

Swim 100 yards easy warm-up.

Kick 2 × 75 yards. Rest 2 minutes after each.

Swim 200 yards. Rest 2 minutes.

Pull 2 × 75 yards. Rest 2 minutes after each.

Swim 100 yards.

Total: 700 yards

Workout 6

Swim 100 yards easy warm-up.

Kick 2 × 100 yards. Rest 2 minutes after each.

Swim 300 yards. Rest 3 minutes.

Kick 2 × 50 yards. Rest 1 1/2 minutes after each.

Pull 150 yards.

Swim 50 yards easy warm-down.

Total: 900 yards

Workout 7

Swim 100 yards easy warm-up.

Kick 2 × 100 yards. Rest 1 1/2 minutes.

Swim 400 yards. Rest 3 minutes.

Kick 4 × 50 yards. Rest 1 minute after each.

Pull 200 yards.

Swim 100 yards easy warm-down

Total: 1,200 yards

Workout 8

Swim 100 yards easy warm-up.

Kick 2 × 100 yards. Rest 1 1/2 minutes.

Swim 500 yards. Rest 3 minutes.

Kick 4 × 50 yards. Rest 1 minute after each.

Pull 2 × 125 yards.

Swim 100 yards easy warm-down.

Total: 1,350 yards

Workout 9

Swim 100 yards easy warm-up.

Kick 3 × 100 yards. Rest 1 1/2 minutes.

Swim 500 yards. Rest 2 minutes.

Kick 4 × 75 yards. Rest 1 minute after each.

Pull 2 × 150 yards.

Swim 150 yards easy warm-down.

Total: 1,650 yards

You now are ready to do the fitness/lap swimmer level of the following workouts. These are harder than the beginner workouts you’ve just completed. Again, I recommend that you swim only three times a week until your body becomes acclimated to your new regime. After that, try to build up to five times a week. At a minimum, you should swim two to three times every week.