I haven't been running lately because I have been swimming a lot: 1.5-2 hours 3-5x a week plus weight lifting 3x/week.

Does anyone think that swimming isn't as good as running when done by itself?

I've gotten a little tired of running of late...

Plus my friend who is into fitness tells me that swimming doesn't incorporate own body weight resistance so it isn't as effective in "shaping the kind of body I want"

Swimming is an EXCELLENT exercise, but from what I understand nothing really beats running for sheer efficacy (there are a couple people that will argue rowing, but I'm just gonna go ahead and say they're wrong now ).

Though I've heard it said many times that the best exercise is the one you stick to!

I agree. If you cannot stick to the activity, it means most likely you don't enjoy it.

I run regularly and I love it. But, I do think swimming is a better exercise than running. It causes less impact to knee and any joints. It exercises your entire body. And, you won't sweat. Not sure if you will get thirsty though.

If I know how to swim, I may become a swimmer instead of runner.

Rowing is great, it's probably one of the best forms of cardio in that it encourages muscle growth over muscle atrophy. That being said, I never do it! I'm an interval runner almost exclusively, I alternate between HIIT, 1 minute work/rest, and 2 minute work/rest with at least one sustained run a week (got a few 5ks coming up!)

I love swimming for cardio though, great total body workout and I'm a terrible swimmer, so any practice I can get in is going to help when I make my move to Hawaii to be a surf instructor/fire dancer in a luau (beats the code monkey desk job I've got now!)

2 hours seems excessive though, unless you're training for an endurance swim you probably don't want to put your body through that much cardio: at a certain point it's going to start sacrificing muscle to lower the energy demands since you're basically telling it that it has to burn for long periods of time.

My philosophy for cardio, specifically running, is that there are two ways to go when it becomes too easy, you can go longer (which leads to overtraining/increased muscle atrophy) or you can go harder (for me it means I push my speed up at least once a week.) I prefer to go harder and keep the intensity high, especially since I get bored and lose interest beyond 30 minutes which is the max time I tell people they should be doing cardio (when they ask, which has been happening a lot lately for some reason...)

The ONLY reason to run/swim/bike for longer than maybe 45 minutes is if you're specifically training for an endurance event (marathon, triathalon, iron man, etc.)

You do realize that rowing involves your upper body in addition to your legs, whereas running only involves you wheeling your legs around?

At a dead sprint, during interval training, I can usually pull around 400 watts indicated, which is well over a kilowatt of energy expended by the body. Unless you are running 35 mph, there is no way to generate a kilowatt while running.

But I figure you were trying to get my goat. I heavily suggest you get into rowing, and you'll wonder why you wasted your time on the treadmill in the first place. All things not being equal, swimming is still a great form of exercise, as is sprinting on foot. I just have a natural and objectively justified bias towards rowing.

I dunno, the pumping action required in the upper body during a fulltilt sprint is at least for me, damn notable during recovery.

But even still, I reckon there's a bit of goat-getting going on, yes--as fulltilt rowing surely requires the most global-jam of the two, right down to the flexors.

I'm still hung over.

God, me too. my chest workout may be terrible. Thank jebus coffee exists, without it I would be a lost babe in the forest. Threadjack complete.

threadjack not entirely complete... last night is being fondly referred to as a sh!t show.... I'm too banged up to take a nap right now. end scene.

And the moral of this story? Neither sport compares to the knock-out-ery that sometimes be, la debauchery, (in the Americalized sense of the, in French, only ever used to denote sexual connotation-ness of the word, "because eating and drinking to excess is just norrrrrmal, en France", but I digress)--in all its sometimes naked, not that there's anything wrong with that glory.

I think I'll bite the Advil-bullet soon.

K, Elle, thanks for being such a gracious hostess...

still oddly appropriate.... did I mention sh!t show??

Since I'm a loser and didn't go out last night, I'll go back to the original subject...



First, a swimmer's body is just fine by me, thanks! The big argument for body weight resistance is that you will increase bone density, which is important for women. Do some strength training on top of your swimming though, and you've got that area covered too. Plus the weights will make your swimmer's physique look that much better!

I know if I had a pool in my backyard I'd be in it every damnDED DAY. I LOVE swimming, LOVE IT.

Thanks guys ;)

Had to check out a running and swimming post. That is gonna get me to ckick every time!! If the pool wasn't so far away, I swear I'd run in and run back.

Don't worry, swimming is great exercise.

Also, while it may not be body resistance per se, it is still a form of resistance exercise, since you have to combat water resistance/skin friction, to get through the water. You can deveop some fierce muscles swimming, too if you want.

It's great to have a few sports. When one gets stale or an injury prevents you from one--there's always the others.

While my foot was hurting, (and it was too cold for surfing) I was very grateful there was swimming and cycling to do.

i can only speak for the crawl, but good form swimming is nowhere near the cardio workout of a run.

on the other hand, it's full body: obliques, glutes, triceps, shoulders, as opposed to just legs.

I do both swimming, running and the elliptical cuz I get bored of running. The best is to do what you think you will stick to as mentioned in one of the posts above. I know that if I run only, I would not do it... so I need to vary it up to prevent me from getting bored.

Troy, what is the crawl?

I love training for the triathlon because I have the 3 events (swim, cycle, run). So Mon is swim, Tues spin, Wed run, repeat for Thurs to Sat with a couple of days of weight lifting thrown in there and Sun off. I haven't gotten bored yet! Do what you like. If you get bored of swimming in the future, you can go back to running or give a go at rowing.

Rachael, the crawl is most likely what you train to do for the triathlon. Underwater immersion, windmill action (but, of course, not a full windmill). I'm loving the triathlon training too. When is yours? I'm up to bat in July.

Mine is next Sun!!!!! I'm so pumped. My is just a sprint tri, but it's my first. Maybe I'll work up to some longer distances.

swim-750m (~1/2 mile)
bike-20k (12.5 mi)
run-5k (3 mi)

Woo hoo!!! I'm really excited!!! What are your distances?

All the best, you two!

I just read some of the Beginner Triathlete pages, linked from Fat2FitRadio.

I'm a horrible swimmer. I can dogpaddle and backfloat, but that's it. I'd love to learn how to swim, and my gym has an olympic sized pool that I've never used.

A Sprint Tri sounds impressive nonetheless! Best of luck!

wow rachael, that's a long swim for these sprint tris. usually i hear about 400y or 500y. maybe it's just the regional YMCA's.

mine is a baby triathlon, the shortest in this year's series.

300y swim
12m bike
3m run

i'm considering signing up for a 2-mile ocean swim this fall.

Wow, that would be awesome... I was swimming in the ocean on my lunch break 2 years ago (when i worked in new haven), and it was just incredible... was doing around a mile at lunch by the time the season wound down - it's quite a swim!

The next one I'm doing only has a 400 yard swim so yeah the 750 is pretty long for a sprint I think, but swimming is probably my strongest event so I'm cool with that. It seems like swimming in the ocean would be particularly difficult because I get quite a bit of water in my mouth while I swim and it seems like the salt water would start to get to me after a while.

there are two other bad guys:
1. current
2. not getting to kick off the wall every 25 yards/meters, which is a very restful time in my swim.

learning to roll w/ the waves takes some getting used to as well..... the current is like a special challenge, I liked that one

other bad guy - jelly fish!

Depends on the goals.

Swimming is great for VO2 max, conditioning and avoiding joint damage, but crap for weight control and calorie burning.

Running wrecks your knees, but burns through the flab like a knife through butter.

I wouldn't say that! Sure you don't burn as many calories as running, but you still burn a heck of a lot more than sitting on your rear in front of a TV. Kinda like how ellipticals usually are considered less effective than running, but it's still good for you.

Absolutely, in fact you burn more calories asleep apparently than in front of the TV due to the trance like state that it can get you in. (Don't ask me how true that really is but I have heard it said).



Swimming is very good for you, and I've been known to get a few lengths in myself. However, in terms of weight control it isn't a great exercise and I'm not saying that to be a killjoy. The bouyancy of the water supports the bulk of your mass reducing the amount of energy required to complete the exercise. Plus, swimming is all about technique and a good swimmer makes 50 lengths look effortless, because it is. I'm a crap swimmer and I can bang out a hundred lengths with less effort than it would take to jog 2-3 miles. But don't get me wrong, it is a good exercise but weight management is not where swimming provides its benefits, though something is always better than nothing.

i've seen a lot of good swimmers with very developed shoulders, chests, and triceps, with a pooch of an underveloped tummy, and i'm talking professional competitive athletes.

but rach, you're doing very well: triathletes are very synergetic with their exercise benefits. the original question asked was if swimming was as good as running by itself, and i'd have to ask what their goals were... probably not, though.