Steady State Endurance - Swimming

Every Tuesday and Thursday I swim at the pool at LA Fitness. They have a 25 yard pool, and I swim for 30 minutes.

The point of the day's exercise is to increase my heart rate. I'm aiming at a rate of 70 percent of my maximum rate. I estimate this as follows: (220-65) x .70 = 108 beats.

I need to keep my heart rate at no less than 108 beats for 30 minutes. My rate will rise and fall as I increase the need for oxygen, but it should always stay above my 108 beat threshold.

No more than 30 minutes, because my goal is to build muscle tissue, and I don't need that loss of size.

Exercise longer than 30 minutes and type IIb muscle fibers will atrophy (shrink) to allow for the expanding capillary beds to serve the type I fibers.

I'll go into muscle fibers in another. For now, just keep your steady state endurance training to 30 minutes.

Why do this kind of training at all? Isn't it my goal to build muscle? Yes. But I also need to be able to run up a flight of stairs without getting winded. I'm going to err on the side of strength development, and the resulting muscle development, but still put stress on the cardiovascular system twice a week.

I choose to swim because my left knee bothers me when I walk fast. Forget running. That's just completely out of the picture, because of the knee.

You can walk if you want to, but you'll need to power walk. Might even need to hold a dumbbell in each hand if you're used to endurance work. Start easy, monitor your heart rate with a smart watch or go old school and count the beats for 10 seconds then multiply by 6.

Example: Heart beats 12 times in 10 seconds. Multiply by 6 to get the one minute rate, which is 12 x 10 = 120 beats per minute.

Remember, the body wants to accommodate stress by getting stronger and more efficient. It needs to minimize energy output. Presenting the body with progressive overload, always changing the stress event will keep the body from adapting. And that's how we grow physically and mentally.