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Betterment Exercise

Swimming

As you may know, I’m comfortable going for a ride (2010 Gongride) or going for a run (my 2010 City 2 Surf story), but leave the swimming to others. I’ve read numerous articles on how great swimming is for you as it’s low impact but a great all-over workout.

I don’t like swimming.

Let me go back a little to fill you in. At school, when they had swimming carnivals (and ‘everyone’ had to participate) I was one of if not THE slowest swimmer. Always last in the last race and likely the last out of the pool. Although some may say it probably scarred me in some way back then, I don’t think I’ve done too badly today for it. I’ve hardly swum in the intervening years, happy to splash around and ‘knowing’ how to swim should the need ever eventuate!

Have I mentioned how I do not like swimming?

As part of my journey to becoming better, one of my main focuses was on exercise – dusting off my bicycle and getting into the cycling, also including some running (check out my 2009 & 2010 goals). 3 weeks ago, I needed to get out of the house (working from home has one major drawback, sometimes you can go a long time without leaving the house, and it does start to mess with your mind and sanity) – it was a beautiful morning, so I packed up the boys and we went to the beach. I had a desire to just go for a swim. After hating it for so long!

I do appear to have absolutely no co-ordination for swimming gracefully. Mentally I know the moves to make, but together, it just doesn’t work. So I plodded along, making the moves, stopping every 15-20m but continued to work at it for a total of approx 300m. I then repeated this feat the following week, and again yesterday.

After 3 early morning swims, I don’t like swimming. I tolerate it. In the words of the Zombiefit team, this is my “ISuckAtThis” exercise!

What about you? What sports/activities do you tolerate in your journey to betterment? Let me know in the comments below!

Note: It’s OK to not be great at everything, in fact I don’t believe I am great at any sport in particular, I just happen to dislike swimming and enjoy running. Please do not see this post as an attack on ‘swimming’ – it’s my view of one of the activities I’ve been performing of late.

Edit: I have just written a quickie post about my own mini Triathlon – read it here: “My Own Tri

https://myproactivelife.com/?p=255

8 replies on “Swimming”

Know the feeling matey. I am the same for swimming, running, and sweating in general….. Fair enough….. rock climbing is an exception….

I will leave the “exercise” thing to ppl who can enjoy it more than I…. Just me doing my bit for the community…. lol

I don’t like getting wet, which always confuses people who know that I try to go swimming at least twice a week. I put up with the wetness because I enjoy the swimming and I particularly like the challenge of the occasional triathlon. But that doesn’t mean I like being wet any more than I used to.

Actually, on that note, I used to hate swimming. I complete relate to your school experiences. I started swimming some years post-school *only* because I wanted to do a triathlon. About 10 months later, it had become my favourite of the three sports. I was pretty shocked to realise it!

Fridley :

I will leave the “exercise” thing to ppl who can enjoy it more than I…. Just me doing my bit for the community…. lol

Fair enough – personally I hate getting sweaty as well, but know I can’t help it so have come to terms with it that no matter what exercise I do, I’ll get sweaty! Rock CLimbing is good in many ways but I’m still a speed/adrenalin chaser so need my heart rate up to get satisfaction out of it! I do like the idea of doing things for the community, but cannot see how you ‘leaving it to others’ is a community-minded thing, though! 😉

@Kris Polony
Hi Kris, welcome to my blog and thanks for posting. I, too am giving it a go to attempt a tri sometime next year (stay tuned, I’m about to release my next post about my own ‘mini’ tri over the past weekend!)

I am sure (now) that swimming will never become my favourite – I will concede that one day it may end up being ‘better’ than my “ISuckAtThis” exercise – I just can’t see that at the moment.

If I may ask, what changed for swimming to now become your favourite of the 3?

@Andrew
I used to a get a ‘runner’s high’ after a good hard run, but after two years of running that wasn’t happening as often anymore. I started getting that post-workout euphoria after every swimming session instead, so that helped change my tune! I also had a couple of sessions with a swimming teacher to help improve my stroke, and the changes she suggested made swimming feel better and also boosted my confidence. So I think a lot of it has to do with the mindset!

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