Swim Sense

May 31, 2008 1:09 PM

Swim Filter: I've recently begun swimming a lot more for exercise and I have some questions

I typically swim for an hour at least once a week -- i try to mix it up, backstroke, minimal breast stroke due to some hip problems that compel me to swim in the first place, crawl, using the kickboard, and using the floatie things that make you work your arms.

I'm having some severe footcramps both towards the end of my swim and especially when I get out, sometimes hours later. I have really high arches.
Any tips for making them stop or stretches that might help.

Also, I think my nails have been cracking more and I'm getting more hangnails. Can I blame this on the soaking in the pool?

Any tips on increasing my speed? I go really slow. I'm a slow runner too, so i guess it's just general tortoise like tendencies.

Also, are there any things I can do to better target my abs. I try to clench them while I'm swimming but I'm not sure this is having an impact.

And, I've been avoiding getting highlights (my hair is dirty blonde) b/c I don't want my hair turning green. Am I being silly or does this happen anymore. I wear a bathing cap FWIW.

thanks in advance for your help.

posted by chickaboo to sports, hobbies, & recreation (17 comments total)

Also, are there any things I can do to better target my abs. I try to clench them while I'm swimming but I'm not sure this is having an impact.

Dolphin kick (the kind of kicking you use for butterfly stroke) will give you an awesome ab workout. You can use a flutterboard and dolphin kick on either your front or back.

And, I've been avoiding getting highlights (my hair is dirty blonde) b/c I don't want my hair turning green. Am I being silly or does this happen anymore. I wear a bathing cap FWIW.

I have light blonde hair and swim a few times a week (wearing a bathing cap). My hair has never turned green in all the years I have been doing this. I do make sure I give it a quick rinse in the shower after I swim, of course.
posted by sanitycheck at 1:58 PM on May 31, 2008

But is your hair color treated?
posted by chickaboo at 2:13 PM on May 31, 2008

I'm having some severe footcramps both towards the end of my swim and especially when I get out, sometimes hours later.

Normally I would say just keep swimming but the 'hours later' part is weird. You may be low on potassium - try eating a banana or having an electrolyte drink.
posted by GuyZero at 2:26 PM on May 31, 2008

Try picking up Total Immersion by Terry Laughlin.
posted by fire&wings at 2:28 PM on May 31, 2008

Hair color - I've been getting my hair highlighted for about 15 years and have been swimming for about 20. I had one green hair incident (literally turned aquamarine). I think it was because that one time I got my hair highlighted at a cheepo place. When I complained, they told me that blond hair always turns green when the person goes into a chlorinated pool. I used a clarifying shampoo, my hair went back to blond, and I never went back there. In general, though, you should be putting leave-in conditioner in your hair before you swim. I think you should wet your hair first, then put in the conditioner, then put on the bathing cap. No worries.

Speed - Try doing speed drills - watch the big clock that should be on the side of the pool and do 10 sets of, say, 25 meters or 50 meters, always starting when the second hand is on, say the 0. I don't know how fast you swim so it's hard to say how fast you should do the drills, but figure out a speed/distance that pushes you. I think this will increase your speed, strength, lung power, etc. faster than just laps. This is good training in general. You need to push yourself a little bit. You could wear a waterproof heart rate monitor and use it to make sure you're exerting yourself enough.

Nails - my nails do break more when I swim regularly. wear clear polish all the time?

Cramps - I don't know. My feet always cramp when I swim. I just stand up in the pool until the cramp goes away - something about the pressure on the foot seems to help.
posted by n'muakolo at 2:34 PM on May 31, 2008

Any tips for making them stop or stretches that might help.
Try stretching before and after you swim. A calf stretch and a leg stretch (#7 on this picture) may help. I've also heard people recommend a "stretch" where you pick up a towel with your toes.

Any tips on increasing my speed? I go really slow. I'm a slow runner too, so i guess it's just general tortoise like tendencies.
Alternate your long, slow swims with intervals and shorter, more intense, workouts. For example, if you swim an hour one day, the next day swim 15 minutes total in 3 sets of 3 minutes moderate pace (not slow but not all out), 1 min. as fast as you can go, and 1 minute rest. You can adjust the rest time and all-out time to your current fitness level when you first start these, but the goal is to increase the all-out part of the set and reduce the rest time, perhaps by 10-15 seconds a week. With a warm up and warm down this would take about 25 minutes in all.

Also, are there any things I can do to better target my abs. I try to clench them while I'm swimming but I'm not sure this is having an impact.
Seconding butterfly kick, though in the short run it can aggravate back problems (over time it's been great for my back). Breast stroke is good for the abs if your conscious about engaging your abs when they're needed. I'm not sure that keeping abs clenched all the time is particularly effective. Treading water in the deep end is also good. Try alternating legs only (breaststroke kick & keeping your hands as high out of the water as you can) and arms only (arms extended out to your side making big figure eights).
posted by cocoagirl at 2:37 PM on May 31, 2008

thanks all -- I'm not great at the butterfly, are there any good tutorials for that on the web?
Should I be aiming to get my whole chest out of the water for instance?
posted by chickaboo at 2:52 PM on May 31, 2008

Oh! One more question, I would like to swim longer but my goggles really start giving me headaches an hour in.
Any tips for that? If I loosen the straps, they leak.
posted by chickaboo at 2:52 PM on May 31, 2008

Are there swim instructors available at the pool you swim that you could sign up for private instruction for an hour or two?

Recently I took up swimming again after a long break. I signed up for an adult refresher class, and while it turned out I hadn't forgotten much, there were small things about my form which I would not have noticed on my own but the instructor did, and when corrected made me swim a lot better. I'm planning on signing up for an hour or two of private instruction to improve my form for breast stroke and butterfly, as the group instruction setting and watching videos on the internet didn't quite do it for me.
posted by needled at 3:08 PM on May 31, 2008

chickaboo,
Try different goggles? There are lots of different designs of goggles and you may find the larger lens styles more comfortable without leakage problems.

I'm a gray haired male, no green hair, but I do frequently have nails breaking when I'm doing lots of swiming. I'd like to find a preventative or a cure other than putting on nail polish.
posted by X4ster at 3:16 PM on May 31, 2008

My mom's color treated hair turns green for sure. But she found some kind of shampoo or conditioner that is made especially for this problem, and it went back to blond.
posted by iguanapolitico at 4:43 PM on May 31, 2008

I wouldn't bother with full on butterfly. It takes a lot of practice to do well and, imo, doesn't give a lot of benefit for the energy expended if you're doing it wrong. Just try to refine your kick. Using flippers can help you get the hang of it faster. Here's a very pretty butterfly stroke (youtube), and it goes to slo-mo around the 1:00 mark.

As for the goggles, have you tried 1) adjusting the bridge of the nose rather than the head strap (or in addition to the head strap), or 2) finding goggles sized for women's faces? Both of those things have helped me. Also, given the cramping and the headaches, I suggest hydrating more before and after you swim.

I didn't think to touch your question about hair since I'm brunette, but I have read that wetting your hair with fresh water before getting into the pool helps as it leaves less "room" in the hair shaft for absorbing chlorinated water.
posted by cocoagirl at 6:02 PM on May 31, 2008

Hair: I swam and taught swimming for years and never met a single swimmer, male or female, blonde or not, whose hair turned green. Just wash your hair after you swim and I think you'll be fine.

Arch cramps: muscle cramps when/after swimming are usually caused by (a) being out of shape or (b) bad technique. I can't tell how long you've been swimming, but it usually takes a non-swimmer a month or so to build up the weird muscles that swimming requires. Advil does wonders during that time :)

If you've been swimming for a good while and you still are getting foot cramps, chances are you're doing something wrong with your kick. The best way to find out is to ask a coach or competitive swimmer to take a look, but a couple common mistakes with the flutter kick is:

* Kicking too much from the ankles: you want to keep your ankles (and knees, to some extent) stiff and kick mostly from the hip. Think little tiny ballerina steps, except horizontal.

* Holding your leg/ankle muscles too tense: if you're not using a muscle to provide motion, you should try to relax it as much as possible. There's a certain amount of tension you need to keep in your legs to keep them straight and your toes pointed, but you shouldn't need to be constantly flexing.

Abs: Most swimmers I know either don't care about abs or do sit-ups; there isn't a lot other than 'fly that's all that great for your abs. Like a few others have suggested, doing a full 'fly is a lot of work so you might just want to do the kick. I dolphin kick on my side rather than front or back; it's easier to avoid breaking the surface of the water (and hence wasting energy).

Speed: the best way to increase speed is to work some sprint sets into your standard workout, gradually decreasing the intervals and increasing the number of reps.

Try this: time yourself on 100 yds at a medium-high pace. Add about 15 seconds or so and you've got a basic 100 yd interval time. You can now use this interval to construct sprint sets. For example, say your interval is 2:00: you might try doing 5 x 100 yd sprints on a 2:00 interval -- that is, you swim 100 at a pretty high pace, leaving every two minutes (so if you finish in 1:50 you get 10 seconds to rest). You'll probably be able to do the first couple with plenty of rest, but more reps should start feeling harder and harder. Once you can do this pretty easily, start dropping the interval five or ten seconds at a time.

To avoid getting board you might want to mix it up a bit: try doing 50 yd sprints on half your basic interval, or 200 yd medium-pace swims on twice it, etc.

Goggles: try different styles if yours bug you. I've found, surprisingly, that most people find swedish goggles (the kind without any gaskets) a lot more comfortable for long periods. They take getting used to if you're used to foam or rubber gaskets, though.

Um, OK, I'll stop now.
posted by jacobian at 7:23 PM on May 31, 2008

I have the lightest blond hair that isn't actually white, and it has never gone green, even when I was swimming ten hours a week for months straight. It has gotten chlorine-damaged enough to become crunchy and to hold any style without gel, but it has never gone green. I am firmly of the opinion that freaky stylist chemicals are the only things that turn hair green.

Arch cramps: I get them too. Also have really high arches. Haven't figured them out yet; stretching the arch itself doesn't seem to help, massaging it does, walking generally does. I suspect I get them more when I'm trying to kick entirely from the hip, instead of letting the rest of the joints in my leg make a natural, helpful contribution: It's something about mentally trying to turn my leg into a board that makes me clench my foot.

Goggles ... unfortunately, you just have to keep trying pairs until you find the ones that work. If the curve of the goggles and the curve of your face aren't the same, you have to strap them tighter. Adjusting the inter-eye spacing correctly can help a bit with this. So can getting some goggles with sweet, sweet silicone rims from a sports store. And so can Swedish goggles (I miss mine).
posted by eritain at 8:10 PM on May 31, 2008

I was a competitive swimmer for a number of years. (I now only swim for exercise). I have very light blonde hair. And yes, my hair did go green. Not vivid green, but my hair would have a very slight green tint, especially under particularly bright sun and flourescent light. At the time i was putting 14 hours a week into swimming, and after our daily swim, was cross training, so we didnt shower between pool and dry-land training. If you wash your hair within a reasonable amount of time from getting out of the pool, you should not have this issue.

The reason hair goes green is not actually chlorine. It is dissolved copper ions in the water. It is green because copper turns green when it oxidizes. (eg. copper roofing.) That very small amount of copper in the water that sticks to your hair is not a lot of green, which is the reason that it only starts to show if you have very light coloured hair.

On the subject of the foot cramps:I found that the worst cramps were caused while using flippers, so if you are having cramps right now, I would not suggest using flippers until the cramping is reduced. It was also suggested to us increasing potassium intake. I dont know the mechanics of why or how this works, but it seemed to do the trick. If you do find you are cramping, pressing your toes into a hard surface (go on your tippy toes in the shallow end, or lean against a pool wall as if you were to do a backstroke dive) releaves the cramp as a short term solution.

On the subject of learning butterfly: if you really want to do this, the best way is without a doubt, find someone who knows how, and has at least a respectable technique. Once you feel comfortable with the butterfly (dolphin) kick, an excellent ab workout is vertical dolphin kick. Think treading water, but you hold your hands up in the air as high as possible, and you do a burst of 30 seconds of high intensity dolphin kick. (start slowly at first) Between the high intensity bursts treading water is good rest. It will be very hard to start, but after you do it a few times, you will start to notice you are holding your arms higher out of the water.

I noticed cocoagirl suggested using flippers to get the hang of butterfly kick. IANAD but I would suggest clearing this with a physician before actually going ahead with this. The reason flippers make you go faster is by giving your feet more surface area, allowing more of the power output by your feet to go unwasted. This causes extra resistance which will cause extra stress on your feet (hence increased cramping) knees, and hips. It is just like going up a gear on a bike, sure you go faster, but you have to push harder too. Also remember, do not lock your knees while kicking with flippers.If you get cleared for it, you can try the arm variants of the flippers, "paddles", too, as they will also help you get a proper technique.

And last, but not least. Goggles: I am a huge fan of the Swedish goggles. Soft silicone goggles come a close 2nd, and foam comes a distant 3rd. Be sure if you are using foam goggles, that they dry out properly. Moist foam makes an ideal bacterial and fungal habitat.

Good luck and happy swimmings :)

PS. The coach I am referring to owned his own fitness facility and was a certified nutritionist, so I am pretty sure his potassium trick was not placebo effect. He now coaches a swimming team for a Canadian university.
posted by mrw at 10:08 PM on May 31, 2008

When I was starting to swim a lot for general exercise I came across swimming news. It is maintained by a swimming club in Switzerland and contains both German and English language advice on technique and how to practice it. I found it very helpful in the absence of an instructor.
posted by koahiatamadl at 4:29 AM on June 1, 2008

With good technique comes speed. (Although, sadly, I swim beautifully only to sink just like a stone.)

For your feet - maybe try finding a comfortable way to hold them. When you're using a kickboard (or even just holding onto a step) just make sure you're not clenching your feet up in a (wasted) effort to go faster. Or any other strange sorts of things. If you don't want to get lessons just get someone (that you think has a good technique) to watch you and point out anything that seems odd.

Yep, prolonged immersion in water and chemicals dry mine out quite horribly. (Not so much hangnails though.) Since gloves are out maybe something like a bit of vaseline beforehand to waterproof them a bit? But after wash, towel dry and then moisturise the hell out of them with something really rich and nourishing. (It works well to do this bit by bit until it seems to be absorbing more slowly. Instead of just whacking a heap on there and then forgetting about it.)

Erm.. don't clench your abs. Swimming gives you really neat side-abs (whatever they're called) but probably not if you're restricting the swivel movement that creates them :)

And ANY blonde can go green regardless of where it came from. So brunette with sun streaks can turn a lovely greeny/brown. Though I've never encounted aqua! But generally it's like the light tinge type version of the green on this page.
It starts out quite super faint "Does my hair look green or something?" "Nope it looks fine. Let's go" and then over time progresses to "What have you done to your hair? It's all green or something." "What? ...Aaahhhrgh". But usually you'd only even bother about looking out for it if you swam several times a week, week in week out. It's a build up of chemical on your hair. Your bathing cap fixes that anyway.

Breaststroke? You want your motion to be propelling you forwards. The only thing I could think of was olympic swimmers... good for them (showoffs). As long as you're going forwards it's all good. Do you keep your head out of the water or do you bob under? If you go under - as long as you can breathe it's all good.

And yeah - get comfy googles :) It could be the seals or the shape of them that sucks??
posted by mu~ha~ha~ha~har at 1:23 PM on June 1, 2008