Questions on Swimming and HIIT?

B

B84

New member
Hi,

Background-

I'm just getting back into an exercise routine after, literally years... so I'm very, VERY out of shape. I also have a bad back and finding cardio that works with my back is difficult - but swimming does the trick. I can do that without pain... So I do, now on a very regular basis. But I have some questions...

Questions:

I've heard the reasons why HIIT is beneficial, and I want to try it. But I've also heard that if you do it before you're ready you may not do it properly or hurt yourself. I would like to avoid both of those things... so...

1. How do you know when you're ready to try HIIT?
2. How do you know if you're doing it right?
3. Does anyone have any advice for swimming and doing HIIT?
4. I've heard a bit about people getting physically ill afterwards and vomiting, is this a usual/normal or expected occurrence?

I'm still just getting into the swing of things, so I probably won't try it for a bit, but I'm still very curious.

Thanks much!
 
My view would be that you should be able to swim at least 20 minutes at a steady comfortable pace before you start to introduce intervals. Whether it be swimming, running or rowing etc. etc. you want build an interval protocol on some sort of " aerobic base " first.

With respect to intervals themselves, keep in mind, tracking your work intervals ' to the second ' may be a bit tough to do while swimming in a pool. :) Is there a pool clock at either end of the pool you can look at - in case you want to try ' timed ' intervals ?

Beyond that, you could do work / rest intervals simply based on the 50 metre distance of one length of the pool. Something like this ( assuming a good warm up ) .......


- 25m sprint ( work ) / 75m easy ( rest ) ....... do 4-6 sets of this

or

- 50 m hard / 100 m easy.......do 4-6 sets of this

or

- 50 m hard / 50 m easy.......do 4-6 sets of this


etc. etc.​


And, if you CAN see a clock, your work intervals can still be anything from 10, 20, 30, 60 or 90 seconds in duration ...dependiing on what you feel comfortable with.

Also keep in mind, that if you're just starting out, those work intervals needn't be of the ' high intensity ' variety at first - in other words, such that you are going close to ' flat out ' as hard as you can. You simply want to get winded during the work interval even though it may not be as extremely winded as you might get with HIIT.

And, as far as the work / rest ratio goes, that too, can come in a variety of formats..........i.e a 1:1 ( i.e 50 m hard / 50 m easy or 30 seconds hard / 30 seconds easy ) format, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4 or even 2:1 etc. etc.
 
Last edited:
Hi,

Thanks for the advice, Wrangell. I really want to slowly work into this so your advice is great for my goal. There is a clock, but my eyesight is so bad, I'll have to check to see if i can see it clearly the next time I'm in the water (which will be tomorrow).

20 min is also a good mark, I can go for about 12 min and 2 min rest and then another 12 min. In that time I can do a little bit more than 1/2 mile (16 laps, so I do 18-19 in that time). When I think about the time, it feels like I should swim slower than that, but it seems to be a comfortable pace. I hope to start doing intervals in maybe 3-4 weeks, if I can get my endurance up.

Thanks again,

Beth
 
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