swimming

Personally I think that if you swim at the same intensity, for the same duration, and the same number of times per week as you currently run, you will get just as many aches and pains, just in different locations.

Another popular myth - its impossible to hurt yourself doing yoga.

LOL to quote a friend of mine who is a competitive masters swimmer:

"I got Dr X to do my knee op, he's got a good reputation and has done a lot of the others..." (i.e. other swimmers).

thanks for all the messages. very helpful.

when I had a swimming lesson one thing she stressed was potential injury to shoulders, shoulders are very vulnerable in swimmers. she said it was important to warm up and loosen up the shoulders before a swim

needless to say I dont

Would swimming cause less injuries and aches and pains?  Yeah I'd imagine so. 

But would I be willing to substitute the sounds of early morning bird song for the sounds of the awful music they play on repeat in the pool? 

Would I be willing to substitute the feel of those first few cooling drops of rain on my face for some badly behaved kid splashing me in the face?

Would I be willing to substitute the bargain price of £0 for a run for the price of £5:20 for a swim?

Would I be willing to substitute the breath taking scenery, the challenging hills and the fun of splashing about in the mud for endlessly repeating the same old 25/50metres in the boring concrete building, back and forth, back and forth?

Hell no .

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the occasional swim and I'm sure it has many benefits but I could never swap running for swimming entirely.  Never.

I love swimming and would rather swim than run. I just happen to be pants at swimming and reasonable at running.

I'm a member of a swim club and pay £15 a month for 2 swims a week which are coached. I get pointers on technique and help with pacing. So I'm happy.

As for injury - of course you can injure yourself swimming. Breaststroke is notorious for it - neck, back, hip, knee, shoulder. Plenty of swimmers who have given up on breaststroke due to injury.

I was told never to warm up with breaststroke as you are more likely to get injured this way.

I swim in a pool without tinny music, without kids and it costs £3.30 per swim outside of club time.

My favourite stroke is fly. If you want to injure yourself get your fly wrong.

When I run I don't notice what is going on around me. I don't notice the scenery or the noises. I'm totally switched off to everything apart from the running and the ground under my feet.

trying to teach myself fly at the moment, watch this space for injuries

Swimming isn't without injury, but yeah maybe I imagine it's a little "safer" than running. It'd be a good activity to do between running days (or on a rest day). As for the not washing your hair issue, I find it weird when I don't after running.... sweaty and greasy hair here.

My main issue with swimming is that when I was doing it regularly, I developed broad MAN-SHOULDERS. If I didn't, I'd love to do it a lot.

Kryten wrote (see)

Another popular myth - its impossible to hurt yourself doing yoga.

I read a long article about this recently... it's very true it's easy to get hurt doing yoga. But I think in classes instructors should be teaching you ways to prevent those injuries. Independently you need to listen to your body and not ridiculously push it.

A

+1 for not warming up with breastroke.

I'm also a fly fan, that was my stroke when competing

Also never found long hair a pain when swimming/lifeguarding but did struggle to loose the constant pong of chlorine!

Kryten wrote (see)

On the other hand runners hardly ever drown.

Nearly did this morning.

Breast-stroke and injury, I've been there. Just before my first race I decided to avoid aches and pains by doing a spot of swimming. However, after breast-stroking around I found I had developed groin strains so bad that I had to lift my legs into the car by hand for the next three days.

wondered what everyone meant by 'fly' - had to google to realise you meant butterfly

I have never had problems with breast stroke.

Don't understand the not wanting to wash long hair issue! I have long hair and always wash it after swimming - it doesn't take long and I reckon it needs to conditioner on it. Bu then, I never bother to dry it - just leave it to dry naturally and blast it with a hairdryer if it is still wet when I go to bed to avoid silly bedhead hair in the morning

Interesting...I used to compete at swimming and later at masters level lifesaving (sport). I have had neck and shoulder niggles from swimming, mostly swim frontcrawl and backstroke, occasionally fly, rarely breaststroke.

I have had a number of running injuries, achillies, PF and when these have been bad, swim more.

I guess the answer is a sensible combination and do what you enjoy

i am shocking at breaststroke. i get half way down the pool and i'm submerged. and i have long ridiculously thick hair.

I found that swimming on days I wasn't running was really good for fitness the only problem is it gave me massive migraines because I have a really stiff neck and swimming really aggravates it. I was a bit disbelieving and told my physio and he said swimming is terrible for neck problems. I'll just stick to running now.

As comaring with running,swimming is an excellent exercise for improving the flexibility and function of your muscles and the water "protects participants from muscle and bones problems," .

Very late on this post, but found it interesting...
I was a competitive swimmer when younger training 14-16 hours a week. Because of this high level of training I messed up my hips and so had to give up breastroke completely, and consequently have a few hip problems when running. Pretty much everyone I trained with has seen a physio so it's not at all true that swimmers don't get injured! The amount of shoulder injuries, back problems, hip and knee problems are ridiculous. Yes, maybe swimmers get less frequently injured than runners, but at a high intensity it is just like any other sport really...just the injuries aren't due to the stress on your joints but mre from the flexibility / reptitive movement.

Oh yeah, a mixture is fantastic! Swimming is such a good cardio workout and works your entire body. Still do both and enjoy it