Proper Way to Perform the Backstorke

February 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment

A common swim stroke is that of the backstroke. The backstroke is one of the only swimming strokes that can be performed on the back of the swimmer with them able to breath.

Here is a look at how to perform this swimming backstroke should you wish to learn it.

Step 1. The swimming backstroke is started with the swimmer on their backs. The head will be in a relaxed state and in line with the spine. You will be looking to the sky with the water at your ears.

Step 2. Your legs will need to be straight and with your toes pointed as much as they can go. Start to kick your legs up and downwards. You will alternate between one leg and the other. Try to make as little splash as possible as this will allow you to help keep the water level smooth.

Step 3. You will move one arm up and move the body in a 65 degree rotation with the arms and the hips under the water. You will still be floating and moving in the water.

Step 4. Move your arm above your head and put it at a 45 degree angle to the body. Move your arm towards your feet so that you can move it through the water.

Step 5. You will also move your body so that it is facing the bottom of the pool. This will cause your body to appear flat and will move across the water with a propelled motion.

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Swimmers: Vegetarian Is an Option

February 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Some believe that eating a vegetarian diet is not acceptable for the swimmer. The swimmer’s body needs to be lean, muscular and able to move freely and easily through the water. The fact is, swimmers do need protein. In the average western diet, protein comes from meat products, such as pork or beef. These are not the only sources of protein though. As a swimmer, it becomes very important for you to focus specifically on building protein levels in your diet, around your vegetarian desires.

You do not have to give up being a vegetarian to swim, even in competitive arenas. Rather, you can focus on eating a diet rich in other sources of protein. The following tips can help you to accomplish this.

  • Learn the types of vegetables and other foods available to you containing protein. If you are unsure of your options, do a bit of research in this area. Sweet potatoes, lentils, mushrooms and asparagus all contain high levels of protein.
  • Beans and legumes are a very good source of protein. These are packed with the nutrition your body needs to build lean muscle mass.
  • Eggs are another sources of protein. While some vegetarians prefer not to eat eggs, note that you can select better quality products. Try to use free range eggs, for example, since these have a higher level of Omega 3 fatty acids in them, which is important for joint health.
  • Do consider eating fish. Those vegetarians who eat fish find it easier to obtain the level of protein necessary to boost muscle mass.

Vegetarian cooking can be a bit more challenging than everyday cooking. Vegetarians need to pay closer attention to the actual amounts of nutrition in the food eaten. Protein-packed diets are critical for those who are physical active, like the swimmer. By paying closer attention to your protein intake level, though, you can build strong muscles and perform well in the water and throughout life.

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How To Freestyle Stroke

February 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment
freestyle swimming

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In swimming there is a style known as the freestyle stroke. The freestyle stroke is commonly referred to as a front crawl or a sidestroke. You may notice that this is used in swimming competitions. However, the stroke known as the front crawl is the one that most use as it moves the swimmer faster through the water.

If you are considering learning the freestyle stroke hers is how you can do the freestyle stroke.

Line Visualization. You will want to try to think of a line running down the center of your body. This is the best way to keep the body afloat. You will want to think of the line as lying horizontally and you just pivoting on it from side to side.

Straight Legs. Your legs will need to be straight. You do not want to be too rigid as this will only result in problems. While swimming you will need to kick your legs up and down the whole time as this will help move you forward.

Windmill. When it comes to arm movements you will need to think of a windmill. IT is important to practice as one arm is above your head the other will be behind it. When the arm is down it should be fairly close to your body.

Hands. Hands are in a flat shape with the thumb a little ways away from the index finger. You will slightly bend your elbows and push your arms through the water as if you were crawling at a certain pace.

The Motion. To move you from one side to the other you will move your arms around in circles in order to propel you through the water. As you swim you will also be moving your head from side to side so that you can get proper breath. Your head will move as you move your arms above your head.

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Golf gains popularity in online sports betting

October 24, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Tiger Woods in 2007
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Online sports betting has been around for a while now. A couple of decades ago, people would have to physically go to book maker shops at the location of various sports if they wanted to gamble on their favorite team or players. The advent of the Internet and its presence in most households changed all that, though. There are hundreds of sites on now that offer betting on various sports. Some of these sites are even government approved, which means your money is (more or less) in safe hands while you gamble.

For a long time, online sports betting sites mainly catered to the most popular sports in the USA. These included basketball, baseball, football, rugby, tennis and even auto-races like the NASCAR and the Indy’s. However, as these sites gained higher visitor traffic with more people joining in the sports gamble game, the number of online sports betting sites mushroomed leading to some really stiff competition. Pretty soon, sites started looking at drawing in fresh crowds by offering betting on sports that were not covered earlier. One such sport happens to be golf.

A lot of online sports betting sites, or sportsbook as they are often called, now offer golfing enthusiasts the chance to place a bet on their favorite player. Now you can wager whether Tiger Woods is going to retain that championship or not! As with other sports, the sites provide bettors with in-depth player details like their style, recent win/lose record, their past performance on a particular course or tournament. All this is in addition to the usual betting odds. For those who are new to the sports gambling arena, such sites also give you useful hints and tips to follow in order to make safe bets and win more. With online golf betting gaining popularity, you can now play on the course as well as online.

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Filed Under: Excercise, Fitness, Games, General, Swimming, Swimming Pool, Tips Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Those Who Smoke Electronic Cigarette Products Might Become Better Swimmers

September 30, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Swimming at the 2008 Summer Paralympics - wome...
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That may sound like a strange thing to say: Those who smoke electronic cigarette products might become better swimmers. After all, what do electronic cigarette products have to do with swimming? Here’s the thing. Swimming, as everyone who has tried it knows, is an aerobic exercise that requires an extremely strong heart and lungs. If you don’t have a strong heart, you won’t have enough blood circulation to keep the extremities of your body warm, something that’s essential for swimming in cold water. You also won’t have enough blood flow to supply your muscles with much needed oxygen. Lastly, the lungs are very important in swimming. If you do not have the capacity to breathe well, and can’t hold your breath for long periods of time, then freestyle swimming is not a good idea.

Now, cigarette smoking weakens your vascular system, which includes your heart and lungs. Nicotine abuse effectively destroys your lungs, causing shortness of breath and even lung cancer. With a weak pair of lungs, swimming is not a bright idea. It is widely known that habitual smokers tire out often and quickly while exercising and have breathing problems. What is not as well known is that tobacco also weakens your heart.

Electronic cigarettes help reduce your nicotine intake, and can slowly decrease your addiction to smoking.The reduction of nicotine in your body itself is going to impact your swimming performance positively. You will feel more energetic and stronger, and you’ll be able to swim longer distances without fatigue. As you continue using electronic cigarettes, there will come a time when your need for tobacco will no longer exist. You will be able to stop smoking completely. When this happens, your lungs and heart will become stronger, and you will become a better swimmer.

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Vocabulary of sports betting

September 20, 2010 by Leave a Comment

If you want to learn how to place bets and how to win then you must first learn the vocabulary of it. Betting vocabulary is even the first step which you should learn before placing bet. If a person doesn’t know the basic terms which is used during the bet then you can’t play the game successfully.

Action is the term which can be used for any type of betting activity. It also includes sports betting. The total money which you are willing to lose comfortably in the sports bet is Bankroll. The individual which processes and accept the bets is known as Bookie. The total amount of money which is placed for bet is called as handle.

To level the online sports betting field, a score or point advantage to the opponent team is known as handicap. It is given within the sports betting field. Handicapping is the practices of predicting in advance the result for the purpose such as betting against the spread points. All bets on the favored team will lose and the favored teams which won by the spread points will still win the game.

The point spread is usually a handicap and used in the high scoring sports, namely, football and basketball. This is done to make the game more competitive then perspective of the bettor. A business organization which processes and accepts the bet is known as sports book and those who constantly research and study sports and set money line for it.

Money line is the substitute word for point spread used as a sort of the handicapping method. The amount of money which is charged by the sports book or bookie for the services they provide as a profit is known as juice.

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Ways to Get a Pool Workout Without Swimming

August 26, 2010 by Leave a Comment

While the pool may be the home turf of one of the best exercises in the world, not everyone is comfortable enough performing that exercise. Swimming can be a challenging and complicated task, but that shouldn’t deter those unfamiliar with it from getting a good pool workout in any one of a variety of other ways.

The first question to ask is what the goal of the workout is. Some people have very specific professions for which the use of a pool can help in their training tremendously. Lenny Dykstra, professional baseball player from 1985-1996 used to swing a baseball bat underwater in his home pool 100 times every day. The density of the water provided a natural resistance which allowed him to get stronger without compromising the actual mechanics of his swing. Following in his footsteps, one could assume that any task from swinging a golf club to throwing a boxing punch or working on a tennis backhand can be executed easily and with higher resistance in a pool.

One of the most universal activities that can be performed in a pool of virtually any depth is walking or running. Although this task will be more difficult in deeper pools, it is effective in water anywhere from waist to neck deep. The resistance of the water makes the seemingly easy task of running 25 yards incredibly difficult, providing those who perform it with a surprisingly vigorous workout.

Finally, many fitness clubs and gyms will offer water aerobics classes 2-3 times a week, often times free with membership. The goal of these classes is to perform anywhere from a 30-60 minute aerobic routine that relies heavily on the natural resistance of the water instead of hand weights for strength training. These workouts are an effective, challenging, but most of all, fun way to get a workout.

Whether or not you swim like a fish or sink like a stone, chances are better than good that there is a pool workout that is right for you.

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How Breathing Regulation Makes Swimming Easier

August 21, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Swimming at the 2008 Summer Paralympics - wome...
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Already recognized as one of the hardest physical activities around, swimming can be made much more difficult when swimmers don’t breath properly. Getting your breathing under control is one of the easiest fixes in theory and one of the most difficult fixes in practice when it comes to maximizing your swimming potential. Once the act of breathing is mastered, however, the reward will be a greatly improved and significantly easier swimming stroke.

The first thing that many novice swimmers need to realize is that they do not need as much air as they think. The natural instinct is to gasp for air every chance you get, but the truth is that often times the act of frantically breathing causes far more exasperation than swimming itself. Once swimmers get past the panic and realize that the human lung capacity is far greater than most people think, they will realize that they have the freedom to easily go two, three or even four strokes between breaths.

Another benefit to learning about the maximum lung capacity is the fact that the act of taking a breath during most swimming strokes significantly slows the swimmer down and adds strain to the neck. By keeping your head down, your body remains aerodynamic. Because of this, the fewer breaths you take, the more time you spend in a more sleek position, making your overall swim much more efficient and enjoyable.

The final breathing tip that seems completely counter intuitive is the act of carrying a small amount of water in the mouth while swimming. Most beginning swimmers try with all of their might to keep water from entering their mouths, as they view it as the first sign of choking. However carrying just a small amount of water in the mouth actually better prepares swimmers for any incidental splashback while taking a breath. It’s when the mouth is completely dry that water taken in serves as a hinderance and possible choking hazard.

Although it can be simple in theory, learning how to breath properly is one of the most difficult aspects of successful swimming. However once it’s mastered, swimming becomes a significantly easier and much more enjoyable sport.

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Triathlon: The Gateway Exercise

August 17, 2010 by Leave a Comment

For those training for their first triathlons, take this as your fair warning; triathlons are the gateway drug of endurance sports. If it seems silly to compare something good for you (like exercise) to something bad for you (like drugs), then you haven’t been doing triathlons long enough.

There are two surprises that await you at the finish line of your first triathlon. The first is an overwhelming surge in emotions. Perhaps you don’t realize it as you spend months and months training, but by the time you are 100 yards away from the finish line, it all floods back to you at once. Flashbacks pop into the mind, reminding you of how far you’ve come. You’ll see the first time you went for a run, the first time you struggled in the pool, the first time you thought you couldn’t do it and about a dozen other memories. This internal highlight film eventually gives way to the overwhelming excitement and energy that is present at the finish line. As strangers cheer for you as you cross the finish line, and as you sit back and take stock in how far you’ve come, it’s hard not to feel just a tiny surge in emotions.

The second surprise is the feeling that immediately follows the finish line. Instead of focusing on how tired or sweaty or bruised or sore you are, most often the very first though that pops into the brain is “when can I do it again?” This is not normal behavior. It is the behavior and thought patterns of somebody who has just developed an addiction to endurance sports, and chances are good it won’t end with just triathlons.

Duathlons, 5ks, 10ks, half-marathons, 100-mile bike races and open water relay races are just some of the endurance sports that await the newly crowned triathlete. Since triathlon is a combination of swimming, cycling and running, those who compete in them are treating themselves to the “sampler platter” of endurance sports. Often times it is not long before they find themselves signing up for a main course in any of the individual disciplines.

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Swim Bike Run: Why the First is the Most Important

August 14, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Aquapoldro foto uit clubhistorie
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For any beginning triathletes out there, the prospect of taking on the legendary “swim/bike/run” challenge can be overwhelming. However if one of the three disciplines deserves any extra training, it is the swim.

Let’s start by talking about the basic science of consequences. If a cyclist grows tired of pedaling, he can simply coast. If a runner grows tired of running, she too can just walk. How ever if swimmers grow tired of swimming, they drown. There is no real “toned down” version of swimming, which is why having the strength, endurance and presence of mind to make it through the first third of the triathlon is a no-fail mission. For many, this is why the swim remains the most psychologically challenging of the three events as well. However with enough training and the presence of mind to respect the water instead of fearing it, coupled with the abundantly large lifeguard staff present at most events, prepared triathletes should take comfort in knowing that their swim will most likely be incident free.

Another reason why the swim is so important is the fact that it appears first. A good time in the water can give any triathlete a significant head start over the field. Even just an average time can be enough to put up a respectable overall time, since the swim seems to be the event with the largest talent discrepancy amongst participants. A solid performance here will pay dividends later.

But what about the non-competitive triathlete who is more concerned with just finishing than their finishing time? The water remains important for them as well, since a controlled and efficient stroke will result in them having more energy to distribute among the remaining 2/3rds of the race. If the first hour is spent thrashing around in the water instead of gliding smoothly through it, the energy expended will surely be missed in the back half of the race.

While no single triathlon discipline is easier than any other in terms of physical strength or endurance, the swim is most definitely the one that deserves more of your time. Feel like getting a swim in year round? Florida vacation rentals have a lot to offer all times of the year. Florida being the “sunshine state,” is great for outside adventures including swimming, parasailing, skydiving, sunbathing, theme parks, and golfing.

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