Swimming = Weight loss

Yeah, swimming would be helpful.

As far as I know, the only exercise to burn more calories would be the eliptical. And it would tone, but you may want to pair swimming with weight training-- so maybe lift for awhile and then swim for awhile, or alternate days even.

If you need help setting up a workout for the pool let me know.

maddie, I would love this, if you have the time!

No problem.

Just let me know how long you'd like your workouts to be. Are you comfortable doing things with a time interval? Different strokes?

Im comfortable doing things with a time interval, as for different strokes - I am not comfortable with butterfly, though I know this is most probably the best for toning and losing weight!

I have no idea how long I want them to be, as I said, I am probably quite unfit - so my idea would be the shorter the better, but I am open to suggestions as to what would be a suitable length of time. I am a student, so time limitations are not a problem

Well, I mean time-wise.

Wanna put an hour in or a half hour? If you do a half hour then you may want to go in the weight room or gym beforehand.

I'll write up a few workouts so you'll be able to alternate and not do the same one over and over again. And for time intervals, I'm just going to kinda guess and if it's either too fast or too slow then you can adjust them on your own.

I think I could manage an hour, with a few littel breaks or five minutes or so. Would this be reasonable?

Yep, I'll have them done by tonight hopefully.

Swimming will help to tone arms and legs However, if you want a particularly good leg tone you should practice swimming laps while kicking instead of doing a full stroke as you more or less tend to use arm muscles slightly more while swimming. I personally don't think swimming burns fat as fast as running (Maddie will probably disagree with me =]), but it is good in a sense that while burning slightly less fat, it doesn't put any strain on the joints and trains your upper and lower body muscles more evenly than running does

Maddie,

I would love to see the workouts you set out for erasedcitizen. I have injured my knee and am feeling alot better but I want to start working out in the pool due to the lesser impact.

Mind sharing? Thanks!

Warm-up
300 yards

5 X 100 (50 kick, 50 free) @ 2:00
8 X 50 Build free @ 1:00

Work out
Broken mile freestyle.
11 lengths
30 seconds rest
10 lengths
30 seconds rest
.
.
.
2 lengths
30 seconds rest
1 length

Swim at your own pace and take your pulse after ever step. If your pulse is faster than 160 then slow down!

Cool down
500 yards

Total yards= 3350 yards

It's a very relaxed workout and one of my favorties. It may take awhile though, the transition sets don't need to be there if you don't have time. Fnutritionist, how did you injure your knee? I've got a bad knee too, it's horrible! Are you getting surgery?

thanks so much Maddie! That looks great. Injured my knee pushing myself too much with our personal trainer (running on a treadmill). I don't need surgery YET but it looks like I will need a double knee replacement in the future. Lots of wear and tear damage to both.
I take alot of glucosamine/chondroiton and herbal anti-inflammatories to try to fix things so that surgery doesn't have to happen.

Thanks again!