5 more myths about swimming

As my first post about five swimming myths is still one of the most popular on our site I have decided to write another one giving you five more. Yes, it’s true – the fake news was a part of swimming long before it was in fashion! :)

Some of those myths you might have seen debunked before but they were missing from the previous article and I think it is important to educate and make swimmers more confident by explaining what is real and what is something a scared parent says to a child to keep it out of the water!

You won’t get a solid workout in the pool

I can’t believe how often this one is still repeated by people even those who should know better, being a gym or fitness instructors. It has no base in reality as the cardio workout combined with a whole body exercise swimming is gives you nothing but intense, hard workout that will leave you energized but hungry as hell as your body needs the energy to warm up after getting out of the pool. Do not listen to the fools – swimming is a safe and awesome form of exercise that is good for leaning the body and building endurance.

You don’t have to hydrate while in the pool

This one is really getting me angry as it is very harmful and might even be dangerous! The fact that you are in the water doesn’t mean that you magically get hydrated by osmosis or something. We are not frogs this is not how our body works! :) We have spent some time talking about the importance of drinking water while in the pool in [this article] – please see it for a more in-depth take on that.

There’s a chemical that detects urine in the pool

We’ve all seen those movies where somebody trying to use the swimming pool inappropriately is found out because of the special chemical that turns water with urine blue. as good of a deterrent this myth is it is just a myth and there’s no chemical that can do this without changing color on contact with every organic matter. But I’m not sure you should tell that to your children maybe it’s better to keep them uninformed on this one! :)

You should hold your breath underwater

Our instinct when underwater during a swim is to hold our breath. this results in us gasping for the air at the end of every lap and is one of the huge changes that can have a real impact on your swimming. as uncomfortable as it is at first you should learn to breathe out while underwater and breath in when above the water to maximize the oxygen intake that turns into energy for your swim – believe me this might be the biggest jump in your technique you’ve experienced so far!

Making laps continuously will maximize the efficiency of your workout

Nonstop swim without pauses doesn’t maximize your results per hour – this is a mindless and pointless swimming that actually is wasting your time spent in the pool. The rule that you should use while thinking about your laps is that they should always improve your technique, endurance, speed or breathing efficiency. Think about those four things and ask yourself does every lap you make serve at least one of those goals. This will use your time in the pool much better.

Hope you enjoyed another article on myths about swimming. If that’s the case you might be interested in the first article I wrote on the subject!

And to debunk your own misconceptions about your swimming you should start measuring your results with Swimmo Training Watch for swimmers! :)

Kamil Market Development Expert at Swimmo

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