Daily Workouts

Question
Hi there,
I started swimming in the mornings daily last year as a way to actually get some exercise. As a child I had a lot of teaching but have never swum so frequently. I go for 250m gradually increasing speed freestyle, 250m frontcrawl arms only then 250m frontcrawl/freestyle alternating and finally 250m frontcrawl. Can you tell me if there is anything I should avoid doing daily for proportion/muscle balance reasons? In such a short workout what kind of warmdown is required?
Thanks

Answer
Richard,
Thanks for writing and asking a question.  You ask something that I get a lot.  Basically people want to avoid over-developing certain muscle groups through swimming.

You do not need to worry about this.  Swimming is truly a total body workout.  You will work some muscles more than others, however you are not going to over-develop any muscles with the amount you are swimming.  Even so, it won't be a noticeable difference.  Swimming is an aerobic exercise.  It doesn't produce the "bulky" muscles you would get from weight training.  Your muscles will tone, but that is about it.

Now I will take this answer a step further.  Yes, you should incorporate swimming in other positions during your workout.  Try doing backstroke on your back.  Try utilizing a kickboard to isolate your legs and just kick.  Incorporate other aspects of swimming into your workout.  This will help you cross train and concentrate on other muscles, however it will also make your workouts more fun.

Swimmers who are swimming 5000 yards plus a day are the ones that could possible have unproportioned bodies.  However, they truly wouldn't be out of proportion.  Swimming freestyle (front crawl) as the only stroke is a common practice.  I trained distance freestyle while competitive.  I only swam this stroke.  I did not get out of proportion body.  :-)

As for your warmdown question.  YES!!!!!  Anytime you elevate your heart rate, you should warm down.  This is good for two reasons.  (1) It helps to reduce lactice acid in your body.  Lactic acid makes you feel bad.  (2) It helps you to recover better.  You will be able to swim harder the next day if you warmdown properly.  Just make sure you are getting your heart rate down a bit after you elevate it.

Please let me know of these answers helped out.
Swim Hard!
Eric