Time in the Water
By Coach Doug
I’ve coached masters swimming since 1992 and Loveland Masters since June 2012. In those 20 plus years, I’ve seen many different types of swimmers come and go through the program. One of the most common questions I get from new swimmers is,
“How many days a week should I swim?”
This question usually comes from a person without a swimming background—did not swim age group, high school, or college—and wants to improve their swimming for a triathlon or to try and overcome a medical issue.
So what is the optimal number of days for swimming? It all depends on your goals.
In my opinion, three days a week is the minimum number of days to be in the pool and maintain consistent times, as well as the chance to see improvement. The schedule that we keep for Loveland Masters is great, three consistent days a week. Many master’s programs have changing schedules due to other pool users with higher priorities; we are quite fortunate for the schedule we can maintain. Less than three days a week and very few people see much improvement in their swimming times or technique. Like any activity, from cooking and typing to running and biking, the more time you can practice the activity, the more skilled you become.
Some swimmers and triathletes ask, should I swim five to six days a week? While that sounds possibly beneficial, a five to six times a week schedule can cut into training time for the other two sports for triathletes, or supplemental training such as weights, stretching, yoga and other activities for non-triathletes, not to mention family and work time.
Certainly some elite swimmers practice eight to 12 times a week, but their bodies are used to the repeated number of yards, and most of these swimmers do not have full-time jobs or families to juggle.
You can see a benefit from swimming more than three days a week, but it takes a process of tapering up to the additional days, in addition to listening and being aware of the effect the training has on your body—fatigue and nutrition all play a factor.
One of the challenges of swimming three to four days in a row is balancing the training intensity. Too many intense sessions in a row, and a negative outcome is possible.
While time in the water is critical, especially for people without a significant swimming background, cranking out a large quantity of poor quality yards only reinforces poor quality swimming. It’s better to take a day off from swimming, and come back to the pool a day later.