Swimming in place of Roadwork

[Sharla]

Swimming is great for enducrance of the muscle thats for sure, however it can also put a fair bit of muscle on you (look at the olympic swimmers) so if you need to make a certain weight it may not help you.

Yeah you're right. For me that's been a bonus since that muscle has made my back a little more resistant to pain from working the heavy bag etc. Good for people with a history of back pain I think.

there's NO substitute for good ol skool roadwork.

I think it depends on the individual. I love running and i don't think swimming works me aerobically the same way. I feel it does improve my aerobic fitness but more in combination with my muscular endurance rather than pure aerobic fitness.

Having said that a guy who used to train in our club who won the Australian light heavyweight title last year did all his non boxing cardio work in the pool.

All his swimming was all out sprinting and he did a lot of burn rounds on the bag which would have added to his fitness. He wasn't just fit enough - the nurse at the pre-national medicals said he had the lowest resting heart rate out of everyone who competed in the nationals across all weight classes - a lot of athletes - many of which ran. He had a lot of self discipline and made a really good workout out of it.

Some days I'd prefer swimming because its less pounding on my shins and knees, and its a nice change from running.

When I hurt my knee and took up swimming I lost weight because despite doing a lot of training I couldn't run at a hard enough intensity or for long enough on an injured knee to train properly. If you are prone to pain from running having swimming as a cross training exercise might still make you fitter.