Terry Responds to Questions on Tim Ferriss’s Blog: Swimming for Fitness

By Terry Laughlin

Rich asked: One question for TI advocates. I swim as part of my cardio routine, I enjoy getting my heart pumping, this post, and the TI vids make it look fairly effortless. The thing is, I don’t just want to be better swimmer, I want to be a fitter one too. Will TI still get my heart rate up?

This is a concern frequently expressed among those who, like Rich, swim primarily for fitness. It’s clearly an important question as there are far more people who do swimming as an “activity” than do it as a “sport.”

The most useful insight for those interested in swimming for better health is something I knew intuitively for years but had confirmed when I read this article in Popular Mechanics last November http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4223354.html

It documents that human swimmers are typically only 3% energy efficient – compared to 80% efficient for dolphins. After reading it, I did a google search on the phrase “energy efficiency of…” for other fitness/endurance sports – running, cycling, x-c skiing, rowing. I learned that, on land, elite athletes are typically 21 to 34% efficient (Michael Phelps is 9+% efficient and the limit on human efficiency in swimming seems to be about 10%.) A bit more research revealed that recreational athletes are about 10% to 20% less efficient than elites in land sports. In swimming, recreational athletes are 300% less efficient than elites.

The takeaway from this is that, on land, the recreational athlete improves performance primarily by “building the engine.” In water, the recreational athlete improves mainly by “reducing energy waste.” As the primary reason for energy loss in swimming is drag, the way to do that is to “improve your vessel.”

Getting back to Tim’s experience, when he could only swim 2 x 20 yd laps, he was a “three percenter” with 97% of what he describes as quite good “land fitness” being diverted by drag, instability, reacting to discomfort, etc. Now that he’s swum a 1k, I’d guess he’s probably improved to something better than 4% efficiency. In other words, he’s now converting over 33% more energy expenditure into forward movement than before. His upside is still huge, which should keep his interest and motivation high.

The obvious question is was he getting more fitness benefit before — working very hard for a minute or less — or now — working more efficiently for 20 minutes nonstop? As for heart rate, the fitness marker Rich specifies in his question, yes TI practice will definitely raise your HR into the aerobic training zone. Even the gentlest of drills and technique-focused swimming will raise your HR to at least 100 bpm (beats per minute), a level that will bring the most-valued heart-health benefits. The greater concern for most people isn’t whether TI practice will raise your heart rate high enough to “get a workout,” but that it will allow you to avoid excessive heart rate, thus allowing you to complete a workout.

If you’ve done mainly land sports for years, what works in the water will be counterintuitive. If you want to swim for fitness, the best route to your goal will be to “obsess about saving energy” rather than on how long/hard you’re working.

Here’s a more comprehensive response I gave on the TI Discussion Forum http://www.totalimmersion.net/talk-back.html to the same question.

>>What about Fitness?
In writing about training I don’t mean to suggest that fitness is unimportant. But instead of training to “get in better shape,” train to “improve your swimming.” Let conditioning be something that “happens to you” while you improve your swimming. To illustrate:

Redefine Endurance. Webster’s defines endurance as “the ability to sustain a prolonged stressful effort or activity.” TI defines Swimming Endurance as “the ability to repeat effective swimming movements for a duration and speed of your choosing.” That definition places as much importance on *nervous system development* as aerobic system development. The critical difference is that when you train the nervous system, the aerobic system also receives the training it needs; when you train the aerobic system, there’s no guarantee the nervous system will be trained the way you wish.

Many of those who take up TI swim purely for fitness, rather than speed or performance. A common question among fitness swimmers is: “If I swim easier, will I lose fitness?” You won’t and here’s why: (1) A quality workout is one that makes good use of the body. Practicing efficiency makes better use of the body than conventional workouts, minimizing the chances of injury and increasing the likelihood that you’ll be able to do healthful training consistently. (2) Motivation matters. If you enjoy and are engaged by your fitness routine, you’ll continue for the long term; if you don’t you’ll lose interest. Kaizen – Continued Improvement – Swimming will keep your interest higher than training just “because it’s good for you.” (3) Increasing intensity is always an option. Once you begin to master the basics, you’ll find yourself able to swim longer – and faster – with less fatigue.

Should I Increase Yardage? In Kaizen Training, the primary reason for swimming more yards is to increase opportunities to imprint efficient movement. Will fitness increase as you do so? Yes, but your swimming will benefit only if that increased fitness accompanies improved skill. So if increased yardage causes you to compromise form, don’t do it.

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