What is the best time to swim- morning, noon or night?

One only has to go to the nearest community pool to realize that swimmers do not have any collective preferences on what time of the day they would like to swim.

There are several factors involved in making these decisions. The restrictions imposed by the daily schedule, ability to get up early in the morning and feel motivated enough to jump in the water which can be cold at times, and other factors such as traffic, early morning workplace commitments like meetings etc.  It is also possible that some people prefer to jump in the pool after a long day’s work to get refreshed and rejuvenated.

Ideally the best time to get a good workout from swimming is during the morning well before the rush hour. Due to body’s circadian rhythm and higher energy and hormone levels in the morning, an aerobic exercise such as swimming can give a tremendous boost in a synchronized manner so that the whole day goes by in an ebullient manner.

However, there is also a strong physiological case for an evening swimming routine when the mind and body are very tired and a splash in cold water is just the right medicine for tired muscles.

Ideally if one has enough time, an intense swimming regimen in the morning ranging from 60-70 minutes and a relatively casual swimming regimen in the evening for 30-40 min should be adequate for overall mind body relaxation and conditioning for peak performance with tranquil mindset.

However, a lot of students in Universities and many young and middle aged athletes swim for several hours a day from morning to noon and this regimen is great for those who want to build a professional swimming career.

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History of Swimming

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People have been swimming for a long time. Stone Age drawings of people swimming have even been found in caves. The Bible has also shown references to people swimming.

Organized swimming clubs began in the 1800s and 1900s. This was where people would join clubs and compete against each other. Competitive swimming also grew around this time, and was first introduced into the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

In the 20th century, swimming became even more popular with indoor pools now being built. Continuing on to today, swimming is the second most popular activity in the United States. People go to beaches, clubs, lakes and even recreation centers in order to take a splash in the water.

Swimming classes are taught to millions of people all over the world, and people are now teaching their children early how to swim. Many schools and colleges have swimming clubs and compete against each other for titles and championships.

Millions of people each year also watch swimming during the Olympics. Synchronized swimming has also become very popular. That is where a group of swimmers get together and perform a routine that can often blow the audience away.

If you are thinking of taking up swimming, you need to first learn how to swim. Check out swimming classes at your local recreation center or community college. There are swimming classes fit for all ages, so choose one that is right for you and don’t be embarrassed about not being able to swim. Everyone has to learn sometime.

After you efficiently learn to swim, you can then join groups and meet people that have the same interests as you. By joining a swim club or a team and possibly competing, you are getting great exercise as well as having fun doing something you love.

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A Brief History of Swimming Until the First Olympic Games

Although we have no early records, surely even the first humans enjoyed the health, spiritual and recreational benefits of submerging themselves in water. Our earliest visual records of swimming are Stone Age cave paintings done more than 7,000 years ago in southwest Egypt. Early written references to swimming are found in two of the oldest works of Western literature, the Greek epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer, written in 8th century B.C.

In 1696, the French writer Melchisédech Thévenot published The Art of Swimming, in which he described a breaststroke similar to the one we use today. This book was became the standard reference for swimming, and one of its many readers was a young American named Benjamin Franklin. In fact, Franklin, an avid swimmer, is credited with the invention of swimming fins. In 1708, the first known lifesaving group began in China. Early swimming clubs (primarily focused on lifesaving) were also formed in Sweden, Holland and Great Britain, and soon similar groups were established all over the world.

By 1844 swimming was well established as a competitive sport in England, but British swimmers used the breaststroke. In a swimming exhibition that year, a group of North American Indian swimmers demonstrated a speedy but unconventional technique that shocked onlookers called “totally un-European.” Europeans shunned the technique for more than 30 years until an Englishman named John Arthur Trudgen reintroduced a variant of the stroke, later known as the front crawl, to the British after he learned it from Native Americans while in South America. The stroke, then called “the Trudgen,” quickly became popular in England and around the world, revolutionizing competitive swimming.

Swimming was an event in the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. There were three freestyle events, open only to men, and one freestyle event open only to Greek sailors. The swimming competitions were held in the cold waters of the sea (the Bay of Zea, off the Piraeus coast) because organizers were unwilling to spend money to construct an indoor pool.

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A Brief History of Swimming: Early Study and Refinement of Technique, 1920s-1950s

To achieve faster swimming speeds, competitive swimmers and coaches in the late 1920s began to study swimming technique. University of Iowa coach David Armbruster, a pioneer in the observation and study of swimming movements, started the practice of photographing swimmers underwater. In the early 1930s Armbruster discovered that breaststroke swimmers who brought their arms forward out of the water in a “butterfly” motion achieved a much faster stroke.

Armbruster combined these arms movements with a “dolphin kick” (performed with the legs kept together to move like a fish tail) developed at the same time by University of Iowa swimmer Jack Sieg. The “dolphin kick” was not allowed in competition, but a few swimmers used the new “butterfly arms” in breaststroke competitions in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Two years later most competitive breaststroke swimmers were using the butterfly style, but the stroke was not accepted in competitions until 1952, when it was recognized as a separate stroke with its own rules.

By mid-20th century, Australian competitive swimmers had refined backstroke movements so that the arms were bent underwater instead of held straight, thereby increasing speed and reducing exerted force. This modified stroke eventually became the preferred backstroke method used in competitions worldwide.

Breaststroke swimmers, in search of greater speed, began trying to reduce the number of times they needed to break the water surface. At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Japanese swimmer Masaru Furukawa surfaced only into and out of his turns, and won the gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke. After the 1956 Olympics, breaststroke swimmers copying the technique of swimming without surfacing led to cases of oxygen deprivation and swimmers losing consciousness during races. FINA, the international governing body of swimming, thereby introduced stricter rules limiting the distances that breaststroke swimmers were allowed to swim underwater.

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Be Polite in the Pool: Rules of Etiquette for Lap Swimming

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Are you a swimmer who’s just taken up the sport? Are you new to lap swimming in public pools? You might be surprised to learn that lap swimmers have a generally understood “code of etiquette.” Follow these guidelines to make the most of your lap-swimming workout, to stay friendly with fellow swimmers and to avoid injuries.

Know how to choose a lane. It’s often tough, especially during peak hours, to find a lane that isn’t occupied—sometimes with several swimmers. Note the speed of the swimmers in each lane. Often there are slow, medium and fast lanes. Choose the lane with swimmers who match your speed. Enter the lane at the shallow end, preferably when no swimmers are near.

Should you “split”? If there’s only one swimmer in the lane, it’s usually OK to split the lane—meaning, both swimmers use one side. Stay on your side. It’s considered poor manners, not to mention dangerous, to hog a shared lane by swimming down the center. You risk striking, or getting struck by, another swimmer.

Or should you “circle”? If there are three or more swimmers in a lane (including you), it’s often best if all swimmers swim in a “circle.” This means that all swimmers swim up one side of the lane and back on the other side, generally in a counter-clockwise direction. With circle swimming, it’s especially important keep the same pace as other swimmers.

Know how to pass. Even if you’re swimming with others of similar speed and ability, you might need to pass, or be passed. To pass, tap the swimmer’s foot lightly once, the lap swimmer’s universal “passing signal.” If a swimmer taps your foot, stop at the wall and let the person go ahead. Don’t stop in the middle of the lane. Also, don’t speed up to prevent the swimmer from passing.

Don’t jog or walk in the lanes. It’s a pet peeve of veteran lap swimmers when people enter the lane and then walk instead of swim. Pool users who want to “aqua jog” should keep to a pool area that isn’t set aside for lap swimming.

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