Swimming for 10, 20 or 30-plus minutes non-stop is good general exercise and will help you increase your speed and strength from a baseline level. However, without including some form drills and swim sets with rest in between intervals, you will plateau in speed and fitness in just a few weeks.

See below a freestyle swimming workout we have come up with for you to try on your next swim:

• 3 x 100m warm up with 10-20 second rest between. Goal: To get the blood flowing to your muscles and loosen up your joints.
• Rest 1 minute (stretch, relax)
• 6 x 50m holding a kickboard and focusing on your freestyle arm technique, with 20-30 second rest between. Goal: Working on improving your technique which is a critical step to becoming a faster swimmer.
• Rest 1 minute
• 6 x 100m of higher effort than steady swimming with between 10 to 30 seconds rest after each 100m. Goal: To increase your effort into the 80-90% of maximum range. If you are a newer swimmer, keep this closer to 80% and take more rest. Experienced swimmers swim closer to 90% and take less rest. This is roughly the fastest pace you might attempt to hold in a sprint.
• Rest 1 minute
• 1 x 100m of kicking on your front with torpedo arms.
• 1 x 100m of an easy stroke. Goal: Cooling down and stretching out.

Credit Team USA.

We all know swimming is a great form of exercise but do we actually know how to turn it into a workout? Is there more to just laps of strokes when exercising in the water? Of course, there is!

Try this workout below and see if it floats your boat:

WARM-UP:

• Start by 2 laps of walking with high knees, as you get to the end of each lap do 10x squats.
• Shoulder rotations: 10 forward each arm, 10 back each arm.

WORK-OUT:

1. Swim easy, with any stroke for 200m.
2. Grab a kickboard with one hand and perform one-arm freestyle with the freehand for 100m (alternating arms every 25m).
3. Move to your back, and do 2 laps of survival backstroke.
4. Grab a kick-board or hold torpedo on your back and kick for 100m.
5. Do 200m of backstroke aiming to do 50m under 40 seconds.

COOL-DOWN:

Pick any easy swimming movement for 200m and end with stretching against the pool wall.