You may have been to the gym or fitness centre and spent good money on monotonous repetitive exercises. If you simply flap your arms about you may gain some extra muscle after a long time. Or you could use some weights to get faster results. Increase the weights over time and your results get better, until you get injured.

A Safe Alternative

Swimming pools are a safe alternative to repetitive gym training with less risk of muscle injury. Just use wet clothing instead of weights, so the load is spread more evenly over your body. Keep moving against sufficient resistance often enough and you gain strength no matter what you do, because your muscles get exercised. This is fairly hard training, but you will notice the difference if you keep doing this persistently, preferably with a training partner to keep you motivated.

Get Fit For Fun

We often get asked what training would help for lifesaving and other water sports. It is best to have a good balance of endurance training for stamina and resistance training for strength. If you keep doing this persistently, preferably with a training partner to keep you motivated, then you will notice the difference. Our exercises in this section are fun and get your pulse going.

Get Serious

If you are sleeping late every morning, start getting up earlier and earlier. Get a post card, write your goals on it and tape it to your mirror. Seriously, go and do it now. Write on it things like "Do 5 push-ups every morning" or "Fast Walk for 30 minutes every night."

You need to look at your goal card every morning as a reminder of your commitment to yourself. If you can discipline yourself to do this, you can achieve anything you want. If you think this is a silly idea, that you don't need a goal-list staring you in the face every morning, well then, don't say that you weren't warned!

Eat Well

Stop eating fast food, junk food, candy, soda, and all that other fatty food. If you smoke - stop right away! Cigarettes stink and are tactically unsound for resuscitation training.

Start eating potatoes, rice, non-fried home prepared vegetables and fruit. Start drinking lots and lots of water to get properly hydrated. Drink water before, during and after your workout to regulate body temperature. Combine it with a high quality nutrition program. See VitaminBiz.com for details.

Plan Your Week

Maximize your cardio training and calories burn. For optimum effect you do each week three endurance sessions where you swim for a given length or time, and three resistance sessions where you swim in clothes (see below). Take one day off.

If you have access to a pool, swim as often as possible. Your initial work-up goal is 4-5 days per week and 200 meters distance per session. Develop your sidestroke on both right and left sides. Aim to swim 50 meters in one minute or less, fully clothed.

Keep Warm

Keep your "heaters" (legs) moving vigorously to keep your body warm. Drink water before, during and after your workout to regulate body temperature.

You can stay warm by wearing a lycra suit and/or an anorak. Adjust your clothing to suit your fitness level. It is a bit like weight lifting, you can just go up or down a notch by adding or removing a layer.