So, you have big swim goals. But how often should you swim to make those aspirations a reality? Read on for a breakdown of how your weekly swimming schedule impacts your performance in the water, plus three sample swim workouts to try.
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Variables That Affect Training Frequency
1. Goals
What is your goal? Are you swimming for fitness, training for a triathlon, or trying to break a world record? Obviously having more time available will help you reach your goals more quickly, but we have other solutions!
Related: How to Swim 10% Faster in 4 Weeks
2. Time
How much time do you have per week to train? If you only have two hours per week to swim, we always recommend swimming three 40-minute workouts per week, as opposed to one two-hour swim workout.
Why do we recommend more shorter workouts? When you go more than four days without swimming, you lose your “feel of the water.” This means that your connection with the water decreases, and your workouts will become less effective because you’re restarting every time you hit the water.
We highly recommend swimming at least 2 times per week.
Related: How To Build A Workout Plan
3. History
Have you been training 10 hours per week on average for the past six months? Or 30 hours per week? Or are you brand new? Whatever your level, we recommend ramping up your swimming volume and duration by about 10% per week as you train consistently. That means if you swam 20,000 meters in week one, you should increase by just 2,000 meters total for week two.
4. Other Training
Consider your other workouts, such as dryland training, running, yoga, cycling etc., because they will all play a part in how much you should be swimming on a weekly basis. Whatever you do out of the water should provide a healthy balance for your swim training.
Building Your Weekly Training Schedule
Depending on the number of swims you can fit in per week, your training focus will vary. Check out these examples:
1 Swim Per Week
- Technique
- Endurance
2 Swims Per Week
- Freestyle
- IM / Stroke
3 Swims Per Week
- Endurance
- IM / Stroke
- Speed
4 Swims Per Week
- Technique / Kick
- Endurance
- Stroke
- Speed
6 Swims Per Week
- Endurance
- IM
- Power
- Stroke
- Technique
- Speed
Why You Should Swim Every Day
From improving your strength and flexibility to building character, swimming every day has some amazing benefits! Learn why:
Free Example Workouts
Like these workouts? Download the MySwimPro app for more Workouts just like these, plus personalized Training Plans designed specifically for your goals, speed and skill level.
Speed Focus Workout (45 minutes – 1,800 yards):
Warmup:
- 4 x 100 Freestyle
- 4 x 50 Kick
Main Set (3x):
- 4 x 50 Freestyle
- 1 x 100 Freestyle
Cool Down:
- 1 x 200 Freestyle
Endurance Focus Workout (45 minutes – 2,300 yards):
Warmup:
- 1 x 400 Freestyle
- 3 x 100 IM
Main Set (2x):
- 5 x 100 Freestyle
- 1 x 200 Pull
Cool Down:
- 1 x 200 Freestyle
Stroke / IM Focus Workout (45 minutes, 1,800 yards):
Warmup:
- 1 x 300 Freestyle
- 6 x 50 Kick
Main Set (1x):
- 1 x 200 IM
- 4 x 50 IM
- 3 x 100 IM
- 4 x 50 IM
- 1 X 100 IM
- 4 X 50 Freestyle
Cool Down:
- 4 x 50 Freestyle
For more workout ideas and personalized Training Plans designed for your goals, download the MySwimPro app! Save $35 on your first year of training with code SWIM35 >
