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A few weeks ago I talked about the benefits of swimming and it’s turning out to be a great pregnancy workout!

ways to make swimming more interesting feature image - The Mummy Toolbox

Which is great but in all honesty, doing lengths can be incredibly boring, especially when you are doing longer distances (I am for a mile which is 64 lengths of a 25 meter pool). Even 30 minutes can get monotonous but to get the real benefits from pool swimming you need to put the time and the laps in (and obviously the better you get, the longer distances you need to focus on).

With that in mind I have set out to make swimming more interesting! so here are some of my favorite ways so far:

Waterproof Headphones

I love blasting music when I am running (check out the Pros and Cons here) so why not do the same under water. There are several options, you can either opt for a waterproof pouch, waterproof MP3 player or waterproof headphones that you can pair with your phone on dry land. Set the music up and get lapping! Here are my favorite waterproof musical products! (Affiliate)

Take a Friend

There’s almost no better way for you to stay motivated so take someone with you! An accountability buddy can seriously improve your swim game by creating races or challenges together and let’s be honest you can always have a chat during rest breaks! A little competition can go a long way.

duo swimming for ways to make swimming more interesting

Varied Workouts

Laps can seriously take a toll on your workouts and mental determination so instead, vary your workouts. Try new things while swimming like practicing your weaker strokes, cross your legs and use only your arms or float on your back and keep kicking! A new routine can keep things from going stale!

Set Goals

If you’re starting to get bored in any workout, it’s probably because you have haven’t set, or you’ve forgotten your goals so make new ones! I don’t have to remind you about the importance of goal setting (I wrote a whole post about it <<) but for swimming try something specific like distances, time or days of the week you get to the pool. With something more obvious to work towards you will find yourself staying motivated!

Get Involved

There are lots of classes you can take in the water such as aqua aerobics and it can be a fantastic workout that mixes things up a bit and keeps you social. Check your local swimming pool for classes and you may find you like it so much that you become a regular member!

swimming in a pool

Add Weight

If you’re doing laps, consider adding ankle or wrist weights. Obviously, you shouldn’t do this if you’re swimming in really deep water (or open water swimming) as the weight can pull you down and cause a safety risk but adding weight will help provide more resistance and strengthen muscles which also makes your workout more intense and interesting! Build up with weights slowly like you doing during strength training.

Change Your Location

If you’re frequenting a gym to get your swimming workout done, try a new gym, ocean or open water swimming or even a new pool! The change of scenery can help stop things from being stale and keep you motivated

A Combo Workout

Try running or doing a workout class before going into the pool because with tired muscles it can definitely keep things more interesting and push you to try harder! Do as the tri-athletes do and get a whole body workout it (it will help with the achy muscles too!)

combination workout for swimming

What do you do to keep your swimming workout interesting? Do you have more ideas that should be added to this list? If you have some great ideas leave them down in the comments! 

You may also like these Pinterest Boards

Swimming can be boring, especially if you are doing any sort of distance for a full workout. Here are the ways to keep it interesting, keep motivation and a varied workout to avoid losing progress!

by | 24 Comments

24 comments on “Ways To Make Swimming More Interesting”

  1. This post really inspired me to learn how to swim, because I don’t know how to swim, I am afraid of getting into deep spots at the beach and at the pool. So that’s definitely on my bucket list of thing to do.

  5. I’d love to try out a set of waterproof headphones – I’m so used to working out with music that I feel lost without it in the pool!

  6. Great tips! I’m not a swimmer but now that my little one is interested in all the water fun I need to get back into the pool. These are awesome ideas for mixing it up.

  7. I really need to learn to swim, it’d be great for my rheumatoid arthritis that impacts my joints and my feet that are in bad shape. I know the benefits and yet my fear of the water and some foot problems keeps me from learning to swim. I love watching swimming and it seems like it’s so peaceful. Those waterproof headphones are quite clever, I’ve never seen those before!

  8. This is fab – my boyfriend has decided that he wants to learn to swim so I’ll definitely be sharing this with him xx

  9. I haven’t swum for a while and when I did doing laps became so boring. I’m keen to try aqua aerobics though and you have given me some other ideas as well such as adding weights, I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks!

  10. Swimming is definitely one of my favorites! I love these ideas, especially listening to music. I didn’t know they made waterproof headphones, genius!

  11. I was a swimmer in college. I wish so much they had had waterproof headphones when I used to workout, it can get quite boring. I became such a daydreamer.

  14. I love swimming. I did competitive swim for 7 years. Back stroke and butterfly were my jam lol. I miss it some days, but I still like to get in the water and swim for fun and exercise.

  16. This makes me want to jump in a pool right now (even though it’s gloomy and rainy outside). I wish I could swim more… but I live in the desert and there aren’t many pools or gyms with pools where I’m at :((

  17. I regret never learning to swim! It just wasn’t something that was accessible to me growing up so I never put much thought into it! Now I wish I have!

  20. I have not been swimming lately but I loved all of your ideas and the MP-3 player seems to be a great idea to make the laps less boring. Having a friend to challenge also would be helpful. Good luck with the next little one!

  22. Wanna know a secret? I don’t know how to swim. I took lessons when I was a kid, but it never took. My kids can swim like fish, but I watch from the dry land 😉

  24. Thanks for this useful post – I really need to do something other than running and swimming is a great addition for my half marathon training.

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