What Number of Laps Should I Swim for a Healthy Workout?

You don’t have to be an Olympic hopeful or have a separate lap pool to enjoy the many personal and health-related perks that go along with swimming laps in a pool. In fact, swimming is a great way to boost heart-lung health, work multiple muscle groups in a less demanding way, tone up, and burn off excess calories. As for how many laps you should aim for to get in a good swim workout, we dive into this topic below.

Know Your Goals for Swimming Laps

Before getting into general recommendations for laps, it’s important to know your goals. If you’re an advanced swimmer hoping to get in a good workout while also building up your speed and endurance, you’ll benefit more from going for a higher number of laps within 30 to 60 minutes or any other timeframe that works well for you. But if you’re doing laps just to get some exercise or supplement your other workout routines, a more moderate pace may produce good results for you.

Doing Laps to Get in a Good Workout

According to Swimcompetitive.com, how many laps to aim for to get in a good workout will also depend on your current capabilities. For beginners, 20 to 30 laps within 30 minutes is often an achievable and effective goal. If you’re at a more intermediate level, strive for 40 to 50 laps during the same time period, and shoot for 60 laps or more if you’re an advanced swimmer.

Swimming Laps for Weight Loss Purposes

With lap swimming for weight loss purposes, focus more on burning calories than carefully counting your laps. You can still use the lap suggestions mentioned above as a guide, but also make an effort to:

• Balance your laps with land-based exercises
• Adjust your diet habits to improve your results
• Stick to a regular routine with lap swimming

Determining Your Frequency of Lap Swimming

You can certainly swim laps on a daily basis if you prefer, since the natural buoyancy of the water minimizes stress on your bones, muscles, and joints. That said, remain aware of signs suggesting you may need to take a break for a day or two, such as lingering soreness after you get done with your laps.

Quick Tips for Your Swim Workout

If you’re not mindful of technique and form, you could end up working much harder when swimming laps than you have to. Brush up on the basics of your preferred swimming style when doing laps before you get started with your swim workout. Also, make the most of your swim workouts by:

• Doing mini-workouts of 5–10 laps as a warm-up routine first
• Setting realistic lap goals based on your abilities and reasons for swimming laps
• Creating a lap-swimming schedule or routine that works for you right now
• Gradually stepping up or adjusting your lap goals when it makes sense to do so to keep you motivated

If you’re looking for the perfect way to boost your physical fitness levels, swimming laps in a pool can be exactly what you need. As an award-winning swimming pool builder San Diego families and businesses have trusted for more than four decades, San Diego Pools can create a custom pool for you that offers a great way to exercise as well as a place to relax and get away from it all. Give us a call today at 888-707-7786.