In article >, Reg > writes:
> Nancy Young wrote:
>
>> As I understand it, while water exercise has many benefits, weight loss
>> is not one of them. A quick google on swimming and weight loss confirms
>> it's an issue.
>
> Not so. It completely depends on what kind of "swimming" is being
> performed. Swimming involves a relatively large number of
> different muscles. It can burn up to 1200 calories per hour,
> depending. That's a level only trained athletes can sustain for
> very long. It would be quite wrong to say that's of no use
> in weight loss.
>
> Part of the reason for the confusion I'm sure is the way
> "swimming" is often lumped together when there are in fact
> many different kinds that involve very different levels of
> exertion.

I'm also a big fan of water aerobics. But in my experience it's really
HARD to find a good class that "kicks your butt". Once, long ago, I was in a
class that did interval training - basically relay races and such in both deep
and shallow water. It was terrific, but then I moved out of the area.
Most of the classes I've found to be very lightweight; you warm up by
waving your arms in the air, "kickboxing" half out of the water, etc. And
there are also lots of people in the class who are there thinking it's a
chatroom or whatever.
When I've stumbled into really kick-butt classes, they usually get
cancelled due to lack of interest. And yet the wave-hands-in-air-and-socialize
classes are FILLED. ... sigh...

- Sharon
"Gravity... is a harsh mistress!"

Sharon wrote:

>
>
> When I've stumbled into really kick-butt classes, they usually get
> cancelled due to lack of interest. And yet the wave-hands-in-air-and-socialize
> classes are FILLED. ... sigh...

Those would be the type I see at my local Y. The exertion level is so low as to be as hard
to notice as the weight loss of the participants. It's a little frustrating for me because
I like lane swimming as an cardio vascular exercise and the lane swim times are limited.
For some reason they have one fast lane, a double wide medium lane and a single leisure
lane. There are always really slow swimmers who consider themselves to be medium, and slow
or medium who think they are fast and I can't for the life of me figure out why there is a
leisure lane during the limited lane swim periods.

It's a curious situation because it is hard to get a good swim when you have to deal with
the slow pokes in the faster lanes. There are a number of decent swimmers who can share the
fast lanes without interfering with each other, who either swim at about the same rate or
they show some courtesy and if a faster swimmer comes up behind them will stop at the end
and let them go by. Then there is the old farts who hang around and gab at the end of the
pool and then push off just as you prepare to turn around. If they are just going to

If they are just going to putter around and not really exert themselves and get real
exercise I wonder why they can't use the open swim period than runs for an hour prior to
the lane swim and the pool sits empty.