iansand, Flickr

I’ve ventured out into other sports over my lifetime, but I will always be a swimmer first. I swam competitively from age 7 to 18, took a break for college (but continued to coach) and dove headfirst into open water swimming shortly after graduating.

Swimming is an amazing total body workout that not only burns tons of calories but sculpts muscles, too. I don’t get to the pool quite as often as I’d like these days, so when I do, I tend to go hard. Here’s one of my favorite workouts:

500 warm up

6×50 freestyle on 1:00 (warm up set)

Pyramid–50, 100, 150, 200, 150, 100, 50 on :15 rest, moderate but steady pace

4×100 IM drill on :15 rest

4X100 IM swim on :15 rest

4X100 IM swim with fins on :15 rest

200 kick with fins

200 cool down

Total: 3200 yards

Enjoy your workout!