This is why you should swim

Swim. Just trust me.

Your body right now is begging you to swim, but you probably don't even realize it.

There is nothing more beneficial you can physically do for your body. It greatly helps your cardiovascular system, endurance, flexibility, muscle strength, and even your posture. There's very little stress involved in the sport, so you're unlikely to get injured in the pool. You'll look and feel sexier, guaranteed. Isn't it worth an hour or two a week to help your body out?

Swimming is a full body exercise, inside and out. It works every single muscle in your body. Head to toes. ankles to sholders. Abs to back. I could do this all day. Then you need to realize the affects on your inside. Your heart will beat stronger and more efficiently, allowing you to relax more fully. Your lungs become much stronger. I've witnessed benefits with singing and playing the saxophone, because I've got huge strong lungs for a little guy.

You also burn a crazy amount of calories while swimming. Varying with effort, a 150 person can burn 500-800 calories by swimming for just an hour. When you're an athlete training for two-four hours in the pool, you can imagine the amount of calories you can burn. In season I eat. I eat. I eat. When I'm done eating, I eat some more. And that's just breakfast. It doesn't matter what food. It doesn't matter what time of day. Broccoli to bacon. I'm 5' 10' and I'm 140 pounds for one reason only. Swimming, duh. You don't have to swim for hours or even swim laps to help out your body. You can still help your body out and lose weight just by moving around in water a couple times a week.

You will love the way you feel during and after swimming. It's a form of meditation. When your swimming, you don't hear anything. There are no distractions. It's just you thinking about your breathing pattern and the steady beat of your stroke. It can be the most rigorous or relaxing thing in the world, depending on what you want. The pool can leave you intensely awake and refreshed. Imagine that groggy feeling getting blasted away by cold water. You're like a different person afterwords. Now imagine your whole body getting invigorated in water.

Now for my biggest reason why you should swim.

Dana Torres.

Guess her age. Ummmm... 24, 25? I dunno, I've always been bad at this game. She's actually 41 years old and has a baby girl named Tessa.

...my brain just short circuited for a second there. A little smoke is coming out of my ear.

This woman is looks incredible. She owes that body to dedication to the sport of swimming. She took home a silver medal from Beijing.

If she's 41 now, she's gonna live until she's 200 years old.

Kidding aside, swimmers do have a greater life expectancy than walkers and runners.

Plus, every time you swim, you'll look a little more like Dana here. Guys, you may not admit it, but you wish you had guns like her.

Plus, sometimes I've even heard (though I'll never say it myself) that swimming is a lot of fun. Especially if you have some buddies to go with. You might enjoy the feeling of weightlessness as you glide through water. You might enjoy being mean to yourself, pushing for that extra lap. You might just think water polo is the best sport ever.

What more incentive do you need. You'll look better, feel better, live longer, and have fun.

Your body is begging you.

Just trust me. Swim.

The suits

The recent hoopla about the sport of swimming has been concerning the suits that the athletes are allowed to wear. The swimming association (FINA) banned suits that go below the pelvis and past the shoulders for women, and suits that go past the knees or shoulders for men. Also they must be made with certain materials and can't aid a swimmer's buoyancy.

The change was made to govern the modern swim suits that helped break 108 world records in less than 2 years of their use. It's obvious there was a dramatic difference in the times of athletes wearing these suits.

To understand this issue you need to get a sense of these suits. Here are some tears for you.
Trunks=SLOW
Normal speedo/jammer/women's suit=normal, fine
Outdated racing suit=fast
New high-tech suit=so fast, it's not fair


Let me just say that the difference (if you're a guy) between the trunks you may normally wear are drastically different from the average speedo or jammer that you can buy for 10-20 bucks. Swimming in trunks is about equal to running a sprint with 3 pound ankle weights, or three pounds of ice cream in your stomach. The drag reduced is incredible.

The difference between a good suit and a racing suit is also pretty great. I know, because I've worn some. They're made out of a different kind of material. The water seems to bead off the suit like duck feathers. It should also be incredibly tight. On numerous occasions I've dragged myself out of the water gasping for air, and asked for the timer to unzip my suit (there's a zipper that goes down the back of body suits) to get some air. They're also only good for a few swims. They cost upwards of 100 dollars and they get baggy and draggy after 700 yards or so. It feels good in the water though. Everything feels smooth, like your just walking on the water.

You guessed it, these high tech suits are crazy fast; a huge step up from a good racing suit. I've never worn one, but I'm guessing the feeling is similar. A feeling of frictionlessness, even less than air. Just flying through space like a missile. The feeling comes at a high price though, and I'm sure many countries don't have the funding to build a suit of this stature. That's where the problem begins.

This has become a sport based almost more on technological advances than athletic ability. That's wrong. Every one of my state's highschool records was broken last year at the state meet. Records that were thought to be untouchable. They weren't just broken, they were shattered. All the athletes that took part in the record breaking performances were wearing very high tech suits. They paid hundreds of dollars to break those records. Speed should not come with a price tag. It should come with thousands of hours of pain a sacrifice. That's what swimming is about: self discipline and hard work.

The rule change puts the sport back on an even playing field. Now American can kick the world's butt and the world can't complain about our suits. This is a change for the better. The races are again settled in the pool instead in in the lab.

Phelps

He's the face of the sport. He's master of his domain. He's the king of the pool. He's actually likable. Move over Jordan, there's a new Michael in town.

Phelps has cast his shadow over the sport of swimming, much like Jordan did to basketball. Phelps is the best swimmer in the history of the world. I would consider that to be a pretty big deal. He has won 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most by any Olympian in any sport. He has six world records (counting relays). If you need any more evidence, try and name three other male Olympic swimmers from any country.

Why is he so good? Two reasons.

Phelps is nearly perfectly shaped to be a swimmer. He is 6 foot 4 with a 6 foot 7 arm span and huge hands. He has comparatively small legs (less leg mass, less drag) with size 14 feet. Plus he has double jointed knees and incredibly flexible ankles. Few people in the world are more physically engineered to swim.

He works harder than any other swimmer. In peak training phases, Phelps will swim at least 80,000 meters a week, nearly 50 miles. That includes two practices a day, sometimes three when he's training at altitude. (USA Today) He eats 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day. That's 20 Big Macs a day and look at the guy.
Seriously, look at the guy! He's a beast!

Despite being a beast, he's also one of the most charismatic athletes around. He hosted SNL, that's all I really need to say. He did a pretty good job too, if I do say so myself. Just because I can say more, I will. He's been described as "unbelievably kind hearted" for the way he interacts with children at the pool. He's always swam as a way to cope with his parents divorce when he was nine years old. He's a tough guy not to like...

Unless you're really against marijuana. Shortly after his amazing performance in Beijing, pictures of him smoking pot emerged. OHHHH NOOOOOOO!!! America's sweetheart is found incriminated.

*looking at the picture*

Okay well maybe not America's sweetheart... How about America's secret weapon in World War III.

At any rate, a three month suspension from the sport soon followed. Not too much of a big deal of Phelperz. No important meets were on the horizon. However the marketing fall out must have been a huge deal for a man who makes the majority of his money through advertisements. The decision the companies had to make must have been gut wrenching. On one hand you've got thousands of angry moms cursing the man for being the worst role model in the history of the world. The other hand has the fastest swimmer ever, and he has a sense of humor! The moms won... Temporarily. Many companies dropped him immediately, but now we're starting to see him reemerge in the commercial world.

The question remains, should we forgive him for smoking dope? The answer is very simple. YES! Look at him! I'm not going to question him. He could eat me in a day and still have 1,000 calories left for desert. More importantly, he is one of the hardest working athletes on the planet and he's doing it in The Home of the Brave. Love him or leave him, you must respect him. He's too amazing to turn your back on. Plus he's a pretty cool guy. George W. Bush smoked pot. We made him president. Twice. We can cheer for Phelps. It's hard to blame the guy for celebrating after he won 8 gold medals in the Olympics. He's just unlucky some dick with a camera wanted to make some cash.

Thank you Wikipedia for helping me with this blog :)

I can't wait to see what this guy does next.

Swimming is pretty cool

Why on Earth should you be interested in swimming?

You have some American pride buried within you somewhere. The U.S. has 11 of the 32 major man's and woman's olympic swimming records. Phelps contributes to 8 of them. Our American athletes are kicking worldwide ass. These guys are some of the hardest working athletes on Earth, and they're doing it to honor their country (and maybe for a little personal glory). We ought to be watching the carnage wide eyed with handfuls of popcorn. Who wouldn't want to watch a cocky French foursome eat our bubbles?

What these athletes do is simply amazing. It's easy to marvel at a man throwing a baseball over 100 miles an hour. It's fun to watch 300 pound men fight over a strangely shaped piece of pigskin. It's equally awe inspiring to watch a man fly through the air, as streamlined as a missile, and enter water without an ounce of friction. If you spend even the smallest moment analyzing their strokes you'll be amazed. The immense power in their dolphin kicks. The agility in a flip turn. The flexibility in a backstroke start. You can't do this stuff. I can't do this stuff. These subtle displays are far more stimulating to me than watching a 7 footer put a ball in a 10 foot high circle.

If you're a woman, the buff shirtless 6 packing men can't hurt.
If you're a man, watching shirtless women that could kick your ass might not hurt.
Hey, sex sells, right?

The difference between gold and silver in last year's Olympics was .01 seconds in the 100 butterfly. This sport is gripping. This sport is exciting. Big swim meets are twice as loud as football games. All the fans do is scream. Go to a swim meet, you'll be sucked into the intensity like a little girl gets sucked into Hannah Montana. Swim meets are not boring on TV and they're not boring in person. You don't have to know anything about swimming to be impressed. I love baseball... but boy is it more fun to watch swimming.

Plus you've got a global charismatic icon in Phelps, controversy over technology, and 41 year old stud Dana Torres. What's not to like?

If you've paid any attention to the sport you can back me up on this stuff. If you haven't, you don't know what your missing. Luckily for you, it's not too hard to figure out what you're missing. Turn on the tv and take a look. Maybe you'll get lucky. If not, grab a friend and mosey on over to your local high school or college meet. You won't regret it!