Stretching Exercise Before and After Swimming

Many people do not perform any form of stretching exercise before and after swimming. Stretching exercise is very important to warm up your body before swimming. It also helps your body to cool down after swimming, especially when you have done some intensive swimming training.

I have joined few sessions of swimming class by different instructors, none of them stress the importance of stretching exercise. The instructors themselves also never do stretching before getting into the pool, at least I have never seen them doing so. It was ok during my first two sessions as I was only been taught of floating, buoyancy, and recovery from floating position in water. However, in the recent two lessons which I attended, I always suffer from shoulder ache, knee pain and groin muscle pain. Initially I thought I was doing the kick in an incorrect way which causes the pain. The coach has assured my technique but yet the pain always appear when I try to do the breaststroke kick. He asked me whether I have any history of bone injury or falling, but I could not recall any, especially when the pain is mostly from the groin muscle during I do the frog kick. 

After doing some research online and asking opinion from friends, finally I realized the pain is formed because I did not conduct any stretching exercise! Swimming is a form of cardiovascular exercise and we need to use all our body muscles to perform this activity. Besides, water is a lot more denser than air, thus we need much more energy to exercise and move around in water. If we need warm up exercise for Zumba dance, aerobic dance, body combat, yoga, then warm up stretching exercise before swimming is even more important! 

In order to prevent further injury, I will make sure stretching exercise is done before and after swimming. Below is a good site which teaches a few types of stretching exercise, hope it helps.

http://swim.isport.com/swimming-guides/stretches-for-swimming

Public Pool for Practice - The Club, Bukit Utama

People who do not stay in condominium with swimming pool facility may find it inconvenient to look for public pool. However, this is not a concern if you stay in Klang Valley area. I have started to join swimming class since July, thus I need a place to practise while waiting for the next lesson. Yes, practice makes perfect, we can't blame solely on the intructor if we are not able to swim well. We need to practise often to get ourselves familiarized with the coordination.

As I stay in Damansara Uptown, I've chosen to go to public pool which is nearer to my place. Besides Kelana Jaya Swimming Complex, lately I've been to this place- The Club, Bukit Utama. This club is only opened for members during public holiday and weekends. However, you can enter the swimming pool in weekdays by using one-card. Just in case you have not come across this, One card is also known as Bandar Utama Privilege Card and if you wanna check for the details, please proceed to this link---> One Card The entrance fee is RM10.60 per pax and the fee is auto-deducted from the One Card. Do not forget to bring along your student ID card to enjoy 15% discount. Once you get the pass, you can put all your belongings into a locker (very big locker, can be shared by 2-3 persons with bags) by paying Rm10.00 deposit which is refundable. By the way, the parking fee is RM1.00 for the first 4 hours by using One Card.

If you enter the pool around evening time, it will be crowded with kids and parents. There is a children pool attached with adult pool and it is fully equipped with slides and swings that your little kids will surely enjoy. Water will be splashed down periodically and children can have lots of fun with it. How I wish there is this kind of pool around when I was a kid.

Source: mamapumpkin.com

Source: www.ayuhashim.com

I reached around 6pm during my last visit, the night before Hari Raya Aidilfitri. The pool was crowded but big enough for us to swim around. The adult pool is 1.22M, not too deep for beginner like me. We swam for 2 hours and the crowd started to dismiss around 7pm, so you can enjoy beautiful sunset while occupying basically the whole pool. As the pool is opened from 7am to 10pm (unlimited for the day), we do not need to rush for time. Life guard and security is always at pool side, keeping an eye especially on kids. After swimming, we took shower before headed home. As the entrance fee is more expensive than government public pool, the shower room is very spacious, extremely clean and body shampoo is provided. Do find out more information from its official web. The Club, Bukit Utama

My First Swimming Class

Last month, 21st July 2013, I attended the first swimming class in my life. I've been looking forward to learn swimming since young, although I suffer from minor aquaphobia. I have phobia towards water, and I believe there is a reason behind any form of phobia. When I was at age 5, I drown in the adult pool of Mimaland. I could not recall much of the incidence. The only memory is tonnes and tonnes of water going into my ears, nose, mouth and I almost lost my consciousness before my uncle came to my rescue. Although I'm scared of water, but I've a strong desire to learn swimming, especially when my uncle told me swimming is good for persistent shoulder ache.

Finally, the opportunity came when Myswim gave a good deal for swimming lesson in Groupon. The swimming lessons are conducted in Kelana Jaya Swimming Complex. As I've to work from Monday to Saturday, I have chosen to take up my lesson every Sunday. The entrance fee is RM4.00 during weekends.

Surprisingly, the swimming pool is considered clean and the shower room is in good condition. I really did not expect public pool run by MPPJ can be maintained that well, lol.

Photo by SH L. 

My swimming coach is Azmin Aziz, he is the first who swim across the Melaka Straits. The Malaysia Book of Records There are 8 students in a class and one hour per session, thus the amount of time we get from the coach is around 7 minute per student. In the first lesson, I finally overcome the phobia and manage to float (face-down) in the water. This is considered a big achievement for me and I was really glad on that particular day.

To be continued...