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Hi,
I'm starting to get right into my training programme, and I was just wondering about swimming. I've been reading some books that say swim for say half an hour, doing as many lengths as possible, then some say just keep treading water for half an hour.

I was just wondering if anyone can shed light on this from their own personal experiences.

Thanks, any feedback would be a massive help.

From a physiological point of view, swimming is a great form of exercise that targets pretty much all the major muscle groups in the body, with the added bonus of being kind on the joints as it is not weight bearing.

You'd be better of continuous or pyramid swimming rather than treading water (more for the lack of boredom aspect than anything else).

Just mix it up, do a hard session then do 5 or so mins of treading water at the end if thats what you want.

Is it better to stick to front crawl or to mix it up with other strokes? Also what's the swimming requirements for RMR? Anyone know how to do butterfly? Is treading water much of a challenge in just shorts?

I'd mix it up if I were you, do some sprint lengths as well. You won't have to do butterfly in the RMR, you just have to do 4 lengths breaststroke without touching the floor or sides then tread water for 4 minutes, then hand out kit out to someone on the side whilst not touching the deep end. Try treading water with clothes on at your local pool for practice .

I was told by the AFCO to mainly do breast stroke if I was going to use swimming in my training as it is the only way to swim with a pack on.

While you do need to be proficient in breaststroke to become an RMC, other styles of swimming will not put you in a bad position as they are all fitness related at the end of the day.