Why do swimming pools make you tired

Essentially this is the extra energy your body requires to repair muscles and return your body back to resting state. If you have ever struggled to sleep the night after a hard race, despite being physically exhausted, you have experienced this feeling of after-burn. It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 24 hours for your body to return to resting levels after an intense workout, so in this case you can use this to your advantage.

Save the long endurance session for the evenings or a weekend day when you are able to head back to bed afterward. At times when you have to swim early in the morning, plan a sprint session or race-pace intervals to take advantage of the increased alertness of the post-intense workout recovery period. A swim workout after 12 hours of fasting leaves us tired, depleted and ravenous, which sets us up for a post-breakfast crash once we get out of the pool.

Include some protein afterward to balance out your carbohydrate intake, since a solely high-carb breakfast is the express train to nap time. Michael Phelps eats a five-egg omelet along with his double stack of chocolate-chip pancakes. The timing of caffeine intake can also have a big effect on your fatigue levels during the day.

So on the days I swim really early I try to save drinking a big coffee for afterward; then I can be productive for the rest of the morning. If you are a coffee drinker, try to sip it throughout the morning instead of taking in one large dose all at once, which can create a big spike and an even bigger subsequent crash.

Small amounts spread over a longer time—even if the total intake is less—will maintain more consistent levels of alertness throughout the day. Do you feel tired and sleepy after a swim? Now, let's talk about toning muscles. Do note that most of the work your body does when swimming involves positive muscle actions and no negative action and we know all know that the negative phase, that is, when lowering the weights during weight training is very important in building muscles.

So can your muscles develop properly when only the positive muscles are worked on? By the way, before you say that competitive swimmers have nice muscle tone, that is because they lift weights to maintain muscle balance as well as to gain strength for more powerful strokes. Please, do not give up swimming if you enjoy the sport. Doing any exercise is better than not exercising at all.

Just make sure that you don't eat more or become more less active after your invigorating swim. Most Popular. Kate Moss - Simple Supermodel Diet! How to Drink Wine like a Professional. Top Searches on. But, with swimming, you are literally using your entire body. From your trapezius muscles at the top to your soleus muscles near your ankles, your body works incredibly hard to keep you moving through the water.

Think about it. It all comes together, and the result is an incredible workout that can leave you feeling exhausted. So, what can you do about the fact that swimming is a full-body workout? Well, there are a couple of things to think about. If you are feeling wiped out after your swim session, consider slowing things down or building up your endurance a little more.

Slow and steady wins the race, especially with swimming! Incorporate some cross training and pinpoint your weaker areas. For me, my quads and legs are much stronger than my upper body. So, I would consider incorporating some arm strength training to help me endure these amazing full-body swim sessions! Swimming is intense! You can burn some serious calories by jumping in the pool and pumping out a good workout. To be more specific, the average person could burn up to calories per hour!

The average jogger at a conversational pace burns around calories per hour. What if you think that the intensity may be making you too tired? Well, the simple thing you can do about that is to lower the intensity.

Jayne Blanchard. In addition to writing about health, travel and women's issues, she has also worked as a movie reviewer and theater critic and holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

Swimming works all major muscle groups and can be a tiring workout. Video of the Day. It Uses Major Muscle Groups. It Is an Aerobic Exercise. It Uses Resistance.