My #30SwimsIn30Days Experience – Shawn
Vol. 3, Wed., April 3, 2019
Bringing you the latest happenings in the aquatic fitness world, tips & tricks, and the best ways to live well!
I swam in our Endless Pool for 30 days, and here’s what happened.
Why did I take on the #30SwimsIn30Days Challenge?
After starting at Hot Tubs by HotSpring, I wanted to learn more about the Endless Pools Fitness Systems so I could know that I was selling a great product to all of our customers. The best way to learn about the Endless Pools was to jump right in! So, Marika challenged me to the #30SwimsIn30Days Challenge and it was the perfect “push” I needed to begin.
A little about me, I’ve always been involved with sports since a very young age including soccer, basketball, and baseball. In all three sports, we had won numerous Shore Conference Championships.
My true passion began when I was 16 years old when I tried out for the Island Beach State Park Lifeguard program. My whole family had always been on swim teams and my parents were both avid tri-athletes as well as marathon runners. Their influence always steered me in the direction of running, swimming, and biking, as well as being a part of something bigger and becoming a Jersey Shore Lifeguard. In order to become a lifeguard, you must swim a 550-meter freestyle in under 10 minutes and run a 400-meter run under 2 min.
While growing up and working the summers as a lifeguard I became involved in the tournament teams. We have events up and down the East Coast as far north as Sandy Hook and as far south as Cape May County. During the competitions, we display numerous talents such as rowing, swimming, paddling, and running, usually with a group of 12 men or women.
The biggest challenge I faced was staying in shape all winter long while I wasn’t working. I would take trips to the local Olympic swimming pools to workout, however, always found myself waiting for lanes to open up. All our local swim teams utilize the open time slots for their practices.
When I was introduced to Endless Pools, I instantly realized this is the perfect solution. Whether I used R-series, the X-series or the E-series I knew I was going to get an amazing work out in with out having to travel to the gym or a pool. This led me to the Endless Pools challenge of swimming 30 times in 30 days to see how my physical health changed. SO, THE CHALLENGE BEGAN!
The Details
February began the challenge of dedicating about 20 minutes a day to either swimming, running or recovering from a strenuous work out or competition. When we started this challenge, I thought to myself “this should be easy being that I had run multiple marathons and consider myself to be in decent shape”. Soon I found out how intense, but amazing, the fitness systems were and how they’ve helped me with my overall technique and times. I was able to split up the work out running about 5 minutes to warm up on the treadmill then swimming for about 10 minutes. Through out the month I worked up to a 5 minute warm up run, constant 16-minute swim and a 5-minute cool down jog. I was able to use the tether for resistance swimming and incorporate sprints, hand drags, and increased my kicking power by using the kickboard.
The most surprising part of this whole endeavor was the rapid recovery from running. The Endless Pools treadmill was the only type of running I was able to do after the Philadelphia Marathon. Due to the inflammation of my joints and body after running 26.2 miles, the Endless Pool treadmill was the only type of running that allowed me to recover and get back out to the streets. Over all, I have become a huge believer in how versatile and effective these fitness systems are.
My Results
To test my progress, I found myself back in a regular lap pool to do a swim work out and test my 50-meter and 100-meter times, and the overall feeling of my body while swimming. In a regular lap pool. My body felt as if I was in mid-summer shape and my times mirrored that perfectly. My original times for swimming 100 meters usually fell between 1 minute and 43 second and 1 minute and 39 seconds. From training in the Endless Pool, I dropped 13-19 seconds off my time. My original 50-meter swim times fall between 42 seconds and drop to 39 seconds. At this distance, I dropped 3-8 seconds! It’s safe to say, I’ll continue to swim and run in the Endless Pools and I am so happy I took on this challenge.
Although my experience with the Endless Pools was beneficial for training for sport & competition, there are so many ways these pools can benefit everyone. Whether you’re looking to have an Endless Pool to have some year round backyard fun, to start working out more in privacy, for rehabilitation therapy, training, and everywhere between – Endless Pools offers a product for a variety of uses and nearly every budget.
Benefits of #30SwimsIn30Days Endless Pools Challenge
- Faster swim times
- Less pain in joints, muscles and full body
- Zero wait time to swim and work out
- Utilize versatile work outs; running, swimming, rowing
- Better technique for both swimming and running
- Work out all year round no matter the temperature
- Fast recovery period in between work outs
- A great experience to achieve a goal
- Stay in shape all year round
- Work out in the convenience of your own home
- Privacy
