Swimming is maybe not the first thing you imagine doing when wanting to get ripped, but now that you think of it, most swimmers are ripped!
There must be a connection, surely. Well, there is — you’re absolutely right, and to give you the ins and outs of how to get ripped from swimming, keep reading…
Can You Lose Weight From Swimming?
First off, the whole premise of losing weight and building muscle (or retaining it) happens only under the following circumstances:
- You’ll only lose fat tissue if you’re in a calorie deficit, either via diet, training, or a combination of both.
- You’ll only retain muscle mass if you’re eating enough protein to place yourself in a positive nitrogen balance and if you’re engaging in some kind of resistance training.
- You’ll only gain muscle mass in a deficit if you’re new to training or if you’re returning after some time off.
Them’s the facts!
Truth is, we can’t negate or overrule the laws of science, and the laws clearly state that in order to lose fat, you need to be in a deficit. As mentioned, you can either diet or train to create that deficit, and ideally, you’d do both.
Swimming is extremely calorically intensive, unlike yoga. If you think about it, your entire body is moving and contracting as you’re swimming. This means it’s a full-body workout! And, you’re doing it against constant tension — water tension.
This creates resistance like no other, and you can burn a ton of calories by swimming:
- Doing free stroke, you could burn up to 300 calories in 30 minutes.
- Doing the butterfly, you could burn up to 450 calories in 30 minutes.
It’s safe to say it’s pretty damn aggressive at burning calories. So combined with the right diet, recovery plan, and time frame, you best believe you can get ripped from swimming, just like you can get ripped with CrossFit and home workouts!
Let me teach you how.
Step 1 – Build Your Plan
First off, we need to design a plan that’ll help you get ripped … a training plan. Now, I realize this is an article focused on swimming, but training with other methods could be beneficial for more muscle retention and simply keeping things interesting.
Thus, you can combine normal training into the following plan. Keep in mind that if you struggle with recovery or getting stronger, you might be trying to do too much.
| Day of the Week | Exercise Planned |
| Monday | Long Distance Swimming 1 |
| Tuesday | Off |
| Wednesday | Sprint Swimming |
| Thursday | Long Distance Swimming 2 |
| Friday | Off |
| Saturday | Long Distance Swimming 1 |
| Sunday | Off |
Long Distance Swimming 1
- Warm up by swimming for 10 minutes at a 40 – 50% pace (nothing too intense).
- Do 20 minutes of swimming (freestyle) at a 75% pace.
- Do 10 minutes of swimming (butterfly) at a 75% pace.
- Do 10 minutes of swimming (any style) at a 40% pace for a cool down.
Long Distance Swimming 2
- Warm up by doing 5 laps at 40 – 50% pace (nothing too intense).
- Complete 15 laps of freestyle at a 75% pace.
- Complete 15 laps of backstroke at a 75% pace.
- Complete 15 laps of breaststroke at a 75% pace.
- Complete 5 laps at 40% for a cooldown.
Sprint Swimming
- Warm up by doing 5 laps at 40 – 50% pace (nothing too intense).
- Complete 10 laps at 100% (any stroke) with 1-minute rest in between each lap.
- Complete 10 laps at 100% (a different stroke) with 1-minute rest in between each lap.
- Complete 10 laps at 100% (a different stroke) with 1-minute rest in between each lap.
- Do 10 minutes of swimming (any style) at a 40% pace for a cool down.
A Few Other Things To Keep In Mind
This plan allows you the opportunity to build both your cardiovascular fitness and strength and burn a whole mess of calories. It’d be a good idea to try and keep track of how long it takes you to complete certain workouts/lengths of the pool or how long you can perform at a certain pace.
Over time, you should aim to increase your output. This will increase the chances of your body actually retaining lean muscle mass. More lean muscle mass will also lead to more calories burned overall since muscle is calorically intensive (it needs the energy to survive).
Now that we have a solid workout plan in place, we can look at how you should structure your diet in order to lose weight.
Step 2 – Build Your Diet
When it comes to building a diet, simple is better! I’m not saying you can’t use a few tricks every now and then. However, when looking to get the most results in the fastest way possible, you better do the basics correctly.
To name a few …
- You need to be in a calorie deficit. This means you’ll need to first calculate your maintenance calories (here) and then subtract around 10% from that.
- Once you have your calories to eat, you can calculate your macros. First, take your weight (in pounds) and multiply it by 1 – 1.2. That’s the amount of protein (grams) you need to consume daily. The rest of your calories can be split between fats and carbs as you wish. The reason for this is that protein is the only macro that can turn into muscle mass, while the others are used for energy, hormones, etc.
- You’ll lose around 0.5 – 1.0% of your total body mass per week. When weight loss stops, you can simply reduce your calories by another 10%. You could technically also try to increase your energy expenditure. However, this will make recovery more challenging, and it’ll also decrease your ability to retain muscle mass.
Other general tips include using a calorie tracking app to track your calories (like MyFitnessPal), using healthier and more nutrient-dense foods, and using sugar-free options to combat cravings.
Why? Because it allows you to be more consistent!
This leads me to Step 3…
Step 3 – Execute
Consistency will always trump perfection. We should strive to be perfect at all times, sure, but you shouldn’t be unreasonable. Trying to be perfect at the expense of your emotional health or social life will only lead to disappointment.
Another thing that often leads to disappointment: is the idea that you’ll get ripped super fast. Getting ripped might take anywhere between 8 and 20 weeks, depending on where your starting point is.
For the fastest results, focus on these factors:
- Get your calories and macros as close to perfect as you can on a daily basis.
- Make sure you don’t skip sessions. If you skip one session per week, and you do this for 16 weeks with 4 sessions per week, you “lost” four weeks’ worth of sessions.
- Sleep and recover as much as you can. If you find yourself struggling to make progress, you probably need to sleep more and ensure you’re nailing your diet.
- Try to throw in some other training methods in the plan as well if you can. Specifically, something that’ll train the legs through an active range of motion — one or two sessions per week should do you fine.
Again, consistency is super important. Even if you do fall off track for one meal or one day, just get back on ASAP. You’ll be so much closer the more precise you are.
Ripped From Swimming Conclusion
Swimming is a great exercise for weight loss, muscle gain, and cardiovascular health. No matter which way you cut it, swimming can help you reach your goal of getting ripped.
That said, you have to be quite smart about it because swimming is such an intense activity that if you overdo it, you might see diminishing returns.
Here are the main tips you need to take from this article:
- Swimming 3 – 5 times per week with a mix of low-intensity and high-intensity can help you build a significant amount of muscle while also helping you lose fat.
- Your diet will mostly determine your fat loss, and you need to be in a calorie deficit in order to lose fat.
- Stress management and sleep are both massively important for fat loss and muscle retention.
- Consistency is far more important than perfection.
If you follow this plan for a good 12 – 16 weeks, you might end up ripped, but you’ll definitely be a lot leaner and stronger than you were before! Hell, you’ll be a great swimmer, and you’ll be incredibly fit.
Little bonus tip: the fitter you are, the easier it is to lose fat, so… Get to swimming.
