What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness • Hacker News Board

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#61

Post by sunstone » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:05 AM UTC

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #27

loeber wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, clearly the solution should be a figure-eight swimming pool? Where 1/3 of the time you're going straight, 1/3 overcorrecting left, 1/3 right

No, the solution is to move the water and have the swimming equivalent of a treadmill. NB: this already actually exists, only remember seeing it in a video at some point though.

The problem with this is that the current is constant. When doing a long set I sometimes accent the arms and the legs alternately over say 200m. Well typically three lengths of arms and one length of kick dominated effort. The thing is the speed does change from one technique to other but moving the water at a constant speed over a short distance doesn't work properly. So it's cute for a little swimming but it's not compelling for serious training. Never mind if you want try doing an individual medley set.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#62

Post by dragonwriter » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:07 AM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #58

I have been interested in swimming for a few years but never found the place to develop the skill to the point of not drowning. I could try to swim in my apartment's tiny shallow pool which is really better for children. I could spend $200/mo at a nearby health club. I could drive to the ocean and jump in. The first just isn't big enough or deep enough to get anything done. The second is ... well I want to go swimmin…

There are natural (and man-made) bodies of water that are inexpensive to access and don't have the problems of the ocean, like natural and artificial lakes.

There are, for that matter, public pools that are cheaper than health club pools.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#63

Post by maaaats » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:10 AM UTC

Engineering-MD wrote: post #48

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Triathlons: Swimming is the sea Cycling is the air Running is the earth You learn to appreciate and respect them all. Swimming is birth: thrown into an unfamiliar environment, you struggle to find your way Cycling is youth/midlife: You have your footing, now you speed through life with ease Running is old age: slower than you were in your prime, you learn persistence as your body weakens.

I feel your analogy needs a fourth sport to complete the 4 elements. But what sport would be represented by fire? Perhaps competitive shooting (gunpowder=fire)

This year I'm doing a "Swedish Classic", which is 4 long distance races throughout the year. Three of them are the classics in triathlon, but the fourth is cross country skiing (or "nordic skiing"). So the opposite of fire, hmm, but could maybe say that fire is what makes it possible to traverse 90km of mountains in the winter.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#64

Post by maaaats » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:14 AM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #58

I have been interested in swimming for a few years but never found the place to develop the skill to the point of not drowning. I could try to swim in my apartment's tiny shallow pool which is really better for children. I could spend $200/mo at a nearby health club. I could drive to the ocean and jump in. The first just isn't big enough or deep enough to get anything done. The second is ... well I want to go swimmin…

What about other bodies of water than the ocean? Like lakes or somerhing. Mostly still water.

Or where I live, they have put swimming lanes in the ocean. Like a dock that extends out on two places, and with lane separators in between. Free and safe.

But what I did was to just pay for a swimming course over X weeks. That included entrance to the swimming facilities on the course days. Find one for your level, and the progress will be swift.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#65

Post by leggomylibro » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:19 AM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #58

I have been interested in swimming for a few years but never found the place to develop the skill to the point of not drowning. I could try to swim in my apartment's tiny shallow pool which is really better for children. I could spend $200/mo at a nearby health club. I could drive to the ocean and jump in. The first just isn't big enough or deep enough to get anything done. The second is ... well I want to go swimmin…

Have you considered taking swimming lessons? You'd probably still have to pay for them, but it wouldn't be a monthly subscription and swim classes are (usually) designed to teach you how to swim without drowning.

In general, if you want to learn how to do something, there are probably people willing to teach you. You don't have to figure everything out from first principles.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#66

Post by alimw » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:22 AM UTC

caminante wrote: post #50

SkyMarshal wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swimming is the lowest impact on your body too. Anything involving running includes frequent jolts to ankles/knees/hips/lower back. Cycling on standard bicycles concentrates pressure on your genitals and the nerve-dense region areas around them, and puts some pressure on the lower back. Swimming can cause unique injuries to shoulders if your form isn't right, but otherwise is very smooth and low-impact.

I was surprised to learn from a friend that he needed shoulder surgery due to swimming exercise. Can you share any resources or personal thoughts for maintaining form that avoids injury?

I hope there's a good answer to this. At the moment my solution is to not do crawl.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#67

Post by sunstone » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:28 AM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #58

I have been interested in swimming for a few years but never found the place to develop the skill to the point of not drowning. I could try to swim in my apartment's tiny shallow pool which is really better for children. I could spend $200/mo at a nearby health club. I could drive to the ocean and jump in. The first just isn't big enough or deep enough to get anything done. The second is ... well I want to go swimmin…

Here's a learning process you can do on your own at your local pool, lake or ocean. The problem with learning to swim is that there are perhaps a half a dozen independent motor skills needed and it's hard to learn them all at once. This breaks it down to one skill at a time. Do all of this is shallow water, say, four feet in depth.

1) buy a mask, fins and snorkel set.

2) throw way the snorkel (not really, store it away for much later)

3) start with a kick board and fins. Do an hour of just kicking with the fins on. Now you've learned the kicking motor skill.

4) Next put on your mask (defog it with your spit, youtube will show you how, yuckky I know but necessary) and now, with fins on, start kicking, as usual, but also start stroking with your arms. Don't bother trying to breath yet, just stand up when you need to breath. Do this for an hour.

5) Repeat 4 above but now try to breath on your dominate side (right side if you're right handed, other side if you're not). It's tricky to learn how to breathe without coughing, definitely practice this for an hour.

6) Take off your fins and repeat step 5. It will feel really weird without the extra power of the fins but your arm strokes should pull you thru.

7) Perhaps the ugliest part. Take of your mask and repeat step 6. Learning to manage the discomfort of having your face in the water does take some effort, but at least you've saved the hardest for the last. Keeping water out of your nose requires a continuous but very low pressure exhaling thru your nose when it's underwater. Your eyes will sting when you open them underwater so only do that for short glances to get your bearings.

8) Repeat step 7 for 32 lengths and bingo! You're a swimmer.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#68

Post by User23 » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:29 AM UTC

Engineering-MD wrote: post #48

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Triathlons: Swimming is the sea Cycling is the air Running is the earth You learn to appreciate and respect them all. Swimming is birth: thrown into an unfamiliar environment, you struggle to find your way Cycling is youth/midlife: You have your footing, now you speed through life with ease Running is old age: slower than you were in your prime, you learn persistence as your body weakens.

I feel your analogy needs a fourth sport to complete the 4 elements. But what sport would be represented by fire? Perhaps competitive shooting (gunpowder=fire)

Biathlon is ice and fire.

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#69

Post by Super_Jambo » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:40 AM UTC

sunstone wrote: post #61

ThrustVectoring wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the solution is to move the water and have the swimming equivalent of a treadmill. NB: this already actually exists, only remember seeing it in a video at some point though.

The problem with this is that the current is constant. When doing a long set I sometimes accent the arms and the legs alternately over say 200m. Well typically three lengths of arms and one length of kick dominated effort. The thing is the speed does change from one technique to other but moving the water at a constant speed over a short distance doesn't work properly. So it's cute for a little swimming but it's not…

make it a bit longer and have it vary the speed on the position of the swimmer...

Re: What Swimming Taught Me About Happiness

#70

Post by alimw » Sun, Jul 28, 2019, 6:50 AM UTC

entee wrote: post #18

Just finished swimming a race from Alcatraz to shore, it's just the best high. I do tons of endurance sports, but swimming is the most reliable in yielding that euphoric feeling. I think it's due to it being essentially forced mindfulness meditation. Though you could swim with music, I don't and that means it's just my thoughts for 30-60 min (watch the thoughts, can't do anything about them right now). I'm forced to…

> That or maybe it's just the hypoxia ;)

Or a kind of mild hypothermia? I've experienced your "euphoric feeling" during and after swims in cooler water. Google tells me the water temperature in San Francisco Bay is about fourteen degrees Celsius.