Hi everyone. First post on the boards! I'm a 28 year old male who is finally getting back into swimming after a 10+ year hiatus. The last time I swam was on my high school swim team my freshman year. Before that I swam competitively with a local swim club. Over the years I've put on some weight and I haven't excecises regularly for about 6 years. I'm 5'11, 297lbs and I have a gut I'm just dying to get rid of.
I started swimming again 3 weeks ago at my local YMCA in the mornings before work.
I've been swimming 3 days a week trying to ease myself back into swimming 5 days a week. The first week I started doing 50 yard laps 1 at a time dividing evenly between freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke. This week I've started doing 100 yards at a time. 3x100 of each stroke. Then repeating. Getting me up to 1800 yards.
I've been wanting to get into a traditional workout with a warm up, main set and cool down but am unsure how to structure one. Can anyone give me a few sample workouts that you think I'd be capable of.
My main goal is to lose weight but I'd like to build me muscles and stamina also. This last month I gave up soda and am starting to count my calories. I've been limiting myself to 2000 calories a day.
Any other training or health tips would be greatly appreciated.

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Lol. I just realized I said that I'm 297lbs. Not true. I meant 197lbs. Oops!

Heres one that may help:

Warm-Up:
100 Swim
100 Kick
100 Pull

Main Set: (Do the 50s on the 1:00 except the EASY on the 1:30)
4 x50FR
2 X 50FR FAST
1 X 50FR EASY
3 X 50FR FAST
1 X 50FR EASY
4 X 50FR FAST

Cool-Down:
100 Choice

Total yardage is 1150. Hope that helps, lemme know if you have any questions!

Thanks. I actually just bought a book called Get Fit Get Wet. It has 30 suggested workouts in it. 10 beginner, 10 intermediate and 10 advanced. I've been working on the intermediate workouts. They're mostly 2000 yards each. Today's workout had me do about 1200 in pulling alone. Definately gave me a great workout. My warmup had a 300 in it and that was a bit of a first for me. Right now I have a hard time swimming 200+ yards. But I think I'm breaking through cause I had to do 3 x 200 pull in that set. Thanks for the help. How should I structure my weekly workouts. I'm swimming 5-6 days a week. Should I dedicate certain days to focus on things like pulling, kicking, sprint work or endurance?

4x300 free with fins and snorkle then
30x50 free on 40

Great job getting back in the water after 10 years. I think you are doing the right thing by taking it slow. For me I have tried several times to get back in shape and I usually swim 5-10 workouts and get bored with it. I am going to try to get on a routine where I am swimming at the same time 3 days a week for about an hour each time. I am 36 and haven't trained for about 15 years.

If you continue to take it slow and just keep in mind your main goals youl be fine. Since you are looking for workouts I'll post one of my favorites for you.

Warm up 4x 200's Swim, Kick, Pull, Swim take as much rest as you need.

Main Set.

150 free take 30 rest
100 free take 20 rest
50 free take 10 rest.

Repeat this 3 times

Cooldown 300 yards. Total practice is 2,000 yards

Goodluck!!!!