Hi All,

I am doing swimming from 6 months and I know only 2 strokes in swimming. Freestyle and Backstroke. I mostly do freestyle swimming and please let me know if this is more effective than backstroke or you suggest me backstoke for weight reduction. Or a mix of both. Or any other stroke. Thanks

Freestyle deffinatly, but try ranging it from sprints to long distance.
Mollie

Freestyle for sure but you can also switch it up with doing both. Doing both will stretch your back and shoulders out and work your chest and abs.

As I see it, long distance freestyle is the best for losing weight. I have kept swimming for more than 10 years. This is drawn from my real exprience. However, in order to swim long distance, you should have good kicking ablitity. If you can do non-stop freestyle kicking for 100 meters, mostly you can swim freestyle 500 meters without stop.

I do hardly any kicking (two-beat kick) and regularly swim 1500-2000 meters non-stop. My longest swim ever was 5.5 kilometers in open water. If you learn how to balance your body in the water you don't need to kick very much.
For energy consumption, breast stroke probably burns the most calories because it uses the large muscles in the legs more than any other stroke.
I don't think there's much difference between freestyle and back stroke when it comes to burning calories. Back stroke is somewhat less efficient, so maybe that burns slightly more. Doing a mix of both balances the muscles on both sides of your chest so that you're less likely to get repetitive strain injuries.

I was going to suggest breaststroke too. When you're looking for weight loss, you are not necessarily looking for the out and out fastest heart rate possible all the time. A lot of people who jog for fat burning run long and slow, keeping their heart rate above 65-70% of max, with short sprints at intervals during the session.

I recently watched a friend who has poor overall swimming technique, lose a whole load of weight, over a really short period of time, through just 2-3 sessions a week of steady, lumbering breaststroke.

I remember a piece of news about someone crossing the English Channel. When he sucessfully swam to the other side, he found himself having lost 20kg instantly just during these hours of nonstop swimming! Of course, after he eats and drinks normally afterwards, he may regain some weight. But if he can continue to be on a diet, he is sure to lose weight.

(Dec 9, 2011 1:09pm)sureshkumarbb Wrote:  Hi All,

I am doing swimming from 6 months and I know only 2 strokes in swimming. Freestyle and Backstroke. I mostly do freestyle swimming and please let me know if this is more effective than backstroke or you suggest me backstoke for weight reduction. Or a mix of both. Or any other stroke. Thanks

hello all swimming techniques are good for weight loss it's not the technique but it's the movement check this you'll find more infos about it enjoy it and good luck http://www.swimmingstrokesandtechniques.com