I was a competitive swimmer for 14 years and loved it (at least most of the time). This means that for a majority of those years I was working out 7-9 times a week, driving endlessly for competitions, and learning how to listen and train my body. Well today, I realize that it's another aspect of swimming I really didn't think too much about that's helping my today.
With competitive swimming we don't just swim (ok, some of us distance swimmers do a majority of the time, but still). We have dry land aspects to our training. In fact, for some sprinters the dry land (weight lifting and cardio) can actually make up quite a bit of their workout. Swimmers will come in, get whatever dry land their coaches have planned and then get in the water. For me, it was running, stretching, or calisthenic circuits.
Well today I working on some calisthenics and weight training when I realized something. My morning routine of either running or circuits was just like my dry land. Maybe not the methods or the actual exercises, but I was getting my dryland done to transition into what I see as my second workout of the day... work. I never really thought about it before, but have multiple aspects to a workout can actually train you for multiple aspects of life. I'm not going to throw 100% of my energy into my dry land because I know I have a few tours at work today, but I will through 75%-80% in. '
I doubt I've explained it clearly, but for me I've just seen the connection between my competitive swimming life and my real life. It's amazing how many life lessons I learned through swimming. Leadership, work ethic, and now balancing life in more ways than just scheduling out my day...
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