Lane swimming
Hit the pool for a workout your heart (and lungs!) will love. “Leisure swimming only brings benefits for the extremely unfit population,” says Fox. “Lane swimming will give you a greater return on your exercise time investment.” His recommendation? Progressing from eight to 12 lengths of the pool per swim technique, varying techniques on different days. This could mean doing front crawl and legs only with a flutter board one day and then back crawl and breast stroke another day. One swim technique guaranteed to bring up your fitness level is fist freestyle, which is using closed fists for any swim style, explains Fox. “You have to work harder because you don’t have any swim paddle effect with the open hand.”