running or swimming ?

Swimming:
Pros : Low impact (joint friendly), balanced (all major muscle groups involved), improves functional range of movement.

Cons : Skill dependant (bad technique= injuries), difficult to guage exertion (no way of assessing natural breathing rate and perspiration), additional cost (use of pool, swimwear, goggles), can become monotonous (lap after lap after lap....)

Running

Pros : Free to all (yay). High impact (promotes bone density). Elavates heart rate quickly, easy to adapt to correct pace. Minimal equipment outlay (proper footwear), easy to do.

Cons: High impact (can degenarate existing injuries/joint weaknesses quickly). Many over exert themselves, without a good stretching regime, can tighten your hams/calves to piano wire proportions.

Overall, I would do a mix of both, alternating high and low impact cardio days. When swimming, incorporate a float board and work on breast stroke kick sprints to strengthen add and abductors (this will translate into a sport specific improvement in your side kicks).

Dont forget that you can get special floatation belts that allow you to 'run' in water (if your pool is deep enough)- now that is a hardcore workout!

Here's something hardcore for you. A couple of months ago our three schools rented a pool and taught class for an hour in it. Each person was dressed in full uniform and had to train different skill in different depths of water. Afterwards the pool was theirs for pleasure.

Either I missed the day they were doing this or I opted out because I knew it would be hard work. When talking to people they said it was the most intense thing they have every done and were exhausted afterwards. A wet uniform felt like an extra 100 lbs on their backs ... not to mention the slower movements of the skills.

2 added advantages -

running has an added advantage that you really feel it if you put on even a kilo or so of extra weight. if you run 2-4 times a week, and you put on weight, you will know right away and as long as you keep running, you will be able to control it.

swimming has an added advantage that it doesn't hard your lower body joints like running. I used to run like an animal when I was in my teens and twenties, and my knees and ankles are f***ed up because of it.

umm, walking burn more fat than running, but you get alot better stamina from running

Then lets run in shallow water and get it all

You may hate running.... but it's the most natural thing you can do.

You may not run far, or hate runnign because you get tired cause of a bad diet. More fruits & water into your diet, less meats might help, helped me.

Good luck, but swimming is more tiring & closer to a workout than burning fat. Bike riding is okay but you'll find yourself getting lazy & riding easy at times.

Run my son.... run

Both Work, I tend to do both.

I swim normally 4 times a week, and train Muay Thai 4 times a week, and run once or twice. I would reccommend doing both definitely. Reason being is that many people dont use their legs when they swim, they rely on their upper body, if they are swimming long distances. Now, on the other hand, do some 100 or 200 meter sprints a couple times in a workout, and wow you will feel like you just ran a marathon.

Good luck! I hope you find something that keeps you in shape and interests you!

i just read that you can burn 9.5-12.5 calories a minute running and about 7.5-9.5 calories a minute swiming. I dont know the exact stats because i read it in the news paper a few days ago. I remember that walking burns more calories a minute then playing tennis

Calorie burning during exercise is minimal in relation to your daily energy intake.This is not the principle source of 'fat burning' from exercise.
Exercise helps boost the metabolic rate so that you burn more energy 24/7 than those who do no physical activity.
If you were to run a whole marathon at your optimum pace you would only burn around 2500 calories! (that is an average adult males daily energy requirement),All that effort just to utilise your '3 squares a day'
An active body requires its systems to run at optimum efficiency, also it requires continual 'healing' of the muscle tissue, not to mention generation of new muscle fibre to help cope with the demands placed upon it. All this requires much more energy at all times of the day and night than a body perpetualy at rest.
Current studies indicate that anaerobic and high intensity exercise proves more successful for shedding pounds than endless hours of moderate intensity cardio.
Eat sensibly and train hard and your body will reflect that in its appearance.

Because i am very injury prone (unlucky is the word i would use) i have had to get into swimming from a very young age. I will reccomend swimming over running any day. Swimming is a fat burning exercise like you cant imagine, in fact i had problems with too little fat at the peek of my training. You have to do it anaerobically, i.e. you have to tire yourself out, and you have to breathe every three-four strokes, not every stroke. It is iompact free, so there will be no pressure on your joints and you will not have old age knee problems that are associated with runners.
I read in a previous post, that people hate running because it is harder than swimming and therefore it is more effective. The reason it is harder is because people when they go to swim they swim at a stupid pace and that will obviously not have an effect on your fitness. You should aim to do a kilometer in 15-20 min and do 3km in a session, then you are talking.
One thing that has to be noted is that to swim effectively and fast enough you should not run because it trains opposite muscle contractions and therefore will make swimming harder without actually making you fitter. The same applies for running, if you run you should not swim too much.
I am not saying one is better for cardio than the other,
the effectiveness of any exercise depends on how you perform it, but swimming is impact free, something which i think is a very big plus!

magr,

i think ur opinion holds merit. i think swimming is an excellent excersize for people that seek an impact free cardio workout.

i do disagree with ur advice that running and swimming are not complementary. many military workouts have swimming and running as components. USAF PJ's, NAVY SEAL's, MARINE'S, etc are all very heavy into doing both.

i swam a lot when i was younger, but i dont have a lot of time now that i'm older and busy. maybe when i retire and need an impact fee type workout swimming will come back.

i think the important thing is to stay busy!
Kel

Well, you are right about them being complementary and you are not.
In the military the person needs to be proficient in all types of muscular movement, so training in both is compulsory.
If, however, you wish to become as quick as you can and gain the most out of the individual training in terms of fat loss and endurance then sticking to one works better. When you throw a punch you have to relax one muscle and contract the other, the more you do it the quicker the relaxation and tensing comes and the more effective the punch, its the same in running. Your body gets used to a specific type of movement and it can perform it easier if you just do that.
So if your goal is to be fit and not to become a professional swimmer then dont listen to me!