Posts Tagged ‘swimming’

Swimming Laps At Home In The Pool

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

It is a close call whether the world’s favourite way of keeping fit is hiking or swimming, but simply because not everyone has access to enough safe water to swim in. I think that walking is fine, but we do it each day, it is too normal; swimming, on the other hand, launches you into a totally different world where you require a different set of skills to stay alive.

Hiking is very good for massaging the internal organs and exercising the legs, lungs and heart, but swimming exercises every limb and muscle and massages the internal organs too. In short, swimming is probably a better exercise than walking, but hey, you can do both, eh?

Most people merely have the local swimming pool to go to, and unfortunately they can be a real pain to use now that people are not as considerate of others as they used to be. It is not so bad if you can go while the children are in school or if the pool keeps a few of lanes free for dedicated swimmers, but otherwise, swimming at the local pool is a chore.

Of course we cannot all have our own pool in the yard, we do not even all have a yard and we can not all live near the sea. The next best thing is to become a member of a private spa or swimming club. However, if you have a small patch of ground, you might be able to squeeze in a lap pool. A lap pool is long and thin, somewhere you could get one or two lanes in, which is plenty of room for swimming up and down.

A lap pool such as this would not be very expensive because it does not have to be deep for diving and you will not require a diving board or slide. Merely a ladder or steps at one end. Four feet of water would be enough for swimming as well.

Therefore, the lap pool does not have to be deeper than four feet or wider than six feet, but it should be as long as you have space for. Having a lap pool like this does not mean that you cannot only float or stand in it when the weather is hot. If you do not have room for this but would still like something, you could look into acquiring a swim spa.

It sounds fantastic and terribly expensive, doesn’t it? Well, they are fantastic, but they are cheaper than purchasing and maintaining a garden pool. A swim spa is the same as of a treadmill. A motor drives water at you and you swim into it, so that you are held in one spot by the current and your own efforts. You get a free water massage thrown in free as well!

It is expensive to be able to take advantage of water sports at home, but the consolation is that you will not have to pay to get into the local pool, you will not have noisy kids getting in your way and you will be fitter.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several topics, but is now involved with Speedo Swimming Costumes. If you would like to know more, please visit our web site at Swimwear For Big Busts.

Items For Above-Ground Garden Pools

Saturday, August 6th, 2011

Above-ground pools are the most used types of pools for home-owners, probably for reasons of space and cost. Above-ground swimming pools can still be quite large, it just depends whether you purchase a kit or not and which type of kit you do buy.

The best above ground kits are made from a drawing by a skilled carpenter and are surrounded bt decking. Other types are like large plastic bags suspended within a frame or large fibreglass pools supported on all sides.

However, whichever type of garden pool you have, you will know that they are costly to maintain, so I dare say that you would like to get every ounce of pleasure out of it that you can. One of the best ways of encouraging people to use the pool more frequently is to stock it with toys and accessories. The young and old alike enjoy using water or poolside toys

The good news is that there are lots of pool toys that do not cost much, but there are also those that are expensive as well. The inexpensive pool toys include things such as beach balls, rubber rings, lidos, volley ball nets, water polo nets, flippers, masks, snorkels and basket ball hoops; while the expensive ones are things like water slides, water spas and diving boards.

Other items that make life in the pool more enjoyable are various types of floating furniture. You can get floating loungers, floating chairs and floating tables. Some brands of these objects of floating furniture are strong enough to double as poolside furniture, but beware because they are not all strong enough to supply support on land.

Other pool side accessories that are absolutely necessary are safety apparatus such as life-rings, a waterproof torch and a rope. A pool cover comes in useful to prevent leaves falling in and for over-wintering your apparatus. You will also need at least one ladder to get up to the pool and one to get out of the water. Although these are normally supplied with the pool, you might want another set.

As I said above, the best above ground pools are surrounded by a deck. This deck gives the pool more support if it is a kit or it allows you to use every inch of space that you can allot to your pool, if you get a carpenter in to make you a pool and deck.

You can have it fitted into a sunny or shady corner of your garden as a feature to be used as and when you want to use it, or you could make it more prominent for use each day. Even if it is a little too chilly or late to use the pool, it is refreshing and revitalising to sit on the deck at the poolside, read a book and sip a favourite drink.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on various topics, but is currently involved with Speedo Swimming Costumes. If you would like to kcurrently more, please visit our website at Swimwear For Big Busts.

The Art Of Swimming

Friday, July 8th, 2011

Anthropologists say that man evolved out of the sea and it is absolutely a fact that our prehistoric ancestors swam according to interpretations of cave drawings in Sura, Egypt. However, the earliest written references to swimming are from about 2000 BC, but people should have been bathing, swimming and fishing long before that.

Swimming competitions started in Europe around the turn of the Nineteenth Century, but there are certain to have been swimming competitions long before that in Europe and in other continents in the world. John Arthur Trudgen made the front crawl famous in 1873, although it is probable that this style was being used in other parts of the world.

Until 1873, the breast stroke was the favourite style of swimming in Europe and America. The crawl, which was first known as the Trudgen, became an Olympic sport in 1896, the first of the modern Olympics, which were held in Athens. The butterfly stroke was introduced in 1952, before which it was considered as a variation of the breast stroke.

The vast bulk of our bodies is composed of water and there is a great deal of oil too. This means that the body is less dense than water, which also means that the human body floats under regular circumstances. So, the body will float in fresh and salt water at or 50%-ish below the surface.

You can rise above this level by paddling water downwards, which will push the body up or you can go forwards by pushing water behind you. A combination of both of these actions will propel a swimmer forward at or above the surface of the surrounding water.

It is easier to swim in salt water than fresh water, because the salt makes the water denser which means that your body will float higher in it. Decent swimmers or rather fast swimmers have subtle hips.

Swinging from one arm to another in the crawl, which is the fastest stroke, depends on hip action not on large arm muscles. After all, the amount of water that you can move with your hands is not that weighty.

Thigh muscles are significant for a continuous, rhythmic beat and co-ordination is equally important. There are diverse styles of swimming the crawl, some swimmers like to to draw the water back with cupped hands, others with flat hands and yet others with fingers slightly open.

Breathing is essential for any form of continuous exertion. It is better to control the breathing so that you breathe in on one stroke, hold it for a stroke and breathe out during the next two strokes. This means that you only have to raise your mouth out of the water every four strokes.

Swimming is a fantastic exercise because it exerts many muscles at the same time, but does not put pressure on hip, knee or ankle joints. It also increases the amount of oxygen in the blood., as do most exercises, but swimming encourages the participant to hold in breath which means that the swimmer gets all the advantages from that air.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several topics, but is now involved with Speedo Swimming Costumes. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Swimwear For Big Busts.

Deep Sea Diving: Trimix

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

One of the most important aspects of scuba diving that a diver has to study is how to set up the breathing tank. Divers do not use oxygen in their tanks, they use (or, increasingly, used to use) compressed air. However air is roughly 70 percent nitrogen and 30 percent oxygen and the nitrogen can cause nitrogen sickness under pressure, so more and more divers are turning to Nitrox.

Nitrox is not air, but it is still made up solely of nitrogen and oxygen, although not in the same ratio, which you can vary. The difficulty with increasing the amount of oxygen in the mix is that there is a greater chance of suffering from oxygen poisoning the deeper you go. Therefore, the trade off is that the more oxygen you use, the shallower you are allowed to swim.

It sounds like a rough choice, you can suffer from either nitrogen or oxygen toxicity, take your pick. However, there is a third option and it is known as Trimix. Trimix is the ‘air’ that deep sea divers make use of. It is a mixture of three gases, as its name implies: nitrogen oxygen and helium.

Helium is used as a form of filler. It does not do us any harm and it does not do us any good either, but it permits divers to take a lung full and it reduces the volume of nitrogen and the volume of oxygen thus reducing the chance of illness.

The only problem with helium is that it conducts heat five times more than oxygen and nitrogen. This leads some deep sea divers to suffer from a condition known as hyperbaric arthralgia. Hyperbaric arthralgia is a kind of joint pain that a number of divers experience as they go deeper than 100 feet in salt water.

Deep sea divers have to learn about the various Trimixes as part of their curriculum, because one day they will be responsible for selecting the mix they use. The choice is not just compressed air, nitrox and Trimix, because there are different ratios of the gases in Trimix to take into the equation as well.

For instance, a 10/70 Trimix will be made up of 10 percent oxygen, 70 percent helium (and 20 percent nitrogen). This form of mix is suitable for diving to a depth of 330 feet in salt water or 100 msw (metres in salt water). Fresh water is a bit lighter than salt water. This does not matter at lower depths, but it does after a hundred feet.

Breathing and gases are merely one aspect of diving that you will have to master if you would like to go diving. Another aspect of diving that is associated with diving is the speed of ascent. Divers used to get taught not to rise faster than their smallest bubbles, which is around 60 feet per minute. However, many instructors now think that this is still quite fast and recommend 30 feet per minute with a three minute wait at 15 feet.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a lot of topics, but is currently occupied with Body Glove cases products. If you would like to know more about Body Glove Wetsuit Sale, please go over to our website for some impressive bargains.

Scuba Diving Reefs In Mexico

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

If you are searching for a warm, friendly country with a bit of a difference, you could do worse that add Mexico to your short list. If you are asking yourself what there is to do in Mexico, well, there is plenty of history, delicious food, culture and beautiful, beautiful, deep-blue waters. If you are searching for a bit of adventure in your holiday, scuba diving in Mexico could be it.

If you are not already a scuba diver, that is not a problem, because you can learn from square one at lots of the diving schools and diving clubs in Mexico.

However, if you want to get the most out of a diving holiday abroad, you could attempt to learn the basics before you climb on the jet.

You see, you can learn everything in Mexico, but not a lot of clubs would take you out into the sea, until it is safe for you to do go; until you were proficient. This may take longer than your two weeks holiday. So if you could get the basics out of the way before you went, you would enjoy sea diving more.

There are loads of diving features in Mexican waters that can be reached by scuba divers, even novices, but one of the great thrills that a great deal of beginners crave is swimming with dolphins and turtles and this you can do in Mexican coastal waters.

However, besides these larger sea creatures, there are thousands of varieties of fish: some small and some very large. There are also reefs, plants and wrecks.

One of the easiest methods of finding a reliable diving club, is to book the diving at the time you book your holiday or through the hotel when you get there.

You could also book via the Internet before you set off and check on a club’s reputation by entering into a search engine: “problems with ….” or “disputes with …”, where ‘…’ is the name of the club.

If you are already vacationing in Mexico and you would like to have a go, why not ask about a local club with a good reputation for being safe divers at the local yacht club or marina?

People who spend a lot of time on the water and who own boats locally are certain to know someone who will take you on. They might even take you out personally.

No matter where you go on the coast in Mexico, you will find scuba diving clubs and teachers, so do not let that put you off. If you do not have your own diving kit, do not worry - very few beginners have a full kit.

Most individuals rent in the start until they are sure that they are hooked on the sport, because a full set of diving gear is not cheap, although you could buy your first wet suit second hand.

Look in diving clubs and on eBay for second hand diving apparatus, you will definitely save a heap of money until you are sure that scuba diving is for you.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a lot of topics, but is currently occupied with Body Glove cellsuits. If you would like to know more about Body Glove Wetsuit Sale, please go over to our website for some impressive bargains.

I’m In Love With A Mule

Sunday, November 14th, 2010

I am reminded why living in California is so desirable now that the rainy, cold days of winter have been replaced by the gentle temperatures of spring . The hillsides are cloaked in vibrant green grass and dotted with mustard flowers. Our wide open beaches are remain too cold for water sport seeking tourists and belong to the locals. In the distance stand our majestic mountains that reflect the peachy-pink sunsets and velvet blue night skies. It is beautiful countryside.

. We have delighted in short hops to the San Bernardino mountains to engage in snowball fights and spontaneous picnics in meadows flanking Ortega Highway There have been sun filled and exhausting days spent peddling our beach cruisers back and forth on the boardwalk between the Huntington, Newport and Balboa Piers, followed by evening marshmallow roasts at the fire pits on the beach. Yes, life is good.

We pack an arsenal of gear for each of these day trips. No trip is complete without lip balm, munchies, drinks, water bottles, Frisbees, a playing cards, blankets and beach towels.

My most favorite of all these little provisions is the Ice Mule. While shopping at a hunting/fishing shop, my husband found our Mule ( which is funny because he would never harm a fly). He thought it might come in handy someday. He was right.

This wonderful cooler bag has kept our refreshments icy cold for ridiculously long periods of time. Recently I realized that the Ice Mule had been left in the car overnight. Then I recalled that we had packed deviled eggs for our trip the day before. I expected to be consumed with offensive fumes as I extracted the eggs from their Tupperware tomb. astonishingly when I opened the bag to discover that everything inside was still very cold! Twenty four hours later the Ice Mule was still working hard.

Now I take the Ice Mule with me when I do grocery shopping. I transfer the cold items into my new favorite ice bag and go on with my errands all over town before returning home. I truly adore this thing!

Soon the lush green hills will turn golden brown and the seaside will become a teeming, noisy mecca for the masses. Tourists will be searching for parking spots nearest to the beach (hint, these don’t exist in the summer) and traffic on Pacific Coast Highway will be reduced to a snail’s pace.

You can bet that our Mule will be with us to keep our drinks, snacks, sunscreen and temperaments cool when we do decide to battle the summer crowds. On the ultra hot 90 degree days, which we always see toward the end of summer, it will be time to sit by the pool with our diet cola, Popsicles and iced tea. Even though the kitchen will be only be a few steps away I am planning on using the Ice Mule poolside. In fact, once I sink into that lounge chair I might just stay there all summer long..

Written by Windy Reigns Mom, Author and Creative Consultant Cooler Bag Online College

Swimming Pool Bars

Saturday, November 13th, 2010

Millions of families give garden parties every year, but pool parties are even better. You must have been to a pool bar in a hotel on holiday where one of the bars faces onto the water and there are seats in the water, usually totally submerged so that the drinkers can sit at the bar in the water and enjoy their drink. Imagine holding a party in your garden with a pool and an in-pool bar!

These bars are called pool bars or swim up bars and can be seen in hotels, holiday complexes and the gardens of the well-to-do and the clever-with-their-hands.

It is doubtful whether anyone knows for sure where pool bars first appeared but they have been in the Caribbean, Portugal and Spain for a long time. I have also seen them on cruise liners.

The first option is to build, have built or purchase pre-formed. Then you can select the style that you like. If you are going to buy a kit and have the vendors install it for you, then you only have to make an appointment and a week later, the bar will be complete. If, however, you are going to use a local contractor or do-it-yourself, you will need a drawing, plan or design.

You will be able to get lots of hints from the Net and you could download images of styles of pool bars that you like. You can download these pictures and print them off, but it is better to download them into a folder or onto a flash card or memory stick so that you have them all together and you can take them with you to confer with friends, family and contractors.

It should not need to be pointed out that all the materials used in your pool bar must be impervious to and totally unaffected by water and chlorine, which is especially corrosive. This usually leaves a choice of concrete, resin and stone.

Concrete being the cheapest and stone being the most expensive material to use. If you go for concrete, you can have it covered with ceramic tiles. if you pick the right ceramic tiles, it can look quite stunning or yo could select riven stone tiles which would be cheaper than solid stone or slate.

If you want some sort of entertainment at the bar such as a television or projector, this can be achieved regardless of the amount of water, but you will require to call in an expert in these matters.

Otherwise, you could just enclose the electronic devices in a box like a fish tank, but do not forget that electrical apparatus needs ventilation, so you will need a few holes in the sides and a couple of fans driving air into the housing.

It is certainly not a problem to construct your own in pool bar and it should be a priority if you already have a pool.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on several topics, but is now concerned with Speedo Swimming Costumes. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Swimwear For Big Busts.

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Pool Safety For Kids

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Building a swimming pool in your house or garden is a fantastic way to have fun for yourself and indeed your whole family. It is also a great way to keep fit. However, in spite of that, it can also be rather dangerous to your children about. If you have the patience, you ought to wait until your children are at least five years old or more before you put a swimming pool in your garden. On the other hand, if you already have a swimming pool, there are ways that you can protect your children.

One thing you should always remember is to never, ever, allow your children to be alone near your pool. Children tend to be drawn to water and all it takes is a slip for them to fall into the swimming pool. If you and your children are at your pool side and you have to leave the area for a second, you must always take your children with you.

To be on the safe side, you must always make sure that you have plenty of safety gear around your pool at all times. Safety items are a necessity to have around, as they could save the life of a child or in fact, anyone else who can’t swim.

You ought to invest in a shepherd’s crook too, because you can employ it to pull someone out of the pool. Having a telephone at your poolside is also a wise investment, since you can easily call for help in case of an emergency.

If you don’t already have a fence around your pool you should think about getting one right away. A fence is a great way to keep children away from your swimming pool. If you have a protective fence up, you don’t have to worry about small children falling into it, while you are away from the pool. When you put your fence up, you should always ensure that it’s at least six feet high with a locking gate. In this way, no one can get into the pool without a key, which you should keep on you at all times.

You should learn CPR as well. Even though you hopefully will not ever have to use it. It is always good to know artificial respiration in the event of someone falling in your pool that is unable to swim. Whenever you have people you know can’t swim at your pool, you should always stay near them, so you can react instantly if they fall in. A minute can be all it takes to save someone’s life.

Always keep in mind that swimming is fun, although you should always think in terms of safety first. Once you have finished using your pool for the day, ensure that you secure the poolside well - and padlock the gate tight so no one can get in too.

If you are concerned about child pool safety or Child Safety in general, just visit our web-based resource.

Luxury Caribbean Cruises

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Vacationing on a cruise liner is rightly considered to be elite and luxurious. It is certainly the best kind of vacation that I have ever had. The luxury far surpasses staying in a five star hotel. On the other hand, it is like an elite all inclusive holiday, because once on board, all the entertainment and all your food is free. Alcoholic drinks must be paid for, but then they are duty free.

If you have never been on a cruise before you really must try it. I would not recommend it as a family vacation, but I have seen families on cruises. Cruising might suit a family with older children or you might find a cruise which is planned with children in mind. However, in my experience, your average cruiser is over 50 and married.

I know that they do 18-30 cruises and all kinds of themed cruises, but if you just go on a normal cruise, most of your fellow passengers will be older. Many of them are commemorating something too - retirement, Golden Wedding Anniversary, 70th birthday, that sort of thing. These people want a peaceful time and do not really want children running around and jumping in and out of the pool. Dinner can be late and the evening’s entertainment is not child orientated either. If you want to take children, look for a specialty cruise.

A cruise is tranquil and all about pampering. Luxury and pampering and world class food. I put on five pounds on a two week cruise and friends said that was abnormally little! I will tell you about the food on my last cruise.

Breakfast lasted from 7 AM to 10 AM and there was a buffet with food from all around the world: fruit, porridge, toast, bacon and eggs, ham, cornflakes and all the variations, sausages, rice, Chinese food, prawns, fish and more. Elevenses started at 11 AM and had tea, coffee, cakes and biscuits, help yourself.

Lunch was a two hour affair starting at 1PM consisting of four courses. There was a choice of set plans, but if you wanted to mix and match you could - I think the plans were only to make it easier for the elderly to make up their minds. With 1,200 people to feed in two sittings, the waiters try to speed selection up in very clever ways, but never outwardly. High tea was from 4 to 4:30PM: tea, coffee, cakes, biscuits and sandwiches.

Dinner was at 6:30PM and was a five course meal in the same vein as lunch and at midnight there was a barbecue on deck until 2AM. Everything that was presented was first class and there was no restriction at all on how much you could eat.

Entertainment was after dinner and there were two shows to match the two dinner sittings, but you could sit there for both shows if you liked. There was a different show every night varying from solo artistes to bands. There were theater plays and musical shows, it was very majestic. There was also a piano bar playing jazz and a disco every night

I would recommend a cruise to anyone, but it is a good idea to check what sort of cruise you are booking as some are themed and if you do not like the cruise’s theme, you may not get the full enjoyment out of it.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.

The Wonders Of A Caribbean Cruise

Monday, March 15th, 2010

People work harder these days than ever before. If not physically harder then longer hours and we are entitled to a break from that once in a while. The majority of us go on holiday and we look forward to it months in advance and we plan for it even further ahead. Where do you like to go or what do you like to do? I personally like to go on a cruise and a Caribbean cruise is a good choice.

People believe a cruise, specially a Caribbean cruise as being expensive, and cruise operators want to maintain that elite image, but I see the cruise as being an up-market all inclusive holiday. In all probability, it is the original all inclusive holiday, because once you walk up and off that gang plank, everything aside from drinks is free. Everything and everything is first class hotel style too! We are not talking pizza and chips here, but five or six course meals and five or six times a day.

It is common knowledge, that if you go on a cruise you can expect to gain a pound or two a week (I put on five pounds on my last cruise), unless you do some exercise. What exercise? Cruise liners have swimming pools and gymnasiums! Not only one but several. Some even set aside a deck for running at certain times of the day. There really is no excuse for not exercising on a Caribbean cruise.

Caribbean cruise liners offer more sports facilities than just gymnastics too. In fact, except for horse riding, I think that most sports are catered for. Basketball, volleyball, swimming, clay pigeon shooting, fishing, bird watching … You name it. Caribbean cruise liners also have Internet connections, games machines and full office facilities. During the evenings there are first class shows, often two a night, movies in a cinema and a casino.

If you have never been on a Caribbean cruise, it is difficult to explain the amount of luxury that is provided. It is more than a first class hotel. In a first class hotel, you pay first class prices for everything too, but on a Caribbean cruise liner, everything but drinks is free and even drinks are cheap because they are duty-free. The cruise liner will have a store too where everything it has is duty free!

Some Caribbean cruises are themed and it is worth noting this fact. Also some times of the year, especially early February are foreseeable. I once naively went on a Caribbean cruise for a fortnight which spanned St Valentine’s day. I was a single man then and the other 1200 were romantic couples. There was only one single woman on the cruise but there was no rapport between us. I did not not enjoy that Caribbean cruise, because people took we under their wing, but it made me think about the time of year when I next booked up.

Caribbean cruises, especially the better ones, will fill up quickly, so this is one holiday that you really ought to book well in advance. A year in advance is not too early. I like to book my Caribbean cruise a year in advance, but put my name down for any last minute cancellations, in case I can pick up a bargain.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with St Croix Hotels. If you are interested in St Croix Vacation Rentals in the US Virgin Islands, please click through to our site.