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Swimming
By Mike | November 12, 2008
As part of our wedding package, Katherine and I received 1 free year to the Lakeview Fitness center. So far we have been taking advantage of it several times a week.
I enjoy working on the weights for a while (very low weight, very high repetition. I’m working on stamina, not building mass), then hitting the Stair Masters and then a 5 minute jog on the tread mill to cool down before jumping into the pool. When i go by myself, or meet Katherine there, I usually spend 1.5 to 2 hours there. About the same amount of time as if i had gone to karate, but the workout is very different.
Katherine gets there and immediately heads for the swimming pool. She swims crazy fast and is blowing way past my own swimming goals. I like seeing that, gives me something to push towards and she seems to enjoy it a lot. She has also been helping me improve my swimming, and trying to break me of some of my bad habits.
One thing that I have noticed about swimming is that it seems to help me heal. I injure myself fairly regularly. I have a couple of bad ankles, a bad knee, 2 bad shoulders, and a back that likes to go out if i twist wrong while I’m jumping. I’ve also broken most of my toes multiple times in the last 3.5 years and am currently getting over Plantar Fasciitis.
What I’ve noticed though is that swimming seems to relieve the pain AND speed up the healing. My guess is that it is a combination of stretching more and additional muscle usage in a low-impact kind of way. I’m a firm believer, that if something hurts you need to work the pain out of it. Swimming seems to provide that benefit faster than other forms of exercise that I know.
Just something else I wouldn’t have figured out if it wasn’t for Katherine. 
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