Lifeguard Workout: Sink or Swim

by Trevor L
(Plano, TX, USA)

I’ve been a lifeguard for 5 years now and being in top shape is a critical requirement for our job.

Once a week we do an hour long fitness in-service that always leaves me feeling exhausted but invigorated at the same time.

We conduct our training in a pretty standard pool that has a 12’ diving end that gradually inclines up into a 4’ swimming area.

We start by doing a 300m warm up just to get the blood flowing. This takes about 7 minutes.

Once we're done with that we start our sprint regime where we will sprint the length of the pool (swimming sprints) which is 25m in length. We will do approximately 10 sprints and then move into our next exercise.

We each get a diving brick which weighs approximately 5lbs and hold it above our head as we tread water in the deep part of the pool. We hold the brick for 1 minute intervals then go to the side to rest for a few seconds. We repeat this for about 10 minutes.

We then get our heavier diving weights and drop them to the bottom of the deep end. Once they are submerged we dive to the bottom, retrieve the weights, and then walk underwater up the incline until we arrive in the 4’ deep portion of the pool.

This helps our lung capacity as well as our leg strength.

We repeat this a few times and then we conclude the session with a 500m cool down swim.

Swimming is an excellent cardiovascular exercise and when accompanied with weights can push even the most fit person to their limit.