My swim workouts back home
- An excellent core and upper back workout indeed!

Dear Reader,

So, I’ve not written to you for a while now – a week or so, I’m guessing.

And I’ve got a good reason too! While the last “break” was due to what was going on business wise, THIS time it’s basically because I’m on vacation (sort of) back home in India – and that’s proving to be an adventure in itself.

From the minute the Air India flight took off back home to India (note to self – and others reading this – NEVER fly Air India if you can help it, hehe) to the minute I landed back home and my almost-six year old jumped straight into my lap, it’s been an adventure of sorts.

No rest for the “wicked” as they say, hehe, and while I haven’t been able to get my regular hill workouts in over here, I’ve been getting MORE than my fair share keeping up with my daughter, working on my tea venture – and of course, hitting the park for my pushups and pull-ups.

And of course … the SWIM workouts.

FWIW, we’ve put our daughter in a swimming class over the holidays. But the coach was overburdened with way too many kids, and yours truly, while I was not quite “planning” to jump in the water myself, I finally had enough of instructing my daughter from the sidelines.

And I took the plunge – both literally and figuratively – and restarted an activity that I’ve always enjoyed immensely – and that sort of comes naturally to me – only difference being this time its to teach my daughter what I already know.

And she’s going great. The little girl made it all the way to the deep end today (albeit with Papa) – and thats great progress considering that never happened even once in the month preceding it.

Now, I’ve always remembered swimming to be physically challenging – especially in terms of the triceps, upper body and CORE – as well as legs if you kick right.

And it is – and HAS been that way for me in the past, so I figured it would be the same this time, since I haven’t swam for a while.

But, as I got in the water, it was anything but. Took me a second or so to get back into the “swimming groove” as it were, and from there on it seemed so easy that I wondered why exactly it seemed so taxing all those years ago …

After a solid 1.5 hour session (a lot of that spent with my little girl on my back while I swam) – I fully expected to be EXHAUSTED.

I fully expected my core to be hammered.

I fully expected my traps and upper back to be screaming.

But as I sit here, writing this to you, nigh none of this has happened.

Why?

And this seems all the more incredulous given I’ve been doing nothing but heavy LEG and back work over the past few months – namely hill work and pull-ups.

While pull-ups obviously have a carry over effect into swimming, you’d think leg work wouldn’t eh?

Well, think AGAIN, my friend – and this is yet another reason you absolutely MUST include heavy, heart pounding LEG work in your routine. It strengthens the entire body beyond belief – yes – EVEN the upper body!

And it builds stamina like nothing else as well – not to mention flattens the core quicker than almost anything else.

I’m nowhere near as exhausted from my swim session today as I am after my workouts in China – and that’s saying something!

Maybe I’ll ramp up the intensity tomorrow. Maybe I’ll go all out. We’ll see. For now though, I’m having fun – and on that note, it’s adios.

I’ll be writing again soon – photos on Instagram, by the way, for those interested!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

P.S. – Much of my current fitness levels boil down to the fact that I’m on the BEST exercise system on the PLANET – this one right here – https://0excusesfitness.com/0excusesfitnessystem/

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