Each week do three endurance sessions for stamina where you swim for a given length or time, say 300 to 600 meters distance per session. Also do three resistance sessions for strength where you aim to swim 50 meters in one minute or less, fully clothed.

If you keep this up consistently, preferably with a training partner to keep you motivated, then you will notice the difference. Use these strokes for both your endurance and resistance training.

Endurance training should make up about half of your training effort. It makes you go the distance and builds stamina. It is not as hard as resistance training, but takes longer.

Swim a given distance for 30 minutes or more. Change swimming strokes at regular intervals. Take short breaks between sets.

Pyramid or Ladder Training

This training scheme is often used by competition swimmers and triathletes. It gives your muscles a short rest between fast swims and thus makes them work harder.

Training Pyramid
Set a training distance, say one pool length. Swim the lengths as fast as you can like this:
1 length, rest 15 seconds 2 lengths, rest 15 seconds 3 lengths, rest 15 seconds 2 lengths, rest 15 seconds 1 length, relax	Depending on your fitness level you can vary the numbers a bit, say 1,3,5,7,5,3,1 lengths with 10 to 30 seconds rest.

You can apply the pyramid method to any exercise. The object is gradually to build towards a target, then ease down to the level at the workout start. For instance, pull-ups, sit-ups, and push-ups can be alternated as in previous workouts.

With the pyramid workout, choose a numerical goal and build up to it. Work your way up and down the pyramid. In the sample table above, each number counts as a set. A good goal is five sets.

Begin by working at "moderate to hard" intensity for about 5-10 seconds, then rest for 10-20 seconds. Repeat until you have worked about 20 minutes.

Gradually increase the time of the work and rest intervals if necessary, according to how you feel. You'll accumulate more time burning more "stored energy" (body fat) gradually and begin to make a difference.

Make sure you start out at a comfortable pace and then increase the effort until you reach the "top". The longest distance in the set should also be the hardest effort.

Then as you come "down", ease up on the effort. A good way of doing this is keep your speed and rest constant through the entire set. Remember to start out slow and use the clock.

If you want to gain strength, stamina and more muscles, do regular resistance training. Swimming in clothes is an aquatic form of resistance training and a less obvious form of weight training. It is the aquatic equivalent to weight lifting without the injury risk.

Resistance levels can be adjusted to suit your training needs by adding layers of heavier clothes like jeans, jumpers and trainers. This can be used for slow, controlled movements, like push-ups. Heavy trousers add weight to your training routine to build up greater lower body strength. The effects of this addition results in increased weight shifting and dashing power.

Are wet clothes heavy in water?

Not really. Clothes weigh very little in water. Throw an item of clothing into water and notice how it sinks very slowly. Pull it out and it gets heavy as it comes out of the water.

Many people who haven't tried swimming fully clothed wrongly think they get weighed down by the weight of wet clothes. But that only happens when you get OUT of the water.

When you wear your clothes in the water, the soaked up water only displaces water which would have been there anyway. Water weighs nothing in water, so they only weigh you down by their DRY weight, minus the weight of water displaced by the fabric.

It is like Weight Lifting

Many athletes use wet clothing in training to increase their strength and endurance in long repetitive events, such as swimming, running or cycling. The more you wear, just like adding weights, the harder your muscles get trained. Simple.

The weight of the soaked up water slows down your movements because you have to move that weight, a bit like weight lifting. Hoodies, sweatshirts and jogging pants can be really hard to swim in, especially if you layer them. Practice in these challenging outfits and you'll gain a good bit of strength and stamina.

Required clothing: T-shirts (both short and long sleeve)

When you start to swim in clothes for resistance training, you want to slowly build up strength and stamina. T-shirts are a popular outfit, easy to swim in and give beginners a good impression of the game. You can simply layer two or more larger T-shirts for added weight, possibly quite long and baggy ones.

Put a stack of T-shirts in different sizes on pool-side. For your first swim put on a tight fitting T-shirt. Swim a few lengths to get used to the feel and the low drag resistance.

Now put on a larger T-shirt and swim several lengths. Notice how the bigger T-shirt floats differently around you and increases drag resistance. Next add another, larger T-shirt on top and notice the difference.

Swimming in Jeans

Required clothing: Jeans and T-shirts

This maybe the session you've been waiting for. We practice swimming in jeans and a T-shirt, the legendary classic swimwear. It will give you a somewhat harder workout but also is great fun.

Start this swimming lesson dressed in tight fitting jeans and T-shirt. These are easy to swim in as long as they don't chafe. If your jeans are too tight your freedom of movement may be limited, especially with the breast stroke leg kick. Notice how streamlined tight jeans can be. You just glide through the water. Once you have gained enough confidence swimming in tight clothes, get out and dry off for the second part.

For your next swim put on baggy jeans and a loose T-shirt or two. Loose fitting jeans avoid chafing but cause more resistance when swimming. If you have two T-shirts wear the smaller one underneath and tuck it into your jeans. As you slowly get into the water you will notice a few differences. Your jeans may balloon a bit with the air moving up, especially when wet. As you get in deeper notice how your T-shirt floats loosely around you. This may cause a hindrance if you're not used to it, hence this training.

Many lifeguards wear jeans because they offer protection from sunburn, stings, cuts and scrapes. Divers and dinghy sailors use them to protect their wetsuits. For others its just convenient swimwear with pockets to keep your locker or car keys away from thieves.

Recommended clothing: T-shirt, hoodie, trousers or jeans and maybe socks and shoes.

In this lesson you'll learn how heavy wet clothes really get and how that affects your swimming skills. Bad swimming skills don't always show until clothes put up some resistance and you slow right down. Only correct swimming skills will kep you going.

Weigh and Measure

This initial experiment will show you how clothes affect your movements and weight in the water. Although your clothes won't pull you down, they will resist your movements and give you a hard workout.
1. First weigh yourself without any clothes on. Write it down. Then get fully dressed in jeans or sweatpants, T-shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, and possibly a pair of lightweight sports shoes and socks. The difference in weight with clothes on should be 2 or 3 kg. Write it down.

2. Now hop into the water. Make sure you get everything fully soaked so we can check the weight difference. Cotton garments soak up a lot of water.

3. As soon as you come out of the water, weigh yourself again while still shiny wet. The difference in weight should be about 4 to 8 kg, depending on your size. So the water in your clothes weighs between 2 and 5 kg, half of it runs off in a minute or two.

Push Ups

Now that you have an idea how much weight is involved you can start your power training. Do a few push ups on the pool side. Next climb out and jump in as often as you can in one minute. This may sound trivial, but you'll soon find out that is can be quite tough.

Swimming Training

Swim several length using diiferent swimming strokes. You may find that with all these clothes on front crawl is not much faster than breaststroke or backstroke. Many people don't know that and wear themselves out with front crawl when breaststroke is just as fast. Knowing this difference may save your life one day.