Competitiveness
Nothing pushes you like a workout partner—and in the case of swimming, a lane partner or two.
In many cases, you are sharing lanes at Masters workouts, often with swimmers who are similar in ability to you. Keeping up with their pace—and making sure you don't get lapped—is enough of a motivator to keep your intensity level high during the hour-plus workout. A little competition goes a long way.
Consistency
Many programs have a consistent practice time—for example, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:30 a.m.—which helps establish some consistency in your training and makes it harder to "not have the time" to get your workout in.
Much like soccer practice when you were a kid, the Masters workouts usually have a set time, which makes it easy to plan your life around them if it's important to you.
More: 10 Ways to Fight Boredom While Lap Swimming
Camaraderie
Swimming doesn't have to be lonely. Instead of showing up to the pool by yourself and chipping away at your workout, show up with a group of fellow swimmers and make some friends along the way. Swimming as a social sport is more fun than swimming as an individual sport.
All-Inclusive
If you didn't swim on youth club teams or in high school, sharing a lane with a lifelong swimmer can be intimidating.
At a typical Masters practice, though, participants typically get into lanes with other swimmers similar to their speed and fitness level. As the USMS website states, "You don't need to be in shape to start Masters swimming. Masters swimming will help you get there."
More: 4 Common Swimming Tools and How They Work
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