[Yossarian]

My doctor told me that the best thing for lowering LDL was exercise, the aerobic kind like swimming.

Swimming is anaerobic!!! It depends on strength more than aerobic capacity.

Running & biking are aerobic. Swimming isn't.

-Yossarian, the former (& and future?) triathlete

[Salamander]

“Running & biking are aerobic. Swimming isn’t.”

Well, it definitely isn’t if you forget to breathe.....;-D

[metmom]

I thought they were all endurance, so all aerobic.

I can’t swim to save my life. My kids are lifeguards.

Swimming has built muscles and lung capacity on them to be envied.

[metmom]

I love your tagline.

[SuziQ]

Whether swimming is aerobic or not, it’s not weight bearing exercise, so it doesn’t help build strong bones and muscles. One way to do both is to do water aerobics. From the outside looking in, it looks as though folks are just kind of jumping around in the water; looks pretty easy. From the pool, it’s quite a different story! I never knew you could sweat while being chest deep in water! It is a real workout!

[PA Engineer]

Swimming is anaerobic!!! It depends on strength more than aerobic capacity.

It is both depending on training regiment. You can swim slower distance reps for aerobic development and sprint sets for anaerobic. Now if you are a swimmer with poor stroke efficiency as most triathletes are, than it will be more of an aerobic workout. If you have high stroke efficiency than you will be able to do an aerobic workout. Please check out Total Immersion Swimming.