>>715278487
I swam for a couple years at the local rec center (way cheaper than a gym, and they had free weights if I wanted to lift anyway). It was a giant olympic-sized pool split into lanes like pic related. Most of the day, the lanes are open to anyone on a first-come-first-serve basis. On especially busy days, I had to wait like 10 minutes for a lane to open, but most of the time it would just be me and a couple old dudes in the whole pool. I started out very easy, and I still almost made myself pass out and throw up the first day. But after a week, I felt way stronger and healthier. It's great cardio and builds hella muscles. I only fell off the wagon because I had a kid and it's a little more difficult to get out of the house for exercise with a baby/toddler.

A "lap" is one trip there and back down the lane. The lanes are going the "short" direction across the pool usually, which means they're about 25 meters.
My basic routine was:
>1 slow lap of whatever I wanted to do to warm up
>3 laps of freestyle
>3 laps of backstroke
>3 laps of breast stroke
>2 slower laps to cooldown doing whatever

When I got better, I went up to doing about 20 laps instead of 12. It was a really fun way to work out.