If you want to gain strength, stamina and more muscles, do regular resistance swimming exercises. 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.

Get a Feel for the Game

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.

Build up Strength

Begin your training with several lengths just in running tights or shorts and measure the time it takes. You will find this quite easy to do. Next increase your training level a notch, just like you would do in a gym. Put on a T-shirt and measure the time to find out what difference the extra resistance makes. Then add tracksuit bottoms and measure the difference. Swim a fair distance to get used to the extra resistance on the legs. Finally put on a tracksuit top and repeat. Notice the difference.

Next do a variation of this training. As before start your swim just in T-shirt and shorts. Then add rain pants or an anorak. Finally wear the whole suit. The nylon fabric doesn't soak up much water. Instead water will collect in the sleeves and pockets. Hence the training effect is somewhat different. Raise your arms to drain out the water.

If you teach a class, do a kit race where they swim in their sports kit from one side to the other, then get out and trade their kit with someone else on their team. It's nice fast paced fun.

A fun and easy exercise: Go for a run to a beach or pool. Swim several lengths dressed in your sports kit. Jump out at each end, touch the wall or something else and hop back in to swim the next length. Then run back. By the time you get home your clothes are almost dry. Don't forget to shower in your kit before and after your swim to rinse out sweat, chlorine or any dirty water. Otherwise it rots your kit and starts to smell.

Swimming Fully Clothed Challenge

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

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.

Now hop into the water and swim a fair distance in a variety of swimming strokes. Although your clothes won't pull you down, they will resist your movements and give you a hard workout. Make sure you get everything fully soaked so we can check the weight difference. Cotton garments soak up a lot of water.

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.

Reader Comment: High School Swim Team

When I was on my High School Swim team, one of our coaches encouraged us to practice our swimming in tee-shirts and jeans. Hoodies or track-suits were suggested for those who wanted to push themselves harder. This should make us stronger and faster for swimming meets, due to the extra drag and weight. I am not sure if it worked but it certainly was fun and I love going swimming in jeans to this day. I had a pair of jeans that rarely dried during the school year.
Jess, USA