subject: Training For Beach Lifeguard Courses [print this page] The training you do for beach lifeguard courses needs to start in earnest some time before the actual week of your course and final examination. The physical requirements of the lifeguard examination are pretty stringent, requiring you to complete a 400m swim in less than seven and a half minutes; and to finish a 200m sprint in less than forty seconds.
While not Olympian these are clearly physical requirements that cant be met with just a little light training. To get yourself into a place where you are physically ready to pass your lifeguard courses final exam, it is recommended that you undertake a personal training programme to get your fitness up to scratch.
As with all training regimes, the key ingredient here is variety. Rigorous training in only one area, or with just one kind of exercise at its core, leads to two things familiarity and boredom. Familiarity in the sense that as your body gets used to the time of day at which you train, and the type of training you do, it no longer needs to put in the effort which has the bizarre effect that you can actually decrease your fitness over a period of time by just running the same route every morning.
Boredom is as bad for your enthusiasm (and so for your chances of getting fit enough to pass your lifeguard course finals) as familiarity is for your muscles. So what you need to do is switch everything around. Train different parts of your body on different days. Combine aerobic exercise with load bearing exercise. And remember to rest!
For lifeguard courses training, as indeed for all athletic training, rest days are often overlooked. Which is strange when you think that every top athlete youve ever heard interviewed always goes on about how their rest periods are carefully calculated to maximise recovery time. For those that dont know, recovery time is the period during which your broken muscles (you break down muscle fibre when you train) are repairing themselves.
When you train extensively for an event (like your lifeguard course preparation and exam week), you tend to raise your game and work harder, which is great until you snap. You need to factor rest days, preferably consecutive two day periods mixed up with one day periods, into your training routine to give your muscles time to soften up and rebuild. The more rest you do, the stronger your muscles will become.
For lifeguard courses your key skills are swimming ability and stamina. Build your ability in the time honoured way, by practising in a swimming pool (this will also increase your confidence); and build your stamina through cross training. Distance running is good for stamina, as is injecting a late night training session in on irregularly spaced weekdays. By tricking your body into activity when it expects rest, you build a broader stamina base for work.
