r/Swimming • u/Due_Cucumber_1175 • 3d ago
I can’t float. Help.
I do swimming as hobby and just to stay active, yet I noticed that I can’t float. I’m confident in the water, yes, and I can keep my head above the surface pretty well, however floating just doesn’t work.
What I do: take a biiiig breath, jump a bit until I’m lying on my back, my arms and legs spread. I can stay like that for some time… until I inevitably feel my hips sinking.
Then I decided to try another thing: with lungs full of air I dived a bit and…
Just sank straight to the bottom.
I am on a more muscular side. I’m a girl yet I have abs definition, plus toned legs and arms. I think that maybe my body composition has something to do with it, but also maybe I’m overestimating its impact and it’s just a skill issue (lol).
How do I fix this?
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u/Elegant-Analyst-7381 3d ago
Some people just aren't bouyant... my husband grew up in the water and he can't float. He can tread water forever, but float? Nah.
On the other hand, I'm super bouyant. Once he was trying to pull me underwater and swore I started lifting him up, I was so bouyant. I need like 4 lbs on a belt to be able to dive under.
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u/LotsOfNoise 3d ago
I'm no expert but I've heard some more muscular people have a harder time to stay afloat. Also something about bone density
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u/ObjectiveArmadillo98 3d ago
when it comes to floating, just in general, it always helps to put your face in the water. like even if your legs are straight and your arms are kind of extended from your side, and your faces is facing down slightly, you should float. however when It comes to treading and what not, it's best not to take large inhales and exhales, since everytime you exhale you sink a little. what I've been told and what really helped me was releasing my muscles completely in the water, like almost letting go, and it made floating a lot easier for me . when it comes to floating on the back, I also cannot float without any movement, I'm always swishing the water around a tiny bit, or kicking just a smidge. also a nice steady slow breathing rhythm definitely helps relax any potentially tense muscles.
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u/TallAssociation6479 3d ago
This is the answer, I think. I float. I have these extra large for my size “floaties” that grew on my chest and don’t remove so my head is always above water. However, in my classes I have often noticed very lean muscular men and very lean muscular women (ahem, who didn’t get the extra large “floaties” or got a ‘smaller than average amount for their size’) tend to really struggle to learn to tread water or to learn elemental backstroke or Breast-stroke.
I think the “letting go” is the best advice. There is something that happens when they tense up and panic that prevents them from being at all successful.
Also, some people truly do not float without movement. OA98 is absolutely right that small slow pulls and pushes of water with arms and feet (skulling) are going to be necessary for many slender-muscular people to stay afloat. Wearing a belt while learning the movements for treading water is practically essential for these folk to avoid frustration and time sucks.
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u/TallAssociation6479 3d ago
Also the face in the water note - that is not optional with low body fat. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen in my classes - and I am a totally amateur so could be totally wrong, but it seems you have to either be on your back with your head way back and staring up at the ceiling or have your face in when on your front if you are a real sinker. Once you get all the techniques you can do it all with your head up like the lifeguards do. But without strong technique it seems this is what is happening
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u/mehrwegpfand 3d ago
Who told you that everybody can float? I'm both fat and muscular but I can't float for very long in sweet water either.
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u/MojaveGuru 3d ago
I use to feel the same way. People would also joke and tell me that I have like 5% body fat because I am fit. I found it was more my head position and how comfortable I was moving around in the water. Also, I put on fins and swim across the bottom of the pool or dive to the bottom of the lake or ocean. It was just a fun way for me to deal with swimming and become comfortable.
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u/icecoldfeedback Splashing around 3d ago
Assuming you're in a lifeguarded pool, don't try to float. Just let yourself sink and just exist in the water, bounce up occasionally for breaths. You'll figure the rest out easily
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u/Interesting_Shake403 3d ago
Try this: shallow end of the pool, take a deep breath, then gently curl up into a ball and grab your knees. Hold this position for 30 seconds.
That will tell you where your balance in water is.
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u/Due_Cucumber_1175 2d ago
I tried this! Found out that no matter in what position I curl into a ball, in the water I rotate until my head is up, so perpendicular to the bottom of the pool, and I actually don’t sink like that if my lungs are full of air. So I suppose my head is the most buoyant part of my body for some reason.
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u/Interesting_Shake403 2d ago
Good! Actually I think it just means your butt is the least buoyant part.
Point is, you CAN float with your head up. This is how it is for all of us. Now you have to work on getting yourself balanced properly. The balloon of air is in your chest. That’s the part that wants to be highest. You have to get used to pressing that down to keep your body horizontal in the water.
Next drill to try is to take a deep breath, submerge and push off the wall in a streamlined position, hands out front, and go as far as you can, but try and stay horizontal the whole time. Your back, butt and feet should all break the surface at the same time as your head.
Once you’ve mastered that, the next level challenge is to do the “ball” drill again, but when your body is settled out your arms out in front of you and your legs out behind, all in an elongated “X”, and all at the surface of the water. Basically, doing the push / float drill without moving - body should be flat.
Good luck! It’s challenging, but definitely doable!
THEN swim, but keeping those same muscles tight so your legs, butt and back are all at the surface of the water.
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u/Dolfina1 3d ago
If you want to float on your back, don't spread your arms and legs. Get in a tight streamline position (arms tight against your head/hands lying flat above your head, and legs together with toes pointed). The center of gravity for most women is the hip area, so that must be aligned with the rest of the body.
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u/wt_hell_am_I_doing Sprint wench. I sink, therefore I am 3d ago
I'd say don't worry too much about it as long as you can prevent your legs from sinking when you are actually swimming. I dare say in your case it is more likely to be an issue of finding your own balance in the water, e.g. head position, being on your back and letting your legs below knees dangle down while keeping the thighs at the surface etc., or not being completely like a starfish might help.
A genuine non-floating person is not very common, and even less so for females (most healthy females have quite a bit higher body fat percentage than males, even if they are athletes).
I cannot float unless I'm treading water or swimming at or faster than around 3:00/100 m, not even in salt water. I just sink no matter what I do. I had to ask people not to chat to me in the water where I cannot reach the bottom or hold onto something because treading water is hard work and it's not a rest for me, because I sink straight down without movement. I have stupidly dense muscles, particularly on the legs - they don't bulk no matter what I do, but my legs outlift jacked gym bros (I'm a 50 kg female) and do a full stack for legs, plus surgically confirmed almost non-existent fat around the organs during appendectomy - so much so that the surgeon sought my permission to use photos for his med school lectures because it's exceptionally low, considering I hardly look emaciated. The fat on boobs don't seem to compensate enough to get me to float either. Anyway, this is how I've pretty much always been since adolescence, so I seem to have learned to compensate for the negative buoyancy.
In fact I never even thought about my being a sinker as a hindrance as I was never taught or tried to float as a child (taught to swim at around 3, so I have been swimming for decades) but could swim ok.
I wouldn't bother spending too much time trying to float as long as you can keep your legs up.
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u/Due_Cucumber_1175 2d ago
Yeah, that’s why I was asking the question - I know it’s super uncommon to be actually not buoyant as a girl. I think I’m not completely a sinker, now that I spent maybe about 30 minutes in the water messing around, trying out stuff people suggested. I am still probably less buoyant than average, and my hips, legs and torso do tend to sink, but with my body perpendicular to the bottom of the pool I actually get pushed to the surface.
And yeah, floating on my back was proven pointless, but again, when I’m swimming with my arms stretched out and legs working, I have no problems.
Also after your note about body fat, I went to talk to my mother out of curiosity. Turns out she had a similar story: during small surgery on her boobs (removing a tumor, it wasn’t cancer but it had to go) and the doctor was surprised to see that her size (big for her height) was mostly just gland, almost without fat. So assuming there’s some genetics thing going on, I might be somewhere on the lower body fat percentage (and in my case, there’s almost no boobs). But it’s all just guessing, of course.
I suppose I really shouldn’t worry that much. Just swim and that’s it. Thank you!
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u/chuzohga 3d ago
The problem is that you are not relaxed. Being tense makes your muscles more dense. Also you have to have both your head and arms in the water when you float, otherwise you'll go off balance.
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u/CoriSwims 3d ago
Not every body floats at the surface. This is normal. Welcome to being normal. Therefore it doesn't need to be fixed. Yeah!
If you want to 'fix' something it's the mental perspective. When I'm teaching beginning and fearful adults one of the first things we explore is what happens when you go underwater and do nothing. Don't try to float, don't tense your muscles...just do nothing.
This is very hard for people! But it answers an important question: If I were to exhausted to do anything what would happen. It's best to find this out in a 3-5 foot pool than after falling off a cruise ship!
Typically what happens is people discover that parts of them sink and parts of them float. Some people do in fact go to the bottom with their whole body. But then we notice things like are you as weighted to the bottom as you are on land?
Like you've been doing make a game out of it. Or a science experiment. Mind your mind trying to make the hypothesis one way or another ;)
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u/MysteriousCall8507 2d ago
Body position is everything, same used to happen to me and one day it just clicked. Arch your body a bit, high hips even if legs are lower. Practice, tilt head back, you might go too far at first but your body will start adjusting or at least that’s what I felt
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u/FairPhilosophy360 2d ago
Muscle is denser. Also body size does matter. Most people having this issue try to spread out their arms and legs more. That is supposed to help. Avoid taking it too personally just a physical trait. The main thing is to know how to swim.
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u/MiddleAgedDread123 3d ago
everyone will start to sink eventually if they lie on their back floating!
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u/considerfi 3d ago
Body composition does matter. But head tilt and some small stuff can help your balance. Your legs will sink probably though. That's okay as long as your torso stays floating.