My own experience is this:
Swimming used to be one of the few "exercise for exercise's sake"
activites that I enjoyed, and I did it a lot. When I becamse serious
about my singing, however, as my "body awareness" increased - which it
does when you study voice - I became increasingly aware of the chronic,
low-grade sinus and ear infections that I'd simply become used to living
with before I was a singer, but which truly became a problem when I became
conscious of my "instrument" on a much more minute scale.
Sadly, I found I had to give up swimming, although I did try to alter my
swimming habits first, only "swimming" with a kickboard, so I could keep
my head out of the water. I found, however, that this rather took the run
out of swimming. I also tried ear plugs, nose plugs, etc., but found they
weren't particularly reliable or fully effective.
Now I do know many people - singers and woodwind/brass players included -
who don't have problems with ear, nose, and throat infections as a result
of swimming. I would suggest that you continue swimming, but also be both
observant and honest with yourself: if you find that you ARE susceptible
to sinus and ear infections from the pool, you'll have to decide whether
you can manage to swim keeping your head out of the water, or whether you
might need to find a different form of exercise. Long, brisk walks don't
generate that much sweat, and also cost less in terms of money and
time, as you don't need to pay for use of a pool, and you don't need to
change clothes, dry hair, etc., after a brisk walk (unless you do tend to
be a "sweat-er").
KM
=====
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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We're sitting in the opera house;
We're waiting for the curtain to arise
With wonders for our eyes,
A feeling of expectancy,
A certain kind of ecstasy,
Expectancy and ecstasy....Sh's's's.
- Charles Ives
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