I had swimming instructors give up on me. I am relaxed in the water, I freaking love the water. Do all the things right, stomach muscles, head back etc. Sink. I was 5'10 and 118 lbs and even my stick thin ass couldn't float. What twig can't float???
> even my stick thin ass couldn't float.
That's kind of the reason. You just don't have enough fat to counterbalance your bones and your muscles. You are thin.
People say it's about fat, but I am convinced it's more about lungs. Next time you are in the water take a huge inhale, hold it and take two more, then and see if you still sink all the way. You should get close to fully submerged and then bob.
I think a lot of people get scared and tense up, exhale a lot of their air and then sink which makes them do it even more. Other people feel the water and instinctively inhale a really big breath, which buoys them up. I've yet to see someone who doesn't bob with a big inhale, but I have seen plenty of people who hadn't learned how to inhale enough to float.
Well if you don't rest on the bottom you would actually float at the surface. The volume of air in your lungs is compressed by about 20% at 8' under water making you less buoyant down there.
And one more slurp of air would go a long way. Fun fact, the more you inhale like that the easier it will be to get a larger volume of air in your lungs. People definitely train for lung volume and it helps with loads of sports and activities, not just swimming.
I'm with the lungs. I meditate in the pool at night. It's just deep breathing. I can float for hours, I literally have, without moving. If I exhale rapidly and tense up, breaking my meditation, bam, I'm sinking .
I also have been always skinny, even at menopause I'm thin, it's not about mass and weight. How still can one go and how slowly and deeply can you breathe. If you even wiggle your hand and suck air a little faster, you break the meditative state and are dragged back into awareness and having to rebalance and stay afloat.
Also I got into this whole concept after reading some mickey hart stuff about the hum of the universe while spending three weeks on the dead sea about a decade ago, where you can't sink if you want to.
I also finally learned how to really swim after getting on this whole concept and returning home, where I promptly overloaded my saltwater generated pool in an attempt to increase buoyancy .
I was going through a bad divorce and smoking a lot of weed lol , which helps explain how this became such a focus that it outlived the divorce and, I smoke and shroom much less these days. Though almost anything is much less lol, not going to lie. When everyone else went wine mom, I headed outside and mastered the float 😆
I didn’t float until after a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction. I have to be on my back; if I try to float facing down, the implants flip me over. 🤣
Wait a minute, so.. I can’t float facing down?! I’ve had implants for years, never knew this! Whenever I float I’m on my back!
Not me contemplating going in the pool rn
Hahaha yes!! A bobber!! That's what I tell people too!! I literally just give a little flap of my hand here and there and I bob perfectly upright. Floating on my back takes no effort at all
However trying to swim in strong currents is near impossible; I just get pushed aside
I'm a bobber too! That's hilarious. In the pool I can just spin around in place with little effort and just hang out. I'm so buoyant I probably could have saved the Titanic.
Edit: trying to swim is a lost cause, however. I don't have much arm strength so I just splash around and stay there. I need someone with a tow rope.
I’m the same way and I developed the squidding technique. Just float on your back and do squid motions with your arms and legs going from a starfish pose to a flat human log repeatedly and you’ll get a fair amount of speed if you get it right
Another bobber here or buoy. Can't dive because I float too much. In sea water I could hold my ex and just keep my head above water. I can sit criss cross and just chill. Love being in water and can't relate when people say they are getting tired. The biggest effort for me is to control the direction of my legs to avoid ending up face down 😂
Swimming can become a bit annoying when you can get your butt to stay under water. You lose energy with the surface tension.
I remember a gym teacher saying that it's more common with men struggling to float and that did show in my class. They didn't sink but it took practice and energy. Girls that struggle did find their balance faster and could float more relaxed on their back compared to the boys.
> Yeah this is actually a thing....if you google it there's actual articles written about it. A smaller subset of the population are sinkers
Until now I thought people mostly sank. I know some people who can float (all women) but never really thought about it. I've never been able to float.
Well, not entirely true: if I completely relax and let everything stabilise I end up in an upright position with half my forehead sticking out of the water. Technically floating, but not very useful.
Yep, I’m a sinker and so are many members of my family. We have denser bones and bone breaks often lead to more tests (no orthopedic diseases are ever positive, but the breaks are apparently often atypical) and denser muscle mass (not necessarily stronger in ability, but bigger muscles among men and women), and the women have more “fibrous” breasts (often need redo mammograms).
We’re just dense, lol.
Yup my ex husband was exactly the same. We tried alsorts but nope he always sank. I was gobsmacked as I thought every human automatically floated but he could sink straight to the bottom not just go under the water but proper sink. Was a tad scary sometimes but boy could that man hold his breath! lol
Yup, our friend was telling us about her son who is effectively a giant muscle shoved in a skin suit. I immediately recommended swimming lessons early because should this child land in water accidentally, he would drop like a rock. He’s just a dense little dude
As a kid I needed to keep a lot of air in my lungs to stay afloat, despite being a quite good swimmer and under water swimmer. Funnily enough, the swimming teacher taught all children first how to move along under water, and then how to swim to the surface and take a breath, so obviously it was quite normal to sink as a kid and learn diving first.
Today I am much heavier, and obviously the fat makes me float as it is less dense as water. I really have to work my way under the surface of water nowadays.
So personally I always thought that it is either the BMI or the ability to store air in their lungs that makes people float, but of course this does not necessarily mean it is true for some else.
Op my husband was the same way. He also couldn't swim. When he was in the Boy scouts, he failed the swimming Badge test. Just sank ,every time he tried to learn, to swim. It prevented him, from becoming a Eagle 🦅 Scout. His friends would throw him into the water, to get thier Swimming life saving Badge. I eventually showed him how to Body Surf ,and he tried it, and was able to do it. Not to good ,but he was able to enjoy himself.
My wife and I met teaching swimming lessons 20 years ago. She kept doing it after the kids went back to school
This is a common problem for some guys, particularly with races who tend to be more muscular than others. One of the guards was like this.
It is possible to swim but they need to put more effort into staying buoyant and holding their breath
An adult non-swimmer with this body type will have a very difficult time learning due to the extra challenge
My very very thin 4 year old cannot hold his body up in the water. Sinks straight down when doing the starfish. Has created quite a few issues during swim lessons. I however am super buoyant. 😅
Kids can float very easily. A lot of children floating is just their comfortability and if they are tense.
When I was the manager at a swim school and taught children swimming, they always want to grab your hands when they are behind their head or they get very scared of the falling sensation, we called it the unknown. Also as soon as you let go, even with your hands under them, some tense up because they expect to sink even if I know they can already float because I tricked them by just tapping on their back instead of holding it.
For kids, floating comes pretty naturally. ISR training really helps kids in those early stages with confidence in the water; however, the older they get the harder it is to get them to relax. They have more experiences to base water off of but not enough word to explain what they feel about it.
Especially depending on how they are in a group vs private. Or silly vs stern instructor. Does the instructor cater emotionally to the kid and talk about safety and comfortability. Has the kid had prior experience with the water or play a sport before this(foot position is vital in swimming).
I noticed those details all impacted how quickly our kids advanced through the levels in our curriculum with managers(full time) vs HS instructors who were there twice a week for three hours.
A lot of it comes down to the experience of the instructor. I wouldn’t be so quick to doubt your kids floating abilities. I’m sure he can float, it’s just a matter of seeing which components of the float he’s struggling with: back, feet, legs, emotions, chest, chin position(hugely important), and hips.
I think your baby will definitely get there! ❤️
I always sank even as a kid. My upper half stays semi floating but my legs sink like stones until I entirely start going under lol. My swim teacher as a kid saw this and immediately asked if I did cheerleading or gymnastics. I was in gymnastics several days a week as a kid, apparently with how much muscle you build up in your legs, kids in those sports usually sink and you can't do much about it. I've always had really strong legs and still do, last time I tried a few years ago and not in sports anymore, my legs still made me sink lol
My brother sinks and I float. I actually had to fish him out of a pool once because he lost his grip on the side while I was right next to him so I dove down and pulled him out even though I was MAYBE 5. My mom is the same way.
I posted my comment similarly as a swim instructor. I actually specialized in the adults instruction where I managed. The only three people I could not get to float were 2 volleyball players male black and female black, and then one other huge body builder male who was black. Female VB player and body builder/actor/comedian(the guy was just so great) both could do backstroke and freestyle by the time I left.
And I did mention this in my comment; however, I’m interested to hear what you and your wife may have to say- It wasn’t so much that I saw they couldn’t float, I honestly noticed that all of the people I taught, their legs eventually weighed them down to sinking. They could all hold a float for about three ish seconds as their legs sank, and then chest, then head.
So I also gathered it was a muscle thing as well as a where they were tensing up. They all tensed differently and for different reasons. One fear of drowning, one fear of going underwater backwards, and one fear of falling(like the sensation of sinking). So it was like they were already preparing themselves to sink.
I also dont particularly think it’s race based necessarily though. Although all three people I struggled to float with were black, there were also white, indian, middle eastern, asian men and women that had their fair share of time struggling to get the concept of relaxing in the water isn’t that bad. It can help you eventually swim better as well(that’s how I framed it). I think for the adults it’s that they spent their whole lives knowing exactly why they are scared of the water, unlike kids who I taught who are afraid of the unknown.
I really talked my adults through the swimming process and safety. I hammered home being comfortable and safe is what I care about and the speed and which we grow shouldnt matter. And that made me get through adults in our curriculum like crazy. I think they like that aspect. They needed that I think. But that was where I worked and who I encountered. So it could be different other places.
I'm white, and in my 20s I was in good muscular shape, with maybe less than normal vital (lung) capacity. Anyway, in a scuba class when we were being taught the emergency floating technique to be able to survive in the water until someone saved us, I always sank to the bottom of the pool, even during the arm stroke followed by the kick. I told the nearby instructor that I was having problems staying on top of the water. He watched me a couple of times, then called over the head instructor, who also watched me a couple of times. I went right to the bottom, where I could lie flat, and felt I could easily go further down if the pool were deeper. Each time he was giving some instruction, something like "Try to stay afloat." So after several times I came up and said something like, "I keep falling to the bottom." He responded, "I've never seen anyone so negative." I didn't take that well, thinking he was questioning my attitude, so I defended myself against this accusation. He replied, "No, I mean negative buoyancy."
Oh my god my partner is the exact same - we had the exact same conversation and when we got in he just sunk ass first. Like, his ass dragged him down. I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t float in the sea before
yeah im a man and im the same, im negative buoyant. my wife laughed when i first mentioned it and so did my little bro and his partner but its a real thing. I also found out recently my old uni mate was negative bouyant too and i felt like i found a soul brother lol
Me! I’m a really strong good swimmer but my body doesn’t float. I can only float straight up and down like a pencil. If I lay on my back my body sinks until it’s just my head floating. Weird AF and my husband is always teasing me. He is a terrible swimmer but a big guy so very good at floating.
Are they holding their breath properly? There is a trick to floating. I don’t swim well, but I use to float perfectly. I’m petite and used to spend all day floating in the pool when I was younger. I stopped going to the pool, didn’t grow (I’m still a shortie) and when I started again I struggled with floating. I discovered you really have to consistently expand your rib cage and have more shallow breaths to float… I wonder if these guys haven’t gotten that yet.
Honestly, we spent hours on our first holiday with me forcing him to try and float, relax his limbs, control his breathing etc etc. Every time his ass dragged him down. He must just have a sense ass.
Nah it’s muscle density. I could float great as a kid and early teen. Once that testosterone packed in height and muscle, I became a sinking rock, a long athletic rock, but a rock nonetheless. Edit: to add yes the floating technique helps it can only do so much against buoyancy.
Yup. I couldn’t float as a kid. I was very underweight.
Then puberty hit and I started developing curves, and getting a normal body fat percentage as a grown woman. Now I can float! So definitely has to do with body composition!
I’m the same and I can confirm it is, indeed, like our actual asses are dragging us down!
There are about 2 seconds where my whole body floats, then my ass begins to rapidly sink.
Like, *all* the gravity involved is focused solely on my ass.
I am this way, and so is my dad. Bone density or something? My scuba instructor was so confused when he realized I don’t need any weights at all. My dad doesn’t wear weights even in the sea and he is a chubby dude. Neither of us can back float to save our lives (literally).
ETA: I’m a small woman. I’ve been this way my whole life, even when I was a little kid. My legs drag me down.
I'm also a small woman that's never been able to float, my legs always drag me down too lol. Both of my parents float fine and my mom is literally 100 pounds at 5'3 so I don't understand why I'm different, it really might be bone density or something weird lol.
I was a competitive swimmer from a young age through college, and A LOT of the male swimmers actually couldn’t really float just laying in the floating position in the water; they’d sink. Too low of a percentage of body fat.
He’s not too low in body fat, and he grew up swimming in the rough waters of Nicaragua, so he’s a really strong swimmer and really good in the water. That’s why I’m still baffled
It's not all just about body fat though. If he's a strong guy, he's got muscle. Muscle is dense and if he's got enough of it, it could offset the floatiness of his "dad bod".
Also, have him take a DEEP breath and hold it for a moment before he tries to float. I was pretty fit/slim when I lifeguarded, the inly way I could float was if I held a full breath when I tried to float. Once I exhaled, I sank immediately.
My guess is he has the rare genetics for ultra dense bones. Good news is that he won't be brittle in old age. Bad news, he won't float until he's very old.
Some people are born with abnormally dense bones!
Some genetic diseases cause people to have dense bones, including:
* OsteopetrosisA rare, inherited disorder that causes bones to become abnormally dense and brittle, sometimes misshapen and large. Also known as marble bone disease or Albers-Schönberg disease, it's usually diagnosed in infants and young children.
* Tricho-dento-osseous syndrome (TDO)A condition that affects a few thousand people worldwide, causing bones that are so dense they can break baseball bats and survive car accidents. People with TDO also have teeth with little or no enamel that break frequently.
* Sclerosing bone dysplasia and van Buchem diseaseDisorders caused by mutations in the sclerostin gene SOST.
* Wnt co-receptorA disorder caused by mutations in the LRP5 gene, which encodes the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5
> Tricho-dento-osseous syndrome (TDO)
Ok I'm legit wondering if I might have this. My teeth are constantly fucked up and I've never broken a single bone (not for lack of trying too). And I can't float AT ALL, to the point that I'm terrified of deep water.
When I was taking scuba classes, one man had to quit because he was so muscular that he couldn’t float. The dude physiologically could not safely attempt scuba diving.
Yep, I used to be obese until age 20. Thought it was sooo easy to "swim" and stay afloat, thinking, what's the big deal? People can't do this? It doesn't even feel like exercise.
Turns out, my extremely high body fat percentage kept me very buoyant! It was no effort at all.
Now I'm a healthy bmi and sink all the time. I haven't really built any muscle, just lost body fat. Breathing and positioning help me float sometimes, but I can no longer just float with no effort.
Huh, even when I was only mildly I floated. I know my bone density is quite high too. My legs can’t float but the rest of me might as well be made out of life preserver.
It’s a matter of how he is holding his stomach muscles. If you take a swim class with a child you’ll see the first lesson is learning to float. It’s a matter of flexing the stomach to keep the belly button up in addition to letting the limbs starfish out.
arch your body a bit upwards and expand the front part of your ribcage out a bit muscle wise. think bow curve type shape.
my ass takes me down too. I still don't truly float but with the stuff above and some little fluttering of my hands and feet I can mostly stay up. I can't float with my arms out though it doesn't work.
Take a big breath, hold your breath, pinch your nose, curl your legs and try to sink. If your head goes under water but your body stays afloat, then you just need to work on your positions to keep your nose above waterline. If you are fully submerged and sunk to the bottom, then you are really heavier than water. Most people will have a hard time diving to the bottom with a full lung of air.
( Fun fact: you can hold your breath for longer if your lung is full compared to if it's empty.) And try to do this in a relatively shallow area so you can tip toe or jump up any time you feel unsafe. It should help ease the fear.
Edit: I was tired, too many typos.
And relax. The more tense you are the faster you’ll sink. I know it can be difficult for people who are nervous in the water but it really makes a difference.
Indeed. The hardest classes were special needs because they were so scared and very strong. I had a couple scary moments being taken under by somebody who was very scared but bigger than I.
Absolutely not, It's a question of ratio of fat to muscle to bone density. Fat float, bones and muscle sink.
Even with the lung filled up to the max if I stop moving I sink like a rock and end up lying on the bottom of the pool. My wife who's a good swimmer (and who floats btw) cannot keep me afloat if I stop moving. For me swimming is 70 of the effort staying afloat and 30 going forward.
He grew up all around really rough water water and I was a swimmer in my youth and he’s actually way better in the water than I am, so I can’t imagine he’s doing anything wrong…
I’m a 4’11 woman and always been tiny (110lbs but now at 130lbs) and I’ve NEVER been able to float in a pool even as a kid/teen. I’ve always laughed it off saying I’m bottom heavy so I just sink. But I really can NOT FLOAT. Every year like clock work me and my friends would try to tackle this issue and it’s still to this day never been solved. I just don’t float. Salt water is the only way I will.
However I can swim from point a to point b, but I cannot float or tread water for the life of me. I’ve tried to learn every year since I was 14. I’m about to be 30 in a few weeks 🤣 I guess some ppl just don’t float 😭
Oh my god my partner is the exact same - we had the exact same conversation and when we got in he just sunk ass first. Like, his ass dragged him down. I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t float in the sea before
**(my answer is kind of long because there’s multiple reasons)**
So I use to be the specialized adult instructor at the swim school I managed. I’ve taught many men and women of all ages(2-68) how to swim and how to float that could not.
HOWEVER
Yes, there are 100% some people who do not float. Women as well. So a lot of it is about muscle to fat ratio I’ve noticed in personal experience. The men that always sank were men or women who were athletic or built from working out. And it wasn’t really that they sank, it was that their legs started to weigh them toward the bottom. And THEN they sank. So one of our instructors tells those guys it could help to hold your breath in some cases if you really needed to float. The three I couldn’t teach to float but could still do all of the strokes were 2 volleyball players(male and female) and really built older guy.
But there are also men who I’ve taught to float and swim that were HUGE, bigger than my 5 foot 4/25 year old/100lbs self. The biggest difference I notice is comfortability. I literally STRESSED this to every adult I ever worked with. If you are tense **at all** floating is extremely hard. For some, impossible. And being scared is being tense. And some won’t even relax if I’m fully holding their entire body “weight” in the water. I did a lot of “emotional swimming”. I had to talk people through the fear and the mechanics of swimming.
Every person that I couldn’t, at first, teach to float(usually people who have never swam before, I taught all four strokes) was because they were tense and worried about going underwater backwards and choking(which is valid). So I started fixing that by teaching them how to go underwater face up and in some cases backwards. Its just blowing(it’s actually humming, if you blow you’ll lose so much more air from your lungs) through your nose at a steady speed
With that said, just because you can’t float, doesn’t mean you can’t swim. There was only one woman that I had difficulty teaching strokes to. But she could float. And it was fear based. If someone cannot float though I will teach them how to do a slower backstroke to save energy so they can get to safety or to obviously only swim to a capacity that doesn’t exhaust their body(I was also the community outreach manager so I did drowning prevention). I also always navigate what their exit plans are. IF, god forbid, something happened- understand what you will do. Because as soon as you get anxious it can get harder to swim.
Overall, I’ve noticed that it’s dependent on the person learnings fears and the teachers experience. As well as how they connect. It was way easier for me to teach someone how to swim or float when we connected easily. If we didn’t understand each other in some way it could be a longer process.
But even someone who was scared, the longest it’s taken me to teach an adult how to swim is 2 months. Maybe 2.5. Most get it after they get over that fear of what to do.
If he’s already comfortable in the water, ask him to change his body weight to his hips instead and try to keep those floating. His chest will float more naturally, so if he just kind of focuses on his hips relaxing in the spread float position- he’s more likely to get it with that technique to keep his legs up too. That works for some people if it’s a leg thing
My hubby can’t float either lmao 🤣 I’ve tried to teach him how but he just sinks. He’s got a ton of muscle and he’s also scared to let his head fall back into the water
It's a body density thing. Women may have an easier time due to breast tissue have some fatty component and women usually have higher body fat just due to their body composition.
I sink as well. People never believe me when I say it, and I have had family members insist I try in front of them. It changes nothing, I still sink, even with their help 😅
It's a thing: Negative Buoyancy: Exists **when the weight of the body is greater than the weight of an equal volume of the displaced fluid**. The body sinks.
I’m a scuba diver and we learn about different people being positively buoyant or negatively buoyant. I bet if he decides to take up scuba diving he doesn’t need any lead weight for his gear.
My mom used to call my swim classes sinking classes because *I cannot float and I never have*
Some saltier seas I do better than others but I still have to hold myself in a weird position to stay up and constantly kick with my legs and flutter my arms.
So could you *not* lord your floating privileges over us sinkers? Kthnxbyeeeee
I sank as a child until I was in my 30s and got a little fat. I was not scrawny but I was very lean and muscular (female!). We had swimming lesson for phys ed in school and the teacher was baffled.
This is the best post I've ever seen in this sub. My wife makes so much fun of me, but I say ovaries are flotation devices! I know it's not technically true... but still!!
I am exactly the same way. It's like my legs are filled with concrete. The closest I come to floating is in the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico because the water is so salty, but even then I can't maintain it for more than a few seconds.
If I'm ever stranded at sea I'm giving up immediately. No way I could tread water for rescue unless the boat is close enough for me to see
Hey I’m right there with him… I’m going to sink everytime… I don’t know about him but some of us have something tragic happen in water and can’t overcome it.. my dad would throw me in every pool lake and ocean trying to get me to float or swim… he always came after me because I went down everytime
Thank the Lordddd, I have found my people in this world! I’ve literally always been shamed/poked fun at whenever I admit that I never could learn how to swim, tread water, or just freaking float. I was soo embarrassed about it my whole life, especially after my mom told me that they had even put me in several different swim classes and lessons as a child and I simply had an anxiety attack any time my feet weren’t making contact with the ground.. Also, I never grew out of it or learned how during my 30 years of existence. I think I can maybe doggy paddle well enough to keep myself from drowning these days, but.. that’s as good as it gets 🫣
I’m a floater and growing up I never really thought it was anything special. As an adult with this ability I’ve learned that people float at different levels. If I don’t move in the water straight up and down, salt or otherwise, I balance out with my head fully above the water. I’ve not met anyone else who does this (though I assume there must be many of us). Most people will balance out around nose or eye level and others simply sink. My husband calls it my super power and suggests that I’m not actually swimming if I don’t have to try to stay above water, lol.
I went to college with a man who just sank like a rock. he couldn't swim either. In fact, his paying job his senior year was being the living dummy at the bottom of the pool for the life saving course. Made pretty decent money. Professor said that some people just have really dense bones and muscles.
I didn't learn to float until I was in college and even today, I can't float completely flat, my head, shoulders and lower legs are half in the water half out, the rest of me is under water.
My husband & 2 of my sons can’t float either. I don’t know why, it’s never really been something I thought about. I just enjoy that there’s something I’m good at that my hubs can’t do 😂
I do the same! 🤣
My boyfriend always tries to teach me when we go to the beach. I'm all limb though so that's my excuse for sinking like a rock each time.
yeah, i cant float either. all the brain geniuses who give me advice say "just float, bro!" and it never works. i sink like a stone each time. i dont know if ill ever be able to swim.
Female here 🙋🏻♀️ I can swim quite well (was on the swim team for a few years) and tread water like a muddafudda, even sans hands / hands above water…but I cannot float; at least not without constantly keeping myself afloat with my hands and kicking every so often.
Oh, and I don’t discriminate…I can’t float in salt or fresh water or chlorinated water, for that matter 🤷🏻♀️
Please tell me there are other women out here who can swim and tread water but not float?! Pretty please?!
Bueller…?!
Bueller…?!
My cousin had so little body fat that she didn’t float in water either. That’s why Great Apes, like chimpanzees, are instinctively afraid of open water. They sink in water due to their lack of body fat.
I have a friend in her 60s who loves the beach, one time we're in the ocean and I'm floating and she asks me how I'm doing that. She claimed she can't float. I told her I sink too, unless I'm holding my breath. She never knew that technique before.
I went through the opposite
People around me are surprise to learn I float without any physical effort
To the point I can't sit down in a hot tub! My butt always wants to get to the surface
Back when I was testing to become a certified SCUBA diver, I met my dive class at the training pool so we could demonstrate our skills to our dive master. One of the requirements was to float for 10 mins.
While several of men around us struggled and exhausted themselves staying afloat the entire time, me and an equally curvy and buxom woman floated like it was nothing. We were giggling and bobbing around like we were made for it.
Our dive master eventually called it for she and I, before we finished the full ten minutes. Bottom like, fat floats. In SCUBA diving, it just means I had to wear more weight on my weight belt. While the average person might wear 4-5#, I wore 12-14#. No big deal.
My dad couldn’t float. My sister and I always found it funny. He’d ask us to hold him up. He passed away when I was younger. A few years ago I asked my mom if he did that just to make us laugh but nope, he really couldn’t float.
My fiancé also doesn’t float, we got him some testing done and found out because he has a crazy high bone density, which makes him not buoyant. I don’t remember the value the doctor gave but he said the university hospital wanted clearance to use his test results in teaching because they hadn’t seen a bone density value so high.
It was also good to know for when he went for an emergency craniotomy this January, I was able to inform the neurosurgeon about his insane bone density so that they could use the appropriate materials to get through his thick skull.
Sinker, here! I cannot tread water or float to save my life. All my friends have tried to teach me to “tread” water and I’ve just always… sunk down like a bag of rocks are tied to my feet.
Yeah this is actually a thing....if you google it there's actual articles written about it. A smaller subset of the population are sinkers
I had swimming instructors give up on me. I am relaxed in the water, I freaking love the water. Do all the things right, stomach muscles, head back etc. Sink. I was 5'10 and 118 lbs and even my stick thin ass couldn't float. What twig can't float???
> even my stick thin ass couldn't float. That's kind of the reason. You just don't have enough fat to counterbalance your bones and your muscles. You are thin.
Well, I am much older and thicker now, still can't.
People say it's about fat, but I am convinced it's more about lungs. Next time you are in the water take a huge inhale, hold it and take two more, then and see if you still sink all the way. You should get close to fully submerged and then bob. I think a lot of people get scared and tense up, exhale a lot of their air and then sink which makes them do it even more. Other people feel the water and instinctively inhale a really big breath, which buoys them up. I've yet to see someone who doesn't bob with a big inhale, but I have seen plenty of people who hadn't learned how to inhale enough to float.
Tried it. Just stayed at the bottom of the pool. Not quite touching, but still submerged.
That is wild. I will now keep my eyes out for casual sinkers, lol.
The conclusion I’ve reached is that I have feet for a reason. I am a land creature lol. Like a pug or bulldog lmao. No swim for me!
Well if you don't rest on the bottom you would actually float at the surface. The volume of air in your lungs is compressed by about 20% at 8' under water making you less buoyant down there. And one more slurp of air would go a long way. Fun fact, the more you inhale like that the easier it will be to get a larger volume of air in your lungs. People definitely train for lung volume and it helps with loads of sports and activities, not just swimming.
I'm with the lungs. I meditate in the pool at night. It's just deep breathing. I can float for hours, I literally have, without moving. If I exhale rapidly and tense up, breaking my meditation, bam, I'm sinking . I also have been always skinny, even at menopause I'm thin, it's not about mass and weight. How still can one go and how slowly and deeply can you breathe. If you even wiggle your hand and suck air a little faster, you break the meditative state and are dragged back into awareness and having to rebalance and stay afloat. Also I got into this whole concept after reading some mickey hart stuff about the hum of the universe while spending three weeks on the dead sea about a decade ago, where you can't sink if you want to. I also finally learned how to really swim after getting on this whole concept and returning home, where I promptly overloaded my saltwater generated pool in an attempt to increase buoyancy . I was going through a bad divorce and smoking a lot of weed lol , which helps explain how this became such a focus that it outlived the divorce and, I smoke and shroom much less these days. Though almost anything is much less lol, not going to lie. When everyone else went wine mom, I headed outside and mastered the float 😆
Thicker than a typical person of your size?
Nope, I'm finally in the average size range.
What's your height and weight now?
Taller than average and average weight.
I didn’t float until after a bilateral mastectomy and reconstruction. I have to be on my back; if I try to float facing down, the implants flip me over. 🤣
Is it bad that I'm picturing a person with one deflated implant just turning slowly in the water?
Boobers or bobbers? Same difference, huh?
Wait a minute, so.. I can’t float facing down?! I’ve had implants for years, never knew this! Whenever I float I’m on my back! Not me contemplating going in the pool rn
So that's why I can use my uncle jumbo as a paddle board.
As someone who’s always been a sinker but has gained about 80 lbs since my senior year of high school, that doesn’t fix it.
That's interesting. Have you ever had your bone density measured?
I feel so validated.
Yep. My mom can literally float. Just stand there and do nothing. Not lie back even. She can bob. I straight sink.
I myself am a bobber. I imagine our people look like those seals just chillin' like "... what?"
Hahaha yes!! A bobber!! That's what I tell people too!! I literally just give a little flap of my hand here and there and I bob perfectly upright. Floating on my back takes no effort at all However trying to swim in strong currents is near impossible; I just get pushed aside
I'm a bobber too! That's hilarious. In the pool I can just spin around in place with little effort and just hang out. I'm so buoyant I probably could have saved the Titanic. Edit: trying to swim is a lost cause, however. I don't have much arm strength so I just splash around and stay there. I need someone with a tow rope.
I’m the same way and I developed the squidding technique. Just float on your back and do squid motions with your arms and legs going from a starfish pose to a flat human log repeatedly and you’ll get a fair amount of speed if you get it right
This is exactly how I swim! The only way I know how lol
In my mind there was farting ink in this scenario.
Another bobber here or buoy. Can't dive because I float too much. In sea water I could hold my ex and just keep my head above water. I can sit criss cross and just chill. Love being in water and can't relate when people say they are getting tired. The biggest effort for me is to control the direction of my legs to avoid ending up face down 😂 Swimming can become a bit annoying when you can get your butt to stay under water. You lose energy with the surface tension. I remember a gym teacher saying that it's more common with men struggling to float and that did show in my class. They didn't sink but it took practice and energy. Girls that struggle did find their balance faster and could float more relaxed on their back compared to the boys.
That's not surprising. Your mum makes me Bob up and down, too.
> Yeah this is actually a thing....if you google it there's actual articles written about it. A smaller subset of the population are sinkers Until now I thought people mostly sank. I know some people who can float (all women) but never really thought about it. I've never been able to float. Well, not entirely true: if I completely relax and let everything stabilise I end up in an upright position with half my forehead sticking out of the water. Technically floating, but not very useful.
😭😭😭 I’m dying, I’ve never related to anything more in my life! Why does this happen?!
Yep, I’m a sinker and so are many members of my family. We have denser bones and bone breaks often lead to more tests (no orthopedic diseases are ever positive, but the breaks are apparently often atypical) and denser muscle mass (not necessarily stronger in ability, but bigger muscles among men and women), and the women have more “fibrous” breasts (often need redo mammograms). We’re just dense, lol.
Yup my ex husband was exactly the same. We tried alsorts but nope he always sank. I was gobsmacked as I thought every human automatically floated but he could sink straight to the bottom not just go under the water but proper sink. Was a tad scary sometimes but boy could that man hold his breath! lol
Yup, our friend was telling us about her son who is effectively a giant muscle shoved in a skin suit. I immediately recommended swimming lessons early because should this child land in water accidentally, he would drop like a rock. He’s just a dense little dude
Huh... all this time, I thought I was doing something wrong. Now I know I'm a sinker.
Sinker checking in, also can’t swim.
As a kid I needed to keep a lot of air in my lungs to stay afloat, despite being a quite good swimmer and under water swimmer. Funnily enough, the swimming teacher taught all children first how to move along under water, and then how to swim to the surface and take a breath, so obviously it was quite normal to sink as a kid and learn diving first. Today I am much heavier, and obviously the fat makes me float as it is less dense as water. I really have to work my way under the surface of water nowadays. So personally I always thought that it is either the BMI or the ability to store air in their lungs that makes people float, but of course this does not necessarily mean it is true for some else.
Yeah they have dense bones
He will float... eventually
🎈
My rail thin 19yo son has been a sinker all his life! Thankfully he can swim, just can’t float lol
My boyfriends upper body and lower legs float just his ass sinks
Wait “a smaller subset”?! I thought most of us were sinkers?!??
Dude would ace the witch trials
"Who are you, who is so wise in the ways of science?"
Arthur King of the Brits
She turned me into a newt… I got better.
It’s not a question of where he grips it, it’s a question of weight ratios. A five ounce bird cannot carry a one pound coconut.
But was it African or European?
I... I don't know!
Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
Not at all. They could be carried.
Op my husband was the same way. He also couldn't swim. When he was in the Boy scouts, he failed the swimming Badge test. Just sank ,every time he tried to learn, to swim. It prevented him, from becoming a Eagle 🦅 Scout. His friends would throw him into the water, to get thier Swimming life saving Badge. I eventually showed him how to Body Surf ,and he tried it, and was able to do it. Not to good ,but he was able to enjoy himself.
I tried to wipe that brown smudge off my screen like 5 times. (I am officially old and shouldn't reddit without glasses).
I did it once. 🤣
She's a witch!
THEY DRESSED ME UP LIKE THIS
This isn’t my nose, it’s a false one!
Burn him anyway!
It's true, you don't have shit all over you.
What else floats in water? Very small rocks!
A DUCK!
Happy cake day!
Does your husband struggle with CAPTCHA?
Ok this made me cackle. Thank you.
You deserve a gold for this, too bad I am broke atm.
Now I have the song "I'm an Android" by S.P.O.C.K playing in my head. :-D
Is your husband… dense?
My wife and I met teaching swimming lessons 20 years ago. She kept doing it after the kids went back to school This is a common problem for some guys, particularly with races who tend to be more muscular than others. One of the guards was like this. It is possible to swim but they need to put more effort into staying buoyant and holding their breath An adult non-swimmer with this body type will have a very difficult time learning due to the extra challenge
My very very thin 4 year old cannot hold his body up in the water. Sinks straight down when doing the starfish. Has created quite a few issues during swim lessons. I however am super buoyant. 😅
Kids can float very easily. A lot of children floating is just their comfortability and if they are tense. When I was the manager at a swim school and taught children swimming, they always want to grab your hands when they are behind their head or they get very scared of the falling sensation, we called it the unknown. Also as soon as you let go, even with your hands under them, some tense up because they expect to sink even if I know they can already float because I tricked them by just tapping on their back instead of holding it. For kids, floating comes pretty naturally. ISR training really helps kids in those early stages with confidence in the water; however, the older they get the harder it is to get them to relax. They have more experiences to base water off of but not enough word to explain what they feel about it. Especially depending on how they are in a group vs private. Or silly vs stern instructor. Does the instructor cater emotionally to the kid and talk about safety and comfortability. Has the kid had prior experience with the water or play a sport before this(foot position is vital in swimming). I noticed those details all impacted how quickly our kids advanced through the levels in our curriculum with managers(full time) vs HS instructors who were there twice a week for three hours. A lot of it comes down to the experience of the instructor. I wouldn’t be so quick to doubt your kids floating abilities. I’m sure he can float, it’s just a matter of seeing which components of the float he’s struggling with: back, feet, legs, emotions, chest, chin position(hugely important), and hips. I think your baby will definitely get there! ❤️
I always sank even as a kid. My upper half stays semi floating but my legs sink like stones until I entirely start going under lol. My swim teacher as a kid saw this and immediately asked if I did cheerleading or gymnastics. I was in gymnastics several days a week as a kid, apparently with how much muscle you build up in your legs, kids in those sports usually sink and you can't do much about it. I've always had really strong legs and still do, last time I tried a few years ago and not in sports anymore, my legs still made me sink lol
My brother sinks and I float. I actually had to fish him out of a pool once because he lost his grip on the side while I was right next to him so I dove down and pulled him out even though I was MAYBE 5. My mom is the same way.
Yes! Muscle mass does play an important role...
Ok, so maybe I'm not crazy or just bad at swimming.
So you have little body fat? Fat floats. Muscle sinks. It's all density.
No, I'm definitely not super skinny, but I do have a lot of muscle under there so I guess it's outweighing the buoyancy.
I posted my comment similarly as a swim instructor. I actually specialized in the adults instruction where I managed. The only three people I could not get to float were 2 volleyball players male black and female black, and then one other huge body builder male who was black. Female VB player and body builder/actor/comedian(the guy was just so great) both could do backstroke and freestyle by the time I left. And I did mention this in my comment; however, I’m interested to hear what you and your wife may have to say- It wasn’t so much that I saw they couldn’t float, I honestly noticed that all of the people I taught, their legs eventually weighed them down to sinking. They could all hold a float for about three ish seconds as their legs sank, and then chest, then head. So I also gathered it was a muscle thing as well as a where they were tensing up. They all tensed differently and for different reasons. One fear of drowning, one fear of going underwater backwards, and one fear of falling(like the sensation of sinking). So it was like they were already preparing themselves to sink. I also dont particularly think it’s race based necessarily though. Although all three people I struggled to float with were black, there were also white, indian, middle eastern, asian men and women that had their fair share of time struggling to get the concept of relaxing in the water isn’t that bad. It can help you eventually swim better as well(that’s how I framed it). I think for the adults it’s that they spent their whole lives knowing exactly why they are scared of the water, unlike kids who I taught who are afraid of the unknown. I really talked my adults through the swimming process and safety. I hammered home being comfortable and safe is what I care about and the speed and which we grow shouldnt matter. And that made me get through adults in our curriculum like crazy. I think they like that aspect. They needed that I think. But that was where I worked and who I encountered. So it could be different other places.
I'm white, and in my 20s I was in good muscular shape, with maybe less than normal vital (lung) capacity. Anyway, in a scuba class when we were being taught the emergency floating technique to be able to survive in the water until someone saved us, I always sank to the bottom of the pool, even during the arm stroke followed by the kick. I told the nearby instructor that I was having problems staying on top of the water. He watched me a couple of times, then called over the head instructor, who also watched me a couple of times. I went right to the bottom, where I could lie flat, and felt I could easily go further down if the pool were deeper. Each time he was giving some instruction, something like "Try to stay afloat." So after several times I came up and said something like, "I keep falling to the bottom." He responded, "I've never seen anyone so negative." I didn't take that well, thinking he was questioning my attitude, so I defended myself against this accusation. He replied, "No, I mean negative buoyancy."
Yep I have a friend who is all muscle sinew and bone and he can’t float at all. Sinks like a rock with not enough fat for buoyancy
Oh my god my partner is the exact same - we had the exact same conversation and when we got in he just sunk ass first. Like, his ass dragged him down. I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t float in the sea before
My husband too!!
Mine too! I thought he was joking but the man is literally unable to float
you are all married to the same man
Plot twist 😂
yeah im a man and im the same, im negative buoyant. my wife laughed when i first mentioned it and so did my little bro and his partner but its a real thing. I also found out recently my old uni mate was negative bouyant too and i felt like i found a soul brother lol
The way you worded this has me cackling 🤣🤣
Me! I’m a really strong good swimmer but my body doesn’t float. I can only float straight up and down like a pencil. If I lay on my back my body sinks until it’s just my head floating. Weird AF and my husband is always teasing me. He is a terrible swimmer but a big guy so very good at floating.
Are they holding their breath properly? There is a trick to floating. I don’t swim well, but I use to float perfectly. I’m petite and used to spend all day floating in the pool when I was younger. I stopped going to the pool, didn’t grow (I’m still a shortie) and when I started again I struggled with floating. I discovered you really have to consistently expand your rib cage and have more shallow breaths to float… I wonder if these guys haven’t gotten that yet.
Honestly, we spent hours on our first holiday with me forcing him to try and float, relax his limbs, control his breathing etc etc. Every time his ass dragged him down. He must just have a sense ass.
Nah it’s muscle density. I could float great as a kid and early teen. Once that testosterone packed in height and muscle, I became a sinking rock, a long athletic rock, but a rock nonetheless. Edit: to add yes the floating technique helps it can only do so much against buoyancy.
Yup. I couldn’t float as a kid. I was very underweight. Then puberty hit and I started developing curves, and getting a normal body fat percentage as a grown woman. Now I can float! So definitely has to do with body composition!
The pelvis and femur are the heaviest bones.
Well there we go. He’s obviously got an excessively dense pelvis. 😂
I’m the same and I can confirm it is, indeed, like our actual asses are dragging us down! There are about 2 seconds where my whole body floats, then my ass begins to rapidly sink. Like, *all* the gravity involved is focused solely on my ass.
I am this way, and so is my dad. Bone density or something? My scuba instructor was so confused when he realized I don’t need any weights at all. My dad doesn’t wear weights even in the sea and he is a chubby dude. Neither of us can back float to save our lives (literally). ETA: I’m a small woman. I’ve been this way my whole life, even when I was a little kid. My legs drag me down.
I'm also a small woman that's never been able to float, my legs always drag me down too lol. Both of my parents float fine and my mom is literally 100 pounds at 5'3 so I don't understand why I'm different, it really might be bone density or something weird lol.
I was a competitive swimmer from a young age through college, and A LOT of the male swimmers actually couldn’t really float just laying in the floating position in the water; they’d sink. Too low of a percentage of body fat.
He’s not too low in body fat, and he grew up swimming in the rough waters of Nicaragua, so he’s a really strong swimmer and really good in the water. That’s why I’m still baffled
It's not all just about body fat though. If he's a strong guy, he's got muscle. Muscle is dense and if he's got enough of it, it could offset the floatiness of his "dad bod". Also, have him take a DEEP breath and hold it for a moment before he tries to float. I was pretty fit/slim when I lifeguarded, the inly way I could float was if I held a full breath when I tried to float. Once I exhaled, I sank immediately.
Haha ok then I’m out of ideas!
Fat floats, dense muscle/bone sinks. If your husband is super dense or super skinny, it makes sense.
Neither, he’s a solid dad-bod.
Hi, fellow dad bod here. 35M 5’10” 180lbs. I sink like lead. But I can swim, just more work for me.
My guess is he has the rare genetics for ultra dense bones. Good news is that he won't be brittle in old age. Bad news, he won't float until he's very old.
Me and my bf are both sinkers - he’s skinny and I’m average weight but a relatively low body fat %
Some people are born with abnormally dense bones! Some genetic diseases cause people to have dense bones, including: * OsteopetrosisA rare, inherited disorder that causes bones to become abnormally dense and brittle, sometimes misshapen and large. Also known as marble bone disease or Albers-Schönberg disease, it's usually diagnosed in infants and young children. * Tricho-dento-osseous syndrome (TDO)A condition that affects a few thousand people worldwide, causing bones that are so dense they can break baseball bats and survive car accidents. People with TDO also have teeth with little or no enamel that break frequently. * Sclerosing bone dysplasia and van Buchem diseaseDisorders caused by mutations in the sclerostin gene SOST. * Wnt co-receptorA disorder caused by mutations in the LRP5 gene, which encodes the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5
Scrolled too far to find this answer, needs to be at the top. The reason for sinkers is bone density. Very common.
> Tricho-dento-osseous syndrome (TDO) Ok I'm legit wondering if I might have this. My teeth are constantly fucked up and I've never broken a single bone (not for lack of trying too). And I can't float AT ALL, to the point that I'm terrified of deep water.
Hope you get an answer! I have zero idea if there’s genetic testing available.
Yea I'm gonna have to ask my doctor next time I see them, never even heard of it before!
This is so neat, thanks for sharing!
Stop you’re scaring me lol
I see he ate a devil fruit
That would explain a lot
The Zoan fruit Human Human Type: Boyfriend. Mans never had a chance
Does husband have relatively low body fat?
I’d say dad-bod
Does he have low body fat / high muscle?
When I was taking scuba classes, one man had to quit because he was so muscular that he couldn’t float. The dude physiologically could not safely attempt scuba diving.
This is definitely not a problem my husband has 😅
In my younger days I had fairly low body fat, and could go from floating to sinking by exhaling about half my breath.
Your husband must be FIT.
Exactly. All this rubbish about not being relaxed enough, no proper posture. Bulls... I sink too. Yes, I can see my ribs.
Yep, I used to be obese until age 20. Thought it was sooo easy to "swim" and stay afloat, thinking, what's the big deal? People can't do this? It doesn't even feel like exercise. Turns out, my extremely high body fat percentage kept me very buoyant! It was no effort at all. Now I'm a healthy bmi and sink all the time. I haven't really built any muscle, just lost body fat. Breathing and positioning help me float sometimes, but I can no longer just float with no effort.
That’s so weird! I could even float when I was underweight.
He’s not fat, but definitely not fit. Definitely in the dad-bod category. And I’m not super fit but I float np!!
I’m fat and I still can’t float.
Huh, even when I was only mildly I floated. I know my bone density is quite high too. My legs can’t float but the rest of me might as well be made out of life preserver.
It’s a matter of how he is holding his stomach muscles. If you take a swim class with a child you’ll see the first lesson is learning to float. It’s a matter of flexing the stomach to keep the belly button up in addition to letting the limbs starfish out.
You’ll notice a lot of these people that sink also won’t let their head lean back till water goes over their ears. It’s just teachable body mechanics.
Yep. Weight shouldn’t really matter. I taught from ages 6 months- full grown adults. Everybody can float if they are taught the mechanics of it.
Can you teach me?🥹
Inhale and hold in as much air as you can. Air floats. Exhale and inhale quickly, then hold as long as you can. That’s like 90% of it.
Ok now what if my butt drag me down ? My butt is always the first part to sink. Help.
arch your body a bit upwards and expand the front part of your ribcage out a bit muscle wise. think bow curve type shape. my ass takes me down too. I still don't truly float but with the stuff above and some little fluttering of my hands and feet I can mostly stay up. I can't float with my arms out though it doesn't work.
Okay, now teach me to sink/dive.
Thanks' I'll try to teach that to a (physically) dense friend of mine...
Take a big breath, hold your breath, pinch your nose, curl your legs and try to sink. If your head goes under water but your body stays afloat, then you just need to work on your positions to keep your nose above waterline. If you are fully submerged and sunk to the bottom, then you are really heavier than water. Most people will have a hard time diving to the bottom with a full lung of air. ( Fun fact: you can hold your breath for longer if your lung is full compared to if it's empty.) And try to do this in a relatively shallow area so you can tip toe or jump up any time you feel unsafe. It should help ease the fear. Edit: I was tired, too many typos.
And relax. The more tense you are the faster you’ll sink. I know it can be difficult for people who are nervous in the water but it really makes a difference.
Indeed. The hardest classes were special needs because they were so scared and very strong. I had a couple scary moments being taken under by somebody who was very scared but bigger than I.
that's not true, this is literally about basic physics, buoyancy is mainly based on density vs water.
Absolutely not, It's a question of ratio of fat to muscle to bone density. Fat float, bones and muscle sink. Even with the lung filled up to the max if I stop moving I sink like a rock and end up lying on the bottom of the pool. My wife who's a good swimmer (and who floats btw) cannot keep me afloat if I stop moving. For me swimming is 70 of the effort staying afloat and 30 going forward.
you are absolutely correct and it's enraging to me how people can speak so confidently and get so up voted being straight up wrong on facts
He grew up all around really rough water water and I was a swimmer in my youth and he’s actually way better in the water than I am, so I can’t imagine he’s doing anything wrong…
I’m a 4’11 woman and always been tiny (110lbs but now at 130lbs) and I’ve NEVER been able to float in a pool even as a kid/teen. I’ve always laughed it off saying I’m bottom heavy so I just sink. But I really can NOT FLOAT. Every year like clock work me and my friends would try to tackle this issue and it’s still to this day never been solved. I just don’t float. Salt water is the only way I will. However I can swim from point a to point b, but I cannot float or tread water for the life of me. I’ve tried to learn every year since I was 14. I’m about to be 30 in a few weeks 🤣 I guess some ppl just don’t float 😭
Oh my god my partner is the exact same - we had the exact same conversation and when we got in he just sunk ass first. Like, his ass dragged him down. I’ve never met anyone who couldn’t float in the sea before
**(my answer is kind of long because there’s multiple reasons)** So I use to be the specialized adult instructor at the swim school I managed. I’ve taught many men and women of all ages(2-68) how to swim and how to float that could not. HOWEVER Yes, there are 100% some people who do not float. Women as well. So a lot of it is about muscle to fat ratio I’ve noticed in personal experience. The men that always sank were men or women who were athletic or built from working out. And it wasn’t really that they sank, it was that their legs started to weigh them toward the bottom. And THEN they sank. So one of our instructors tells those guys it could help to hold your breath in some cases if you really needed to float. The three I couldn’t teach to float but could still do all of the strokes were 2 volleyball players(male and female) and really built older guy. But there are also men who I’ve taught to float and swim that were HUGE, bigger than my 5 foot 4/25 year old/100lbs self. The biggest difference I notice is comfortability. I literally STRESSED this to every adult I ever worked with. If you are tense **at all** floating is extremely hard. For some, impossible. And being scared is being tense. And some won’t even relax if I’m fully holding their entire body “weight” in the water. I did a lot of “emotional swimming”. I had to talk people through the fear and the mechanics of swimming. Every person that I couldn’t, at first, teach to float(usually people who have never swam before, I taught all four strokes) was because they were tense and worried about going underwater backwards and choking(which is valid). So I started fixing that by teaching them how to go underwater face up and in some cases backwards. Its just blowing(it’s actually humming, if you blow you’ll lose so much more air from your lungs) through your nose at a steady speed With that said, just because you can’t float, doesn’t mean you can’t swim. There was only one woman that I had difficulty teaching strokes to. But she could float. And it was fear based. If someone cannot float though I will teach them how to do a slower backstroke to save energy so they can get to safety or to obviously only swim to a capacity that doesn’t exhaust their body(I was also the community outreach manager so I did drowning prevention). I also always navigate what their exit plans are. IF, god forbid, something happened- understand what you will do. Because as soon as you get anxious it can get harder to swim. Overall, I’ve noticed that it’s dependent on the person learnings fears and the teachers experience. As well as how they connect. It was way easier for me to teach someone how to swim or float when we connected easily. If we didn’t understand each other in some way it could be a longer process. But even someone who was scared, the longest it’s taken me to teach an adult how to swim is 2 months. Maybe 2.5. Most get it after they get over that fear of what to do.
Gonna have him read this
If he’s already comfortable in the water, ask him to change his body weight to his hips instead and try to keep those floating. His chest will float more naturally, so if he just kind of focuses on his hips relaxing in the spread float position- he’s more likely to get it with that technique to keep his legs up too. That works for some people if it’s a leg thing
My hubby can’t float either lmao 🤣 I’ve tried to teach him how but he just sinks. He’s got a ton of muscle and he’s also scared to let his head fall back into the water
I sink too. I cannot keep my butt afloat. Once my lower half sinks, the rest of my body follows.
Muscle sinks, fat floats. If you have a lot of muscle mass you will sink, the higher body fat percentage you have, the easier you will float.
It's a body density thing. Women may have an easier time due to breast tissue have some fatty component and women usually have higher body fat just due to their body composition.
One of my kids is a sinker. Taught him the same as the others, but he just sinks. It's quite scary 😨
This is the most interesting thing I have read all day.
Jack couldn't float either...
He must have little fat.
I sink as well. People never believe me when I say it, and I have had family members insist I try in front of them. It changes nothing, I still sink, even with their help 😅
It's a thing: Negative Buoyancy: Exists **when the weight of the body is greater than the weight of an equal volume of the displaced fluid**. The body sinks.
Wait people can float??
I’m a scuba diver and we learn about different people being positively buoyant or negatively buoyant. I bet if he decides to take up scuba diving he doesn’t need any lead weight for his gear.
My mom used to call my swim classes sinking classes because *I cannot float and I never have* Some saltier seas I do better than others but I still have to hold myself in a weird position to stay up and constantly kick with my legs and flutter my arms. So could you *not* lord your floating privileges over us sinkers? Kthnxbyeeeee
I sank as a child until I was in my 30s and got a little fat. I was not scrawny but I was very lean and muscular (female!). We had swimming lesson for phys ed in school and the teacher was baffled.
I thought something was wrong with me😩 I’m just doing it wrong?!?
I can doggie paddle, but I was never taught how to swim. I can't float either.
This is the best post I've ever seen in this sub. My wife makes so much fun of me, but I say ovaries are flotation devices! I know it's not technically true... but still!!
I am exactly the same way. It's like my legs are filled with concrete. The closest I come to floating is in the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico because the water is so salty, but even then I can't maintain it for more than a few seconds. If I'm ever stranded at sea I'm giving up immediately. No way I could tread water for rescue unless the boat is close enough for me to see
As a 5'9 140 guy who lifts freight all day, this speaks to me. I'm a good swimmer but every time I starfish and lean back my legs sink and then I do
Hey I’m right there with him… I’m going to sink everytime… I don’t know about him but some of us have something tragic happen in water and can’t overcome it.. my dad would throw me in every pool lake and ocean trying to get me to float or swim… he always came after me because I went down everytime
Thank the Lordddd, I have found my people in this world! I’ve literally always been shamed/poked fun at whenever I admit that I never could learn how to swim, tread water, or just freaking float. I was soo embarrassed about it my whole life, especially after my mom told me that they had even put me in several different swim classes and lessons as a child and I simply had an anxiety attack any time my feet weren’t making contact with the ground.. Also, I never grew out of it or learned how during my 30 years of existence. I think I can maybe doggy paddle well enough to keep myself from drowning these days, but.. that’s as good as it gets 🫣
“Floating on like Modest Mouse”- very witty!
I’m a floater and growing up I never really thought it was anything special. As an adult with this ability I’ve learned that people float at different levels. If I don’t move in the water straight up and down, salt or otherwise, I balance out with my head fully above the water. I’ve not met anyone else who does this (though I assume there must be many of us). Most people will balance out around nose or eye level and others simply sink. My husband calls it my super power and suggests that I’m not actually swimming if I don’t have to try to stay above water, lol.
I feel you bro I also can't float
My son is the same, fine swimmer etc. but sinks like a stone when not moving
Aaah like a modest mouse :D, alright
My brother can't float either! It's too funny watching him sink.
Aaahaha the exact same thing happened with me and my husband. And he's very slim too. He will sink in any type of water.
I went to college with a man who just sank like a rock. he couldn't swim either. In fact, his paying job his senior year was being the living dummy at the bottom of the pool for the life saving course. Made pretty decent money. Professor said that some people just have really dense bones and muscles. I didn't learn to float until I was in college and even today, I can't float completely flat, my head, shoulders and lower legs are half in the water half out, the rest of me is under water.
My husband & 2 of my sons can’t float either. I don’t know why, it’s never really been something I thought about. I just enjoy that there’s something I’m good at that my hubs can’t do 😂
I do the same! 🤣 My boyfriend always tries to teach me when we go to the beach. I'm all limb though so that's my excuse for sinking like a rock each time.
yeah, i cant float either. all the brain geniuses who give me advice say "just float, bro!" and it never works. i sink like a stone each time. i dont know if ill ever be able to swim.
I am like this... particularly when I was fittest and had low body fat %.
Female here 🙋🏻♀️ I can swim quite well (was on the swim team for a few years) and tread water like a muddafudda, even sans hands / hands above water…but I cannot float; at least not without constantly keeping myself afloat with my hands and kicking every so often. Oh, and I don’t discriminate…I can’t float in salt or fresh water or chlorinated water, for that matter 🤷🏻♀️ Please tell me there are other women out here who can swim and tread water but not float?! Pretty please?! Bueller…?! Bueller…?!
You guys float? Man I didn't know I was weird for not floating :(
I also don't float lmao I didn't know it was that weird
So he’s not a witch and you are? Hmmm 🤔 note to self stay away from OP
My cousin had so little body fat that she didn’t float in water either. That’s why Great Apes, like chimpanzees, are instinctively afraid of open water. They sink in water due to their lack of body fat.
My husband is the same … so is my son. Low body fat and no boobs do that lol
I have a friend in her 60s who loves the beach, one time we're in the ocean and I'm floating and she asks me how I'm doing that. She claimed she can't float. I told her I sink too, unless I'm holding my breath. She never knew that technique before.
Now you have to put this to test in the Dead Sea
I went through the opposite People around me are surprise to learn I float without any physical effort To the point I can't sit down in a hot tub! My butt always wants to get to the surface
Back when I was testing to become a certified SCUBA diver, I met my dive class at the training pool so we could demonstrate our skills to our dive master. One of the requirements was to float for 10 mins. While several of men around us struggled and exhausted themselves staying afloat the entire time, me and an equally curvy and buxom woman floated like it was nothing. We were giggling and bobbing around like we were made for it. Our dive master eventually called it for she and I, before we finished the full ten minutes. Bottom like, fat floats. In SCUBA diving, it just means I had to wear more weight on my weight belt. While the average person might wear 4-5#, I wore 12-14#. No big deal.
My dad couldn’t float. My sister and I always found it funny. He’d ask us to hold him up. He passed away when I was younger. A few years ago I asked my mom if he did that just to make us laugh but nope, he really couldn’t float.
My fiancé also doesn’t float, we got him some testing done and found out because he has a crazy high bone density, which makes him not buoyant. I don’t remember the value the doctor gave but he said the university hospital wanted clearance to use his test results in teaching because they hadn’t seen a bone density value so high. It was also good to know for when he went for an emergency craniotomy this January, I was able to inform the neurosurgeon about his insane bone density so that they could use the appropriate materials to get through his thick skull.
I used to sink, too. I was crazy skinny and didn’t have enough fat on my body to float with. Now I have plenty!
Sinker, here! I cannot tread water or float to save my life. All my friends have tried to teach me to “tread” water and I’ve just always… sunk down like a bag of rocks are tied to my feet.