Greetings -
I'm looking for some input. I am a 61 year old male who primarily swims freestyle and butterfly. My structured swim workouts are Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. I swim in meets occasionally, mostly sprints, and want to increase my competitiveness.
Lifting weights is also a part of my workout regime. I have been advised to only exercise each muscle group once a week, but do so with extreme vigor, going to failure or near failure on my sets. I've got that currently split as follows, and with my swim workouts, my schedule looks like this:
Saturday: Delts, Lats, Traps, Triceps, Forearms
Monday: Pecs, Biceps, Glutes, and Quads
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: Swim
My strategy is to work with weights on the most heavily used muscles for free and fly on Saturday, giving me three days rest before my swim workout. (Weight lifting interferes with my swimming if I try to do it the same day or even the day before). The Monday lifting workout is meant to focus on muscles less used in these strokes and therefore have less impact on the quality of my swim workout for the rest of the week.
If you both swim and lift, I would value your observations on this strategy. Thanks.:)
I believe, and that has been backed up by personal discussions with various coaches, that the older you get, the more important strength-training becomes. Furthermore I also believe that the "functional approach" is a trap the older you become -- more and more muscles becoming weaker and weaker, and you need to apply more and more a shot-gun approach. I was for too long under the influence of voices avoiding this, avoiding that, it's harmful etc etc., which created real holes in my stroke, and more importantly, prevented me from getting back to health. One year ago I decided to discard all that too common fear, and to go actively into the pain -- SEARCHING FOR PAIN! Then going softly into it, but with determination. And finally I am regaining strength, and I feel like a whole again. I am 52, and it seems to me that for most people in that age group, especially the non-professional athletes (and who is such?), the idea of training only stuff which is "helpful for the race" is rather harmful.
Concerning the muscle soreness: From a very good coach, himself performing at world-class in his forties, I have been told: just live with it -- you are getting used to it. And that's what I am doing: I swim 6-7 times a week, and do 3-5 times strength training, without any coordination. One indeed gets used to it. I am swimming on my own (concentrating on sprinting), and so I can accommodate how it feels on the day. Sure, for a race you can't afford being sore. And I assume there should be days without much soreness.
I believe, and that has been backed up by personal discussions with various coaches, that the older you get, the more important strength-training becomes. Furthermore I also believe that the "functional approach" is a trap the older you become -- more and more muscles becoming weaker and weaker, and you need to apply more and more a shot-gun approach. I was for too long under the influence of voices avoiding this, avoiding that, it's harmful etc etc., which created real holes in my stroke, and more importantly, prevented me from getting back to health. One year ago I decided to discard all that too common fear, and to go actively into the pain -- SEARCHING FOR PAIN! Then going softly into it, but with determination. And finally I am regaining strength, and I feel like a whole again. I am 52, and it seems to me that for most people in that age group, especially the non-professional athletes (and who is such?), the idea of training only stuff which is "helpful for the race" is rather harmful.
Concerning the muscle soreness: From a very good coach, himself performing at world-class in his forties, I have been told: just live with it -- you are getting used to it. And that's what I am doing: I swim 6-7 times a week, and do 3-5 times strength training, without any coordination. One indeed gets used to it. I am swimming on my own (concentrating on sprinting), and so I can accommodate how it feels on the day. Sure, for a race you can't afford being sore. And I assume there should be days without much soreness.
