How should I time my weight training in my swim schedule?

Former Member
Former Member
I currently swim 6 sessions per week (Mon Tue Thu Fri morning, Tue evening, Sat afternoon, with 2 rest days (Wednesday and Sunday). Recently I have added weight training into my routine, and I would like to do it for 4 weeks. I have currently put them on evenings Monday, Wednesday and Sunday last week (45 minutes each season), but after my weight training, I feel my muscle stiffness and tightness (especially my pecs) sustained overnight, sometimes affecting my swim training as well. Am I putting my weight training to inappropriate times, or should I sacrifice some of the swim sessions for that? (I am using a progressive overload schedule for my swim training, gradually increasing my training mileage, but that does not include any weight training which I never had before)
Parents
  • I am 26 and have completely no athletic nor swimming background in my youth. However, I'm doing orienteering at local elite level because my map reading is good. OK, in my opinion you do not need to be doing doubles. Unless of course you are doing them because you really enjoy swimming - it doesn't seem like that's the case by the things you have posted in the past, but I may be completely wrong. If I were you, I would find a two-day upper/lower split lifting routine - relatively high reps/low weight based on something like this: exrx.net/.../Workout2UL Then, given that you do want to do long-distance stuff, I would swim 4 times a week with one full rest day. I would try to make them the coached workouts as much as possible - both for the coaching, and because being able to train with other people is generally more fun and more motivating. You (and really any adult in sports in a non-professional capacity) should be optimizing, not maximizing, workout load. You want to do the smallest amount the produces the adapatations you want - more is not always, and actually is very rarely, better. My n=1: I took 6 years off swimming after swimming at a relatively high level through college. A year after getting back in, I swim generally 3 times a week, about 12km a week. I do 2-3 CrossFit or lifting sessions a week, about an hour a pop. I try to take one day completely off (that is today for me due to the polar vortex closing schools/pools). I had a meet last weekend, and went two lifetime best times and two Masters best times. My point: Most people don't need as much work as they think they need in order to see improvement.
Reply
  • I am 26 and have completely no athletic nor swimming background in my youth. However, I'm doing orienteering at local elite level because my map reading is good. OK, in my opinion you do not need to be doing doubles. Unless of course you are doing them because you really enjoy swimming - it doesn't seem like that's the case by the things you have posted in the past, but I may be completely wrong. If I were you, I would find a two-day upper/lower split lifting routine - relatively high reps/low weight based on something like this: exrx.net/.../Workout2UL Then, given that you do want to do long-distance stuff, I would swim 4 times a week with one full rest day. I would try to make them the coached workouts as much as possible - both for the coaching, and because being able to train with other people is generally more fun and more motivating. You (and really any adult in sports in a non-professional capacity) should be optimizing, not maximizing, workout load. You want to do the smallest amount the produces the adapatations you want - more is not always, and actually is very rarely, better. My n=1: I took 6 years off swimming after swimming at a relatively high level through college. A year after getting back in, I swim generally 3 times a week, about 12km a week. I do 2-3 CrossFit or lifting sessions a week, about an hour a pop. I try to take one day completely off (that is today for me due to the polar vortex closing schools/pools). I had a meet last weekend, and went two lifetime best times and two Masters best times. My point: Most people don't need as much work as they think they need in order to see improvement.
Children
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