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)
Miklcct,
I am very much in favor of adding strength training to a fitness routine - just for general living purposes. So, adding strength training to your routine is a good thing.
There is a caveat though - given your other posts. Swimming is a technique driven sport. A weak person with good technique will beat a strong person with poor technique every single time. If you are adding strength training because you think it will instantly overcome technical weaknesses, you are mistaken.
I use this analogy with my swimmers. Swimmers are like dragsters on ice. It does not matter what our horsepower is (aka "strength") if our tires are bald (aka "technique"). If you add studs to the tires (aka "technique"), horsepower will matter. Speed and endurance will improve when technique improves.
Paul
I've tried reading a lot of articles, watching a lot of videos, and joined a squad training starting from last October, trying to improve my technique, but I felt that my rate of improvement was not up to my expectation (started at 35 minutes last May and ended up around 31 and a half minutes in November for 1500 m). I simply can't sustain any of my technique emulation over 100 m (no matter how good I was feeling at the start) always having the horrible feeling of stroke breaking down without short of breath. Even the simple act of making a high elbow catch tires my arm dramatically, and whenever I am tired I start feeling losing balance such that the coach always notices my legs doing wide "scissor kick", causing a vicious cycle.
Miklcct,
I am very much in favor of adding strength training to a fitness routine - just for general living purposes. So, adding strength training to your routine is a good thing.
There is a caveat though - given your other posts. Swimming is a technique driven sport. A weak person with good technique will beat a strong person with poor technique every single time. If you are adding strength training because you think it will instantly overcome technical weaknesses, you are mistaken.
I use this analogy with my swimmers. Swimmers are like dragsters on ice. It does not matter what our horsepower is (aka "strength") if our tires are bald (aka "technique"). If you add studs to the tires (aka "technique"), horsepower will matter. Speed and endurance will improve when technique improves.
Paul
I've tried reading a lot of articles, watching a lot of videos, and joined a squad training starting from last October, trying to improve my technique, but I felt that my rate of improvement was not up to my expectation (started at 35 minutes last May and ended up around 31 and a half minutes in November for 1500 m). I simply can't sustain any of my technique emulation over 100 m (no matter how good I was feeling at the start) always having the horrible feeling of stroke breaking down without short of breath. Even the simple act of making a high elbow catch tires my arm dramatically, and whenever I am tired I start feeling losing balance such that the coach always notices my legs doing wide "scissor kick", causing a vicious cycle.
