I will be swimming five days a week. I want to use the other two days for complementary non-swimming workouts. I am looking for suggestions. Being that I am out of shape the first thing that comes to mind is weight training. I could see some yoga in there as well.
Or...should I only use one day for a non-swimming workout and rest for one day?
Former Member
The scientific method is so overrated.
Well designed studies are too.
Wearing a speedo, cap and goggles while you lift weights doesn't make it swimming.
I think Jazzy's definition of cross-training excludes things he believes are critical to swimming fast.
Of course, this definition has floodgates potential. :)
My times have dropped after adding these and other lower body exercises. Also, if you're kicking 10-15 meters underwater, the distinction between turning and kicking is blurred.
Seems to me (without going back and looking) that you have a lot of confounding factors in your training: increase in various exercises as well as increased use of fins and kicking workouts.
In terms of useful strength training for kicking, I personally would be apt to place fin-work far above anything in the weight room.
I don't quite understand the turning/kicking comment. Pushoff and kicking seem pretty well delineated, and the motions don't seem too similar.
Seems to me (without going back and looking) that you have a lot of confounding factors in your training: increase in various exercises as well as increased use of fins and kicking workouts.
In terms of useful strength training for kicking, I personally would be apt to place fin-work far above anything in the weight room.
This is true to a degree. However, I have been kicking and kicking with fins for years and have had to decrease my monofin use in the past year b/c of a foot injury. And my underwaters have improved even more this past year (perhaps the nose clip and plyometrics are at work here -- another confounding factor).
Still, I think the lower body work helped quite a bit. I recall quite distinctly that shortly after I started a more serious weight training program in 2008, at Jazz's urging, I dropped a lot of time. Prior to that, I had never done a squat or deadlift in my life.
Cross-training to me means, well, doing the wrong ****ing sport.
Strength training, on the other hand, is not a sport.
I like how you redefined two common terms to defend your position. That is thinking outside the box.
Common ones suggested for swimming are: running, biking, rowing, kayaking. These are all pretty similar activities in that they involve endurance in a particular repetitive movement.
I don't agree that these are strictly endurance (aerobic) activities. Have you not seen the legs on pro cyclists? I think they are plenty strong. Of course, cycling, though repetitive like swimming, has a much wider variety of resistance due to hills and the ability to change gears. Doing hill sprints builds plenty of strength and lactate tolerance.
While I think weight-lifting (which is certainly a competitive sport, of course) is great for upper-body power in swimming, I am much less certain of the value of squats, lunges, deadlifts (etc) for improving kicking ability. Starts and turns, yes; kicking, no.
Because of back injuries there have been long stretches of time where I have been unable to do any of those exercises, and there was no effect at all on my kicking ability. And -- to use your own example -- adding them did not suddenly make my kick times drop.
Wearing a speedo, cap and goggles while you lift weights doesn't make it swimming.
I thought that made it more functional :(
Cross-training to me means, well, doing the wrong ****ing sport. Common ones suggested for swimming are: running, biking, rowing, kayaking. These are all pretty similar activities in that they involve endurance in a particular repetitive movement. The repetitive movement is not the one you actually want to improve, and you also are not working on any other qualities besides endurance, which you should get from, you know, swimming. Like Touretski said, more opportunities to practice correct technique.
And I don't know any seriously fast swimmer who has added one of these endurance activities to his or her training and said something to the effect of "Boy, my times really started to drop when I started to do more jumping jacks and less swimming!"
Strength training, on the other hand, is not a sport. It's too broad and vague to be a sport. Which is perfect because it can be designed specifically around the exact qualities lacking from just swim training, and zero irrelevant or redundant activities are needed.
