Just out of curiosity...if all things being equal, how much could a person improve simply by losing weight. Is there a formula that could properly express this.
The numbers I'm working with are
6'3" my height
215 my current weight
23.4 my 50free scy time at nats last april
now my weight at nats was 215 after losing 20lbs over the season. I'm really paying attention to my diet and nutrition and trying to trim down another 10lbs.
Any thoughts???
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Former Member
Even though I completely agree that this is impossible to quantify, I can't resist commenting...
I think F=ma is a non-factor in the water. Any of the swim strokes is a cycle of negative and positive acceleration. The negative acceleration comes from drag, which does not strictly depend on mass, although kind of indirectly via body shape like you said. Greater mass is a good thing in the slowing-down phases of the stroke, provided the drag force is constant, because the negative value of acceleration is inversely related to mass. Imagine throwing a ping pong ball versus a golf ball. Which one slows down faster? The flip side of this, of course, is that it's harder to accelerate in the positive acceleration phases of the stroke. But it should be a wash, right?
I think you're right, except for the push-off. Even though it takes more effort to push off if you have more mass, pushing off is pretty easy. So the additional "work" would not be any more fatiguing than if you had less mass, but you would generate more momentum.
(Not that this comment has anything to do with whether or not or how much weight loss would actually affect swimming speed in real life.)
Even though I completely agree that this is impossible to quantify, I can't resist commenting...
I think F=ma is a non-factor in the water. Any of the swim strokes is a cycle of negative and positive acceleration. The negative acceleration comes from drag, which does not strictly depend on mass, although kind of indirectly via body shape like you said. Greater mass is a good thing in the slowing-down phases of the stroke, provided the drag force is constant, because the negative value of acceleration is inversely related to mass. Imagine throwing a ping pong ball versus a golf ball. Which one slows down faster? The flip side of this, of course, is that it's harder to accelerate in the positive acceleration phases of the stroke. But it should be a wash, right?
I think you're right, except for the push-off. Even though it takes more effort to push off if you have more mass, pushing off is pretty easy. So the additional "work" would not be any more fatiguing than if you had less mass, but you would generate more momentum.
(Not that this comment has anything to do with whether or not or how much weight loss would actually affect swimming speed in real life.)
