Swimming after liftin'

I always feel terrible in the water after lifting, so if I'm going to do both on the same day, I swim first, and lift second.

I never enjoyed it much in college either. And that was lifting before of after practice...one of them will pay the price. I took the weight lifting classes either at 8am or 2pm in college, because it was either directly after morning practice, or right before afternoon practice. But... The 2nd activity always paid the price. If I lifted first, then swam, my weights were good, but swimming was tough.

I always feel terrible in the water after lifting, so if I'm going to do both on the same day, I swim first, and lift second. I'll second that! I aim to hit the weights after my swims on M-W-F. I first hit the bar to see how many chin-ups and pull-ups I can do when my arms are already toast; usually only 1-2 of each. And, 2 sets of 10 military push-ups is about my limit, as well. Then, it's the weights... On those days I limit my yardage to 2500 (usually sprint sets) and have more difficult higher yardage endurance swims with a coach in an adult group session on T-Th. Saturday is my day to do whatever I can still handle by the end of the week. :cane:And, on the 7th day, Elaine-iaK rests... :bed: Any feedback on this routine would be most appreciated! Suggestions? I would prefer to hit the gym after I swim, when my muscles are good and warmed up. Otherwise, it takes too long on the treadmill to warm up for weights; at least for me, anyway.

Maybe do core exercises to warm up, Elaine? I lift right before my speed workouts or on an off day of swimming. I find I can sprint after weights just fine as the DOMS seems to kick in the next day or so. I probably wouldn't want to tackle a lactate or hard aerobic workout right after weights. Conversely, I would never do weights directly after swimming. I would be tired enough to not make any progress in the weight room. I'd want a big time gap to recover before lifting.

Maybe do core exercises to warm up, Elaine? I lift right before my speed workouts or on an off day of swimming. I find I can sprint after weights just fine as the DOMS seems to kick in the next day or so. I probably wouldn't want to tackle a lactate or hard aerobic workout right after weights. Conversely, I would never do weights directly after swimming. I would be tired enough to not make any progress in the weight room. I'd want a big time gap to recover before lifting. Thanks, Fort; I appreciate the feedback. After I swim, I stretch on deck, drink about 8 oz of light chocolate soy milk, and then hit the showers. This mini break seems to work fine for me, although I'm not quite as strong in the weight room as I would be if I didn't swim prior. But, I find it's really not all that bad. Although I could try it in reverse, I would rather my weights suffer a little bit rather than my swimming. And, doing morning/afternoon or night doubles just doesn't work with my schedule.

Thanks, everybody, for the suggestions and feedback. My goal has been to regularly follow Ande's suggestion of 6x/week of swimming and 3x/wk of weights and strengthening. I don't always make that third time, but I absolutely LOVE getting my six days in the pool, even if Day 6 is long, slow DPS swimming. Since my M-W-F routine already takes up 3 hours of my day, I really feel that is the max I want to commit in order for it to work with my schedule, keep it FUN, and stay injury free. So, I either need to have weights follow my swims or the other way around, to make it work for me. So far, it has worked well- and better than not doing weights at all. It has been a workable compromise, even if not the most ideal. Perhaps I am not getting the most benefit out of doing weights after my swims, but I do feel I have gotten stronger by adding weights to my routine. I just wish it didn't take so darn long for me to warm up in the gym in the morning when I do weights without swimming first. For me, it takes a good half hour of fast walking... Bottom line: I guess if it ain't broke, I won't fix it. I'm in the James and Kirk camp and I really don't want my swimming to suffer three days per week!

Thanks, Fort; I appreciate the feedback. After I swim, I stretch on deck, drink about 8 oz of light chocolate soy milk, and then hit the showers. This mini break seems to work fine for me, although I'm not quite as strong in the weight room as I would be if I didn't swim prior. But, I find it's really not all that bad. Although I could try it in reverse, I would rather my weights suffer a little bit rather than my swimming. And, doing morning/afternoon or night doubles just doesn't work with my schedule. But if you can't really hit it in the gym, your 50 and 100 *** times will suffer. From your vids it seems like you need much more power in the water. If I were you, I'd cut out a swim and only lift on that day. 6x a week of swimming isn't really necessary for your events. That said, you need to do what's fun for you.

But if you can't really hit it in the gym, your 50 and 100 *** times will suffer. From your vids it seems like you need much more power in the water. If I were you, I'd cut out a swim and only lift on that day. 6x a week of swimming isn't really necessary for your events. That said, you need to do what's fun for you. 6X per week is what I like to hit, though I don't always (or even usually, nowadays) get there. I'm not going to argue with Fort or Elaine about whether it is necessary. If I had to choose I would probably go with weights then swim; indeed, I did this for many years. Yes, your swimming "suffers" a bit. But what does that mean, exactly? It means your times are a little slower because you are tired. I do not believe that it means you aren't getting as much physiological benefit/training from the swimming, unless the fatigue prevents you from exerting as much effort in the pool. Indeed, "overcoming" the weights and swimming fast regardless could itself be a good training method. Imagine how fast you'll be after stopping the weights and tapering! But my advice would be at least to mix it up a bit: sometimes do weights first, sometimes swimming first. I don't see any reason you shouldn't lift before the slow/DPS workout, for example.

Never tried it myself. Is there a certain kind of workout that is more advisable? I was thinking do some quick sprints as I don't want to be at the gym for 3 hours but I don't want to hurt myself either. At UT we lifted before swimming, I've done it often as a master never had any problems, usually swam fast times in workouts which is why I lift closer to big meets than most swimmers find out for yourself It wrecks some people, also depends on your routine.

I swim just as poor whether I lift prior to swimming or not. I do lift better if I don't swim prior however. As an interesting, somewhat off-topic side note, it appears PB's for me in swimming occurred while spending much less time weight training. But this is probably an untypical example since the primary weakness regarding swimming is my vessel construction, not level of strength.