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.
In just about EVERY sport, the time spent in the weight room has gone up while the time spent "doing the sport" has gone down among the elite.
I'll take the 30+yrs of anecdotal evidence and improvements across just about all sports including swimming over one or two studies anyday.
There's probably a tipping point where the extra strength isn't worth it versus the extra added weight, but I doubt most people whose main activity is swimming get there without any lifting.
The studies that I saw swimBRCT quoting where done in the 90's...some relevance still I'm sure but the fact is all distances 500 and under are now so "power" driven that its hard for me to believe that supplemental weight training has not played a part (I won't dare to bring up WHICH exercises so as to not hijack this thread! :)).
Even looking at some of the worlds best like Phelps and Lochte added very powerful dry land training to their workload post-college and have both shown incredible improvements late in their careers.
For old farts like most of us on this forum I honestly think that delaying/reducing muscle loss through the aging process by weight training has as much to do with success as actually getting "stronger" (except in the case of masters swimmers who did not compete in college and partake in weight training who see significant gains by introducing it later in life for the first time).
Another interesting perspective: www.collegeswimming.com/.../
In just about EVERY sport, the time spent in the weight room has gone up while the time spent "doing the sport" has gone down among the elite.
I'll take the 30+yrs of anecdotal evidence and improvements across just about all sports including swimming over one or two studies anyday.
There's probably a tipping point where the extra strength isn't worth it versus the extra added weight, but I doubt most people whose main activity is swimming get there without any lifting.
The studies that I saw swimBRCT quoting where done in the 90's...some relevance still I'm sure but the fact is all distances 500 and under are now so "power" driven that its hard for me to believe that supplemental weight training has not played a part (I won't dare to bring up WHICH exercises so as to not hijack this thread! :)).
Even looking at some of the worlds best like Phelps and Lochte added very powerful dry land training to their workload post-college and have both shown incredible improvements late in their careers.
For old farts like most of us on this forum I honestly think that delaying/reducing muscle loss through the aging process by weight training has as much to do with success as actually getting "stronger" (except in the case of masters swimmers who did not compete in college and partake in weight training who see significant gains by introducing it later in life for the first time).
Another interesting perspective: www.collegeswimming.com/.../
