Swimming after liftin'

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. :afraid: Uh-oh; you really have me thinking now... Perhaps I should give up my Wednesday swims :cry:and make that a full-on weight day. Mondays and Fridays could stay as it is; sprint days, followed by weights and strengthening. Do you think that would be a good compromise? Thanks for your feedback, Fort! Happy holidays!

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. Well, that's a do-able option. :agree: Thanks, Chris! And, Chris? Here is a little something to inspire you with your resolution to use more Smilies in 2012. Happy holidays!:santa3: :carolers: :presents2: :party2: :wine: :chug: :dj_dance: :thewave:

Swimming right after lifting never worked for me. My muscles got so pumped that I was too stiff to swim, couldn't streamline; and I was too tired to hold good form. I got better results from lifting before work, then swimming after work. Lifting after swimming worked better as long as I got a snack and showered. Otherwise my energy level was too low and the sweat stung my chlorine'd skin. That was about an hour's delay between the two (shower/change/drive time to different facility), which helped.

I suppose it is different for each individual. I suggest trying thing both ways and see what works best for you. I lift weights, and then hit the pool immediately with low expectations. It takes me about 800 yards of a nice easy stretchy swim before I feel right in the water. I only lift once weekly, usually on Fridays. I'm usually sore the next day from the weights, and I don't swim on weekends.

You will feel worse but it is probably better to lift before swimming. The main goal of lifting (at least what SHOULD be the goal) for sports is to increase strength. Strength increases depend largely on the central nervous system "learning" how to use the large muscle fibers and learning how to send stronger "coordinated" signals to muscle fibers to contract. if the muscles are already tired at the time of lifting, I large part of the strength benefit of the training is wasted. Granted, a swimming workout post lifting will not be as efficient as pre, but I think the sacrifice is much greater to a lifting workout which has a much more singular purpose than a swiming workout which develops the numerous skills necessary to be fast. Ideally, lift on days you do not swim. However, if you are swimming something like 6x days a week, you will plateau pretty fast on the lifting/strength gain front so after a certain point it won't really matter that much anyways when and how. Use an off season or time when you are not swimming as heavily to make strength gains in the weight room.

I lift weights then swim routinely. It would not be my first choice but time is limited. With weights, I typically do core+lower body one day and then core+upper body the next. Then, when I get in the pool, I focus on aerobic workouts (70-80% of max heart rate) coupled with either kicking drills or pulling drills (working opposite of whatever I did that day with weights). It is not very elaborate, but it is a decent real life answer as far as I'm concerned.

Quoted: "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." What is it about "lifting" that you get? Increased "strength"? Force production is a fickle thing in the water. You push the water, the water pushes back, up to a certain point. If you push too hard, the water "caves" (it's called cavitation" and you "slip" in the water. This is when "bubbles" show up, and coaches tell you you have a poor "catch"! (As in, you're not grabbing the water because you pushed too hard!) Chris Ritter went over a detailed plan for structuring the order of dryland and swimming. theswimmerscircle.com/.../ Regarding breaststroke, speed has very little to do with "pull back strength" because there is not pull back motion. usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx The esteemed coach Wayne McCauley (breastroker) suggests working on your heel speed via doing eggbeater kick on your back for short all out bursts. Remember, strength is just as much neural as it is physiological. The force vectors that you train have to match the force vectors you'll be using in a race. Regarding cords, you shouldn't be doing them primarily for strength. They are for shoulder stability, as in recruiting the little guys who wouldn't otherwise be engaged. So I do them every day, they're never done to fatigue (because fatigue is not the point! It's not for endurance... fatigue is catabolic, rest is anabolic!) Weights can't replaced swimming as far as getting faster goes. But you can get stronger in the pool by doing all out work/adding resistance. Functional strength is built by doing the movements you want stronger, not by isolating components and doing them separately and slower. I don't agree. And yes, lifting for strength (heavy weight, lower reps) will make you faster in the water if you have good technique. And yes, weights can replace one swim workout if you're swimming 6x per week. Strength training in the water (fins, parachutes, etc.) is great. But having raw strength to add to that will help. Functional strength has a place, but so does raw strength. Especially for sprinters. At least it has worked well for me.

Two matched groups of mature swimmers, one swimming only, the other performing dry land strength training, were tracked and measured. Both groups improved in swimming power and strength gains. The supplementary land training provided no added benefit. Costill attributes the lack of specificity in the land training to the lack of transfer. He stated: "You can gain strength by swimming. If you want to overload the muscle then do sprint swimming." :whiteflag::help: So, I am more confused as ever as to which is the best training program for me. In your opinion, what would be the best way to strengthen my breaststroke kick- without putting too much stress on the knees. Given my history of repetitive stress injuries and surgeries, I do NOT want to go there... As for my breaststroke pull, I have adopted the same pull as King Frog for the same reason: Dr. G advised minimizing the outward scull motion, because it wasn't beneficial for either of us. (We had both had Dr. G's power testing, at different times.) I also choose a narrow pull to reduce the risk of injury to my shoulders, as I have already had surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome (non-swimming related injury) on my left shoulder and hope to avoid surgery on the right shoulder. So, given those issues, what would your advice be for strengthening the pull part of my breaststroke? Thanks, 'Swim, for contributing to this thread with some great info. This is a really good forum thread for met to ponder!

Swimming right after lifting never worked for me. My muscles got so pumped that I was too stiff to swim, couldn't streamline; and I was too tired to hold good form. I got better results from lifting before work, then swimming after work. This is the same with me. I usually swim with the team before work, and lift after work. Occasionally I'll do a cool-down swim after lifting in the gym pool, but nothing fancy or elaborate, maybe 300-500 yards. I've tried swimming after running with the same results. My legs get so fried from running, that they're of little use for swimming too. But a 3-500 cool down feels really good after a tough run :) I do find that I need some sort of warm-up before lifting. That could be a short (20 min) treadmill run, time on the elliptical, bike, or nearly any cardio that the gym has. I guess swimming would work there, but I try to limit the number of costume changes at the gym.

Is Dr. G Genadijus Solokavas? Yes, he's the one! I went through his testing at SwimFest, this year, and it was quite helpful: http://youtu.be/HhnaVqBmuSE I included his comments in the description Thanks for the links and for your feedback; I'll check out the articles. As for the hip flexor stretch, it is already in my stretching repertoire! I learned that stretch (and several other excellent ones) in physical therapy years ago and have been stretching ever since. For my shoulders, I do these before each swim, as well as in the gym: www.usmsswimmer.com/.../swimmer_stretching.pdf Cheers! :chug: