Hello everyone,
I was wondering what sort of weight training (if any) everyone does in addition to swim workouts? I tried doing a search but didn't come up with a whole lot.
I recently started a weight training regimen about 3-4 weeks ago, and do a different muscle group monday, tuesday, thursday and friday.
I've been doing bench press and I'm apparently a total wimp.. This is the one muscle group that keeps getting sore. all the others feel like they're being worked, but don't hinder swimming at all. I am doing weights till the muscles get tired, but Bench press and flys cause them to be a little sore for a couple of days afterwards.
This makes my swim workouts very uhhh.... interesting. It's not terrible, but it takes some time to work out the soreness, and my endurance suffers a bit.
My question is, is this ok? Should I not be swimming on the days I'm sore, or does it not matter?
Does anyone else experience this?
ps.. this is the first time really that I've gone to the gym and lifted. I've always done sports, but not lifted weights until now. Perhaps this is an initial hump I need to get over?
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Former Member
I started lifting weights about 2 years ago to try to increase my bone density. It hasn't helped my swim times at all. I'm doing a slightly different type of weightlifting, though, so I don't know whether I should have expected it to affect my swimming.
I do a group weight class at my gym (Bally). They call it "PowerFlex", but I've seen similar class descriptions at other gyms with names like "Body Pump". It's an hour-long class with an instructor like you'd find in an aerobics class.
We use free weights - a single bar with weight plates. They're lightweight bars (2.5 pounds) with plates that are easily put on and taken off. The plates are 2.5, 5, and 10 pounds, and the bar will hold a maximum of 3 plates on each side. The most weight that can fit on the bar is 60 pounds (3 10-lb plates on each side).
The sets are all done to music with the instructor calling out the moves. Each muscle group is worked for 4 minutes. So, for example, we do 4 minutes of squats to the beat of the music. We might do eight single squats, then eight where we're going down on 2 counts and back up on 2 counts, then 8 more singles, then 8 where we're going down 3 counts, up one, etc. In a four-minute set I'd guess that we do about 100 squats. You have to keep the weight fairly low to be able to do that many reps. (I am currently lifting 35 pounds on the squat set, for example.)
We do four minutes on each muscle group: quads, chest, glutes/hamstrings, back, triceps, biceps, shoulders, and abs.
As with swimming, I've found that I am more inclined to do the weight workouts (and to work harder) if I'm in a group setting than if I try to work out on my own. Even though it may not be the perfect weight workout for swimming, I HAVE to lift weights for my bone density and at least this gets me to the gym.
I started lifting weights about 2 years ago to try to increase my bone density. It hasn't helped my swim times at all. I'm doing a slightly different type of weightlifting, though, so I don't know whether I should have expected it to affect my swimming.
I do a group weight class at my gym (Bally). They call it "PowerFlex", but I've seen similar class descriptions at other gyms with names like "Body Pump". It's an hour-long class with an instructor like you'd find in an aerobics class.
We use free weights - a single bar with weight plates. They're lightweight bars (2.5 pounds) with plates that are easily put on and taken off. The plates are 2.5, 5, and 10 pounds, and the bar will hold a maximum of 3 plates on each side. The most weight that can fit on the bar is 60 pounds (3 10-lb plates on each side).
The sets are all done to music with the instructor calling out the moves. Each muscle group is worked for 4 minutes. So, for example, we do 4 minutes of squats to the beat of the music. We might do eight single squats, then eight where we're going down on 2 counts and back up on 2 counts, then 8 more singles, then 8 where we're going down 3 counts, up one, etc. In a four-minute set I'd guess that we do about 100 squats. You have to keep the weight fairly low to be able to do that many reps. (I am currently lifting 35 pounds on the squat set, for example.)
We do four minutes on each muscle group: quads, chest, glutes/hamstrings, back, triceps, biceps, shoulders, and abs.
As with swimming, I've found that I am more inclined to do the weight workouts (and to work harder) if I'm in a group setting than if I try to work out on my own. Even though it may not be the perfect weight workout for swimming, I HAVE to lift weights for my bone density and at least this gets me to the gym.
