I am fairly new to masters swimming and while I did swim in college, I never swam year round or for a club team. So when I swam in the past weights were only something that was used during waterpolo or during the early part of the swim season. And even then I rarely hit the weights.
Recently I found a work out written for sprinters that I have started to follow. It seems pretty well written and well thought out. The work out is broken down for a 5 month season like this.
month 1 - Endurance training (high reps)
Month 2 - Stength and power (heavier wieghts low reps)
Month 3 - Speed training (high reps at pace)
Month 4 - Stength and power
Month 5 - Taper
I've adjusted it to 3 week blocks so that the last month ends at an upcoming zone championship meet.
The plan is based on a full body work out 3 days per week. I've just started doing this and in addition I am swimming 4-5 days per week, about 3000 - 4000 yards per day.
So questions are as follows:
1. Is this too much? Will I not get enough rest? I'm 33 and so far, after two weeks I feel fine.
2. On weeks where I plan to swim in a meet do I lay off the weights or just stick to the plan and build for the zone championship meet? Right now I would be lifting on the day before the smaller meets.
3. And with swimming year round, do I follow a similar plan and only back off the weights for the big meets?
Any help is appreciated.
Parents
Former Member
There is a Ph.D. thesis in your questions. However...
The weight program you are showing is an example of the use of periodization in training. You already have your macrocycle outlined (the total 5 months), so let's look at the smaller cycles. Typically, in a case like this, a mesocycle will be 3-5 weeks. Given how you have outlined your macrocycle, I'd suggest a mesocycle of 4-ish weeks (already implied as you have it broken out by months) where you do your target task (endurance, etc) for that mesocycle for 3 weeks of building, followed by the 4th week much easier (for recovery) and incorporating some of the elements that will come in the next mesocycle (prep for what is to come). The smallest general cycle is the microcycle; in your case, the ebb and flow of training for a week. There are two schools of thought as to how you should mix weight training and sport-specific training. The most common belief is that you should do your weight training on the days when your sport-specific training is either light or non-existant. However, Tudor Bompa - possible THE expert on periodization - argues that it should be done on your main sport-specfic training days AFTER sport-specific training is done. The rationale is that this insures that the other days are easy days that your body can use for recovery. It also means that your weight program will not be quite as intense as it might be if you did it on the other days, as you will already be somewhat fatigued. I favor Bompa's approach, but an injury-prone person might do better the other way.
So, using Bompa's approach, as an example (this is NOT gospel) of a typical microcycle (1 week's training), you might have:
(abbreviaton key: SS=sport-specific, WT- weight work)
Mon - Hard SS, WT
Tue - easier
Wed - Hard SS, WT
Thurs - easier or off
Fri - Moderate SS
Sat - Hard SS, WT
Sun - Off
This gives you 3 days of weights and 5 or 6 days of swimming. Of course, you can adjust this as it meets your time/needs.
A typical endurance mesocycle for your weights (again, not gospel) might be:
Week 1: base # of reps
Week 2: (base + 10% ) # of reps
Week 3: (base + 20%) # of reps
Week 4: 50% # of base reps + 25% or so of the base reps of the NEXT mesocycle
You already have your macrocycle outlined but, so no need to reitrate it, but if you think in terms of a year, you can easily get two of these macrocyles into a year as well as a rest mesocycle.
Note that there are a million ways to structure each type of cycle and then combine all the types of cycles and, to some degree, you will have to experiment a bit to see what works best for you. So, for example, the mesocycle I showed above, is one that builds each microcycle in a steady progression. However, you can also do things with mesocycles like make the first microcycle hard, the second one moderate, the third one harder and the fourth the recovery/transition. Note too, that if you periodize your swimming as well, you can do things like try to make it so that you hardest weight microcycle doesn't coincide with your hardest swimming microcycle.
Which brings up the ONE GREAT TRUTH of all training: You do not improve by training. You improve by getting adequate recovery/rest after training.
Please keep that in mind in setting up your program.
-LBJ
There is a Ph.D. thesis in your questions. However...
The weight program you are showing is an example of the use of periodization in training. You already have your macrocycle outlined (the total 5 months), so let's look at the smaller cycles. Typically, in a case like this, a mesocycle will be 3-5 weeks. Given how you have outlined your macrocycle, I'd suggest a mesocycle of 4-ish weeks (already implied as you have it broken out by months) where you do your target task (endurance, etc) for that mesocycle for 3 weeks of building, followed by the 4th week much easier (for recovery) and incorporating some of the elements that will come in the next mesocycle (prep for what is to come). The smallest general cycle is the microcycle; in your case, the ebb and flow of training for a week. There are two schools of thought as to how you should mix weight training and sport-specific training. The most common belief is that you should do your weight training on the days when your sport-specific training is either light or non-existant. However, Tudor Bompa - possible THE expert on periodization - argues that it should be done on your main sport-specfic training days AFTER sport-specific training is done. The rationale is that this insures that the other days are easy days that your body can use for recovery. It also means that your weight program will not be quite as intense as it might be if you did it on the other days, as you will already be somewhat fatigued. I favor Bompa's approach, but an injury-prone person might do better the other way.
So, using Bompa's approach, as an example (this is NOT gospel) of a typical microcycle (1 week's training), you might have:
(abbreviaton key: SS=sport-specific, WT- weight work)
Mon - Hard SS, WT
Tue - easier
Wed - Hard SS, WT
Thurs - easier or off
Fri - Moderate SS
Sat - Hard SS, WT
Sun - Off
This gives you 3 days of weights and 5 or 6 days of swimming. Of course, you can adjust this as it meets your time/needs.
A typical endurance mesocycle for your weights (again, not gospel) might be:
Week 1: base # of reps
Week 2: (base + 10% ) # of reps
Week 3: (base + 20%) # of reps
Week 4: 50% # of base reps + 25% or so of the base reps of the NEXT mesocycle
You already have your macrocycle outlined but, so no need to reitrate it, but if you think in terms of a year, you can easily get two of these macrocyles into a year as well as a rest mesocycle.
Note that there are a million ways to structure each type of cycle and then combine all the types of cycles and, to some degree, you will have to experiment a bit to see what works best for you. So, for example, the mesocycle I showed above, is one that builds each microcycle in a steady progression. However, you can also do things with mesocycles like make the first microcycle hard, the second one moderate, the third one harder and the fourth the recovery/transition. Note too, that if you periodize your swimming as well, you can do things like try to make it so that you hardest weight microcycle doesn't coincide with your hardest swimming microcycle.
Which brings up the ONE GREAT TRUTH of all training: You do not improve by training. You improve by getting adequate recovery/rest after training.
Please keep that in mind in setting up your program.
-LBJ
