Swimming experts,
I recently started strength training to complement my 3-4x/week swimming routine. I'm trying to lose weight, I am currently 205 and want to drop 20lbs. I'm not very interested in gaining a lot of muscle, but rather, I want to gain muscular endurance to improve my strokes (freestyle and ***) and more efficiently burn fat in the water. I swim about 3000-3500 yds per workout, in sets of alternating 200yds, 150yds, 100yds, 50yds, etc....and pyramids and IM's here and there.
My question is, how should I go about figuring out how many reps/sets to do for my situation? I just started a 3x/week (every other day) regimen of legs, chest, shoulders, lats, abs, etc, and the recommendation I found was to do 2-3 sets of 15-20 reps per exercise. I thought I heard somewhere that for swimming strength training, you want to do lots of reps, not too many sets, and keep the weight down.
Any help would be appreciated! I'm sure either way I'll get faster and
stronger in the water, but like I said, I don't want to add too much muscle
mass if I can stay away from it!
Matt
Parents
Former Member
Your regiment of high reps will get you strong and lean without the mass. Heavy weights with a maximum of 10 to 12 reps will garner big gains in strength. But this also adds mass...which is not necessarily good for swimming.
Remember to stretch. And try to plan your weight training so that it doesn't leave you wiped out for the pool. Ideally, lifting weights on days that you swim (after you swim) will give you an entire day to recover before going back for more.
Welcome to the forums too.
Your regiment of high reps will get you strong and lean without the mass. Heavy weights with a maximum of 10 to 12 reps will garner big gains in strength. But this also adds mass...which is not necessarily good for swimming.
Remember to stretch. And try to plan your weight training so that it doesn't leave you wiped out for the pool. Ideally, lifting weights on days that you swim (after you swim) will give you an entire day to recover before going back for more.
Welcome to the forums too.
