In cycling, it is a widely held view that losing weight yields faster times (yes, I read the steroid thread). How about in swimming?
I could imagine a theory where carrying a few extra ice cream sundaes in swimming might make you faster due to the increase in bouyancy. In fact, I had this very theory after my freshman year in college. Hey! Who doesn't like ice cream.
when I was 32 I weighed around 275. I could do 100 yard back in 58.0 but I was pretty fat.
by age 37 I had slimmed down to 235 after peaking around 290. I had around 14% body fat but I could barely break a minute even though my weekly yardage doubled from approx 15k a week to 30k a week. i'm 6'3".
My 200 did come down significantly though to around 2:08 from 2:15 or so and doing 200 back repeats in practice (say 10x200 on 3:00) I could barely do 2:40 to 2:45 for each one, now I can hold 2:25s for each one. Same for the 100. If I do 10x100 back on 1:30, I used to be able to do no faster than like a 1:15 in practice, now they are all 1:08 to 1:10. go figure. I still do these now at 39. I think my age is hurting my speed more than my weight loss helped it.
when I swam in college I was around 200 lbs, and was 53.3 100 yd backstroker (1986 was my fastest year). not sure what my body fat was then, but probably closer to 10%,.
when I was 32 I weighed around 275. I could do 100 yard back in 58.0 but I was pretty fat.
by age 37 I had slimmed down to 235 after peaking around 290. I had around 14% body fat but I could barely break a minute even though my weekly yardage doubled from approx 15k a week to 30k a week. i'm 6'3".
My 200 did come down significantly though to around 2:08 from 2:15 or so and doing 200 back repeats in practice (say 10x200 on 3:00) I could barely do 2:40 to 2:45 for each one, now I can hold 2:25s for each one. Same for the 100. If I do 10x100 back on 1:30, I used to be able to do no faster than like a 1:15 in practice, now they are all 1:08 to 1:10. go figure. I still do these now at 39. I think my age is hurting my speed more than my weight loss helped it.
when I swam in college I was around 200 lbs, and was 53.3 100 yd backstroker (1986 was my fastest year). not sure what my body fat was then, but probably closer to 10%,.
