Does cross-training with running help swimming?

my personal favorite - pounding the tire in my backyard with a sledgehammer. A good workout and it prevents the neighbors from letting their dog poop in your yard! :)

Yes! I have to agree. At the beginning of March, I decided to up my between swim workouts by adding a running program. It's designed to get you to the point of running a 5K in 9 weeks. I'm at the end of the first month, and I have experienced a huge change in my stamina and speed while swimming. I've only been back in the pool for just shy of 5 months and saw steady improvement during November through February, but March has been incredible! I'm pretty sure the running has had something to do with it.

One only needs to make a quick search on the Internet to find medical journal (or page through JSMs) articles on core stabilization, lactate threshold, building/maintaining of fast twitch muscle fibers, etc.... Running sprints helps with all of these things. Perhaps, but this is a straw man argument. The thread's question is poorly worded. If you compare running (sprint or otherwise) with sitting on a couch, then the running will probably help your swim performance. But let's say you are swimming 5X a week (or whatever). Would giving up (say) two of those practices and devoting them to running instead improve your swim performance? I say no, not if your swim training is well designed. All of the things shahboz mention can be done in the water, and many of the resulting adaptations are sports-specific. I can believe that sprint running will help explosiveness off the blocks and walls. I don't think it will help kicking much at all; I've seen far too many excellent runners who are poor kickers to believe that. I also don't believe it will help at all with pulling. All in all, in my opinion, I think there are better options for cross-training to improve swimming (weights, rowing, and cycling all come to mind). But generally I agree with Joshua: if you like it and have had success, go for it. Guarding against burnout is important: you'll train harder if you enjoy what you are doing. I hate running but I know many who love it above any other form of exercise. And there are other reasons to cross-train: injuries or limited pool access, for example. It is probably better for overall fitness, too.

One only needs to make a quick search on the Internet to find medical journal (or page through JSMs) articles on core stabilization, lactate threshold, building/maintaining of fast twitch muscle fibers, ect.... Running sprints helps with all of these things.

Shahboz: First of all if it feels good for you, and you feel that sprinting is beneficial for you, then great. I however still feel that there is no real empirical evidence that it indeed helps. Just to avert another methodological discussion, there maybe no evidence that it doesn't help but according to the scientific method, the burden of proof is on those that claim it does. I have two problems with your post: 1. You are trying to draw a general conclusion from your own personal experience. With all due respect, anecdotal evidence is always suspect due to subjectivity, does not necessarily prove anything and is a very common logical fallacy. 2. By your own admission, you are using various dry land methods at the same time. How can you know which method is really beneficial? In order to do that, you must isolate a method and use it exclusively in order to draw any conclusions.

I'm still going with YES!

I'm still going with YES! +1 I've found that as I've added (not substituted) distance running, my distance swimming has improved substantially. Prior to adding running, anything over a 4/500 was really a struggle in swimming. But once I got comfortable running 12-15 miles (and pacing them), I've had huge improvements to my 800+ swimming.

+1 I've found that as I've added (not substituted) distance running, my distance swimming has improved substantially. Prior to adding running, anything over a 4/500 was really a struggle in swimming. But once I got comfortable running 12-15 miles (and pacing them), I've had huge improvements to my 800+ swimming. My counter to this is the zillions of talented runners who can't swim worth a flip. As Ande likes to point out, to swim faster you have to swim faster.

My counter to this is the zillions of talented runners who can't swim worth a flip. As Ande likes to point out, to swim faster you have to swim faster. I had already been swimming 5x a week and if anything was getting slower. Running helped me shed 20+ pounds and built up my aerobic conditioning so I could handle the longer swims. I believe the question was, "Will crosstraining in running help my swimming?" Not, "are all fast runners fast swimmers?". For me it has been a huge success.

I had already been swimming 5x a week and if anything was getting slower. Running helped me shed 20+ pounds and built up my aerobic conditioning so I could handle the longer swims. I believe the question was, "Will crosstraining in running help my swimming?" Not, "are all fast runners fast swimmers?". For me it has been a huge success. If you had trained specifically for the 800 and longer with the same intensity as you trained for your running, your 800 would be faster than it is now. I'm not denying some cross over benefit but the same amount of time devoted to the actual sport will yield greater results. You don't see a bunch of swimmers taking up marathoning here two months before the meet in Atlanta.