Does cross-training with running help swimming?

I agree with Chris. If you enjoy cross training and by adding it to your workout routine makes workouts more enjoyable, then do it. However, one thing I consider is whether or not an injury caused by cross training is worth the risk versus the potential benefit. So, early in my training season I bike and run to build strength in ways that are different from the pool (I lift/strength train throuhgout the year, backing off as I approach taper). Plus it takes some of the stress off my shoulders, because the season is long and the more dry leg work I do early in the season seems to help. So by this time in the winter season I am rarely running or biking because I do not want to pull a hamstring or twist an ankle on a curb, and risk being out of the pool during the final 2 months of the season. So I enjoy cross training and add it to build strength and endurance, but the risk of injury while running, open road biking is not worth it to me. Just my 2 cents.

I'm still going with YES! I'm still going with NO! because, as Chris notes, there are other ways of cross training that help swimming more: weights, core, cycling, rowing, yoga ... But, if it's the only cross training you do, than running is more beneficial than sitting on the couch as Aquaman notes. I have 2 main issues with running (which I do really enjoy, miss greatly and is fantastic for remaining lean). First, it wreaks havoc with your ankles. Swimmers need loose flexy ankles to kick effectively; runners need strong inflexible ankles to run effectively and avoid injury. Hard to reconcile these two goals. And it's super easy to destroy your ankles running with sprains and whatnot. Second, running thrashes your legs. If all you want to do in the pool is swim and pull, this might not be so bad. However, my swimming is very kick based and I think many swimmers could benefit from kicking more. Not many masters seem to like to kick, but improving your kick can contribute hugely to faster swim times. But this is all difficult to achieve if you have leg fatigue from running (or plodding) and drylands. Having directly compared the two (running vs. drylands as cross training), I find it's decidedly better to spend your finite "leg energy" on drylands. My legs are much stronger from my dryland routine than they were from running (my fin addiction really helps build leg strength as well. :)) Stud, I also think you're improving just from more time in the water and focusing on technique. Plus, you've been hitting the ellipse machine and doing weights. So it's hard to isolate running as the source of, or significant factor in, your improvement.

I completely agree with Fort. While I believe running is overall the best exercise for the body (minus the risk of grave immediate injury) it really does very little for your swimming. The possible exception might be some run sprint training. Primarily, as Fort states, running destroys ankles. If you stop running and put that time to kicking, you'll be a convert. While many things might compliment swimming training, nothing substitutes for the actual activity itself. The one curious part of running is that if you take up serious running, you lose weight. This, in turn, probably helps your swimming. But, the weight loss helps, not the actual running, but it is sort of a chicken and egg conundrum.

Running not only hurts my swimming, but running eventually hurts my running. I've found that I can run 2x a week for 2-3 months to build up the ability to run a 5k in 30 minutes, after which my knee and legs hurt so much I can no longer run at all for several weeks/months. No way I could even think about using a kickboard during those periods. Swimming is my recovery from running, along with the jacuzzi and ice on the knee. I haven't run one step since completing a sprint triathlon last June. Now that I have spring fever, the pool swimming season is almost over, and my knee has been painless for several months I am almost dumb enough to try running again. Maybe just a 5k. If I could isolate just the weight loss benefit and return to swimming full time before injury my swimming could possibly improve. Biking would be a much better option for me though. I am always craving to resurrect my hoops career too. But I also want to be able to walk. It sucks getting old. I envy those that run without being in complete agony every single step.

Running helps. Burns more fat...less fat means a tighter body and thus less drag...less drag means...oh my aunt Jemima...faster swimming. That said if you're squeezing a flabby bod into a B70 or the like...then no, maybe you don't need to run... We're all different and for me running made a huge difference in anything over 200 yards. I can't get the same workout in the pool that I can on the treadmill. I am just not built that way.

@ Chris Yep, I totally agree that I would not give up 2x days in the water but I would do it in addition or with a dry land routine... I mentioned this in an earlier post. Running sprints is ONE dry-land component that can help build explosive power for starts and turns as well as core strength. Since the question was about running, that was the main focus of my comments. I did mention other exercises like box jumps/plyo for the same thing. You do have to do a ton of core stab (with cross motion) with sprints so its a good bang for your buck if you are healthy enough to add them to your routine.

What is good for one is not necessarily good for another. I was a very high floater even when I was younger. I did a lot of cross training. I ran, cycled, rowed, paddled, lifted weights, land drills that were proposed by the swim coach at Yale University, and lots of swimming. As I got older my knees gave me trouble so cut out the running. Then after I switched to long distance swimming I eliminated everthing else except the land drills that Kipuith disigned and massive amounts of paced swimming, scattered in with sprint swim workouts. The sprint workouts were timed so I could swim fast when needed. I would throw in 25s, 50s and 100s as fast as I had ever competed in when I was a sprinter. I would start my training weighing in as high as 255lbs and when ready to swim my first race at about 225lbs. By the end of a distance swimming season I would weigh in at about 215. One year I ended up weighing 187, I looked like a skeliton with muscles. I had to eat very large meals to keep my weight up. During the marathon swim season.

This is my idea of an effective all-around conditioning circuit. Now remember guys, look at the exercises:bump:.... YouTube- Fitness - Killer 550 Rep Workout Thank you for that, I think I need to close my office door now....

I have no idea what the discussion about running and swimming has to do with elitism, no one has even brought up the elite swimmers.

Not directly Geek, no. However, when someone (average) states that something works for them...there's a lot of backlash from folks who either: have done better in swimming with a full life of participation, or from the white, fluffy, baaa-ing masses that can't look at anything other than the top swimmers. Absolutely there are lessons to learn from the top placed group...but sometimes the other guy who is as fat, skinny, asthmatic, bronchial, gluten intolerant, one legged, blind, deaf, suffering from MS as someone else reading it, may have some insight that relates more. Maybe land based cardio will do them more aerobic good than 20 x 100 on a 1:40 interval if they cannot hold the intensity. That and a silly whale analogy...:cane: ...now I am leaving before Carlos Fernandez comes back on.... I can't decide if that was an April Fool's post or not.