I have been reading and watching posts and replies, on the General forum, as well as Coaching forum, that seem to dismiss the importance of having developed triceps. I may be wrong, but what I surmised is that even though having a longer stroke is of great importance (and I am an advocate of a longer sroke depending upon the distance and actual stroke being swum), that many people including Kaizen making statements that a long stroke is better, there is much conclusion that "finishing" the stroke lower on the leg has several problems: 1) it takes tricep strength so avoid it and 2) finishing shorter and closer to the waist area is the way to go.
Now granted, a 50 free sprint probably needs a lesser SPL than a 200 or 400, but my concern in this topic is that there may be a message to other swimmers that finishing later on the body requires more strength in the back of the arm (triceps) so avoid it. My Word: Wrong!!
Every great, great swimmer I have ever seen has the arms of Hercules, both in biceps, shoulders and triceps. And even at my older age and a fatter body, the one remaining muscle group that is ripped is the triceps on my arms because they have been trained over years and carry me through even now. Having these great muscles developed continues to aid in my powerfully finishing my stroke and setting up for the next one. Triceps DO provide propulsion in the stroke finish/recovery portion of the stroke, so making sure they are developed, as well as other components of your body, is extremely important. Just one swimmer's point of view....and open for discussion.....
donna
Dips are great out of the pool.
I think, but don't know, that most strokes will develop your triceps. If you look at a lot of swimmers, you'll generally see more developed triceps than biceps. I think it's a byproduct of the sport. Judging from how I feel after hard freestyle workouts, I know that works them.
The main difference between my 2010 freestyle and my 1995 freestyle is that back then, I use to have extremely well tuned, explosive and resistant (to high volume) triceps.
This year, I specialize more in Butterfly but next year I go back to FreeStyle. I know that I will need to work real hard to get those magic weapons back.
Even today, in my weekly gym workout (only once a week), I perform maybe 4 sets targeting the lats, 1 set targeting the chest (fly), 2 sets targeting shoulders (top and back), and at least 6 sets targeting the triceps.
On top of that, I regularly add the following wet endurance triceps work after my pull buoy sets, just to completely burn out the triceps.
YouTube- Free style Butterfly Pulling Pushes
:)
I'd like to know what other major muscles are taxed by each phase of the stroke as well (biceps, deltoids etc).
Just in case I missed somebody else's post, I would direct you to "Swimming Anatomy" by Ian McLeod.
It describes which muscles are used for each stroke (or more than one) and how best to strengthen these (dryland).
It's a great book (and no, I'm not getting any commission from the publishers.
Found a post of your's from almost 4 years ago on USMS. You talked about the importance of building your triceps. How? I really want to build my triceps but can't find info on what stroke strengthens what muscles. Can you help?
Hiya there.
See my post of a few minutes ago.
Like math!
Yeah, statements like these -- "the pushup is a very challenging exercise for women" -- are just dumb and perpetuate stereotypes. I wouldn't want my daughters to read that. Oh, wait, my daughter's best subject is math and she can do loads of push ups ...
I watched some teen boys doing drylands the other day at he end of my 9 year old's practice -- pathetic!
Yeah, statements like these "the pushup is a very challenging exercise for women" are just dumb and perpetuate stereotypes. I wouldn't want my daughters to read that. Oh, wait, my daughter's best subject is math and she can do loads of push ups ...
Methinks Joshua is talking about unfit women who avoid exercise.
Generalized statements like "pushups are hard for women" or "women are not good at math" are not helpful. It's easy to find chicks who rock at pushups or math. I'm a Computer Science major with a minor in math.
If you watch many swim practices with kids getting out to do pushups, you will see many kids (male and female) who are good at pushups and many (male and female) who are not.
