In the False Start thread we got off on a tangent about fat and thin swimmers. I'd like to start a thread about this topic.
Since having my three children (2000, 2002, 2004) I have struggled with losing that belly. My husband, Mr. Exercise Physiologist, guesses I have about 15 pounds in my stomach. The rest of me is back in shape, the extra weight is just in my tummy. And boy do I feel it in the water. I equate it to carrying a 15 pound weight. That's a lot to swim with!
That being said, I get a physical every year (cancer runs in my family, I found out a few years ago). My NP said that my BP (104/62) and HR (56 resting) were good. And to my surprise both my HDL and LDL were really good (I don't remember the numbers). My blood cell counts were good, yaddy, yaddy, yaddy.
My point is that even though I'm 15-20 pounds overweight I'm REALLY healthy. She's never suggested that I need to lose weight. However, as a swimmer, the benefits of losing it are obvious. I'd swim faster.
The fastest FEMALE Master's swimmers I've seen are super thin, but not anorexic (sp?). Laura Val, Alison Zamanian, Laureen Welting, Beth McGee, Karlyn Pipes-Neilson, etc. are all really trim and super fast. Now, I'm not saying that if you're skinny, you're automatically fast... I've just noticed that thin, talented swimmers seem to swim the fastest. I don't consider myself in either category, so these are just my observations.
MM was definitely pudgy compared to today's models. She had boobs (real ones) and just looked healthy. Of course looks can be deceiving...
Again, do a Google image search for her Playboy pix (might not want to do it at work, though!). There's no way you can possibly call her pudgy. I believe she was listed as 5' 5 1/2" and 118 lbs.
I guess it's kind of like when people here got offended when someone called Ian Crocker fat. I'm the same way with Marilyn :)
yes Kirk we're actually saying she was NOT FAT. W're saying that by today's "icon" guages she would be.
I know that's your point, but I still disagree with it.
Anyway, neither Marilyn Monroe nor Hilary Duff swam/swims competitively, so I guess we're off topic here.
We have 2 guys on my team who are about the same age, height, and simlar speed. They are both around 6'2". One guy weights 160, the other about 240. They go at it all the time about one is faster, etc....and sometimes at the end of practice they'll race each other.
They are both faster than I am, but I do end up in the same lane with one every now and then. The one who is 240 gives such a nice wake that when I'm behind him he just pulls me along. I don't get nearly the draft off of the other.
I haven't been to a masters meet for a while, but when I last went, there were maybe 20% of people (guys and gals) who looked in-shape, while the rest had bellies or fat elsewhere. Doesn't mean that they weren't all fast though.
I think of thunder thighs as muscular thighs. I think another forumite commented somewhere that excessive kicking could cause thunder thighs. My 1994 daughter says that a lot of USS swimmers have "thunder thighs." They don't look overweight at all, just strong.
In my experience or voyeurism, it appears to me that men have more stomach issues and women have the "pear" issues. Just generalizing, of course, many exceptions. We all know of course that Muppet has the 8 pack abs. It's so hard to keep up with him ...
I'd say I fall into the Thunder Thigh category more than the abs. I hypothesize that it is from the 12 years of soccer, basketball (throw in a season of lacrosse in there too), not the swimming. But if you ask me to flex the legs now, its all solid (I just had to go on a hunting expedition to find the spots where I could grab a flap of skin).
There is a certain blue Muppet on my team who is a very good kicker but she does not have these thunder thighs we speak of - solid, but long, thin, normal-girl legs. She may be the fastest kicker on the team, and probably has the best motor form of anyone; yet what I lack in form, I make up in SDK power. There's only a slight difference between the two of us off the walls, and for a 25 sprint free, I think its my first stroke off the streamline that pulls me ahead.
More background, in 03/04, I informed my coach of my goal to go under 5:10 in the 500. At the time, I was hovering in the mid 520s, and weighed ~215. Had just started a new job out of college, was adjusting to all that, etc. She flat out said "you need to drop weight." I worked real hard to get that weight off and got down to 180 that year and got to a 5:12. The next year, 5:01 (at 185).
I am now hovering between 188.0 and 190.5, but have only now been able to fit maintain a smaller waistline.
Most masters swimmers are just fatter than masters runners or tris. Fact of life.
Thin is better than fat, but an athletic body is best.
Oh, I dunno. Some runners and tris look really "hard," which is not hot at all. I'd rather be fifteen pounds over.
I've noticed most runners don't have much upper body strength, but then why do they need it? Legs to die for though!
A PE teacher at my school qualified for the 2008 OLY Trials in the Marathon. He runs everywhere, up and over mountains, from here to there... I should write a Dr. Seuss book about him! Point is, while he's obviously in phenomenal shape, his upper body isn't much to look at ;)
So, to get back on topic... he doesn't swim and he isn't fat :drink:
