While a bodysuit may provide a hydrodynamic advantage over bare skin, I have not yet seen a discussion regarding the additional weight of using a bodysuit. More particularly, water infiltrates the suit and remains within the suit as you swim. That is, water infiltrates the structure of the textile and also gets trapped between the suit and your skin. As you move through the water, the energy you exert also has to move the water within the suit.
Let us look at some basic math: the average body surface area for a man is 1.9 meters squared (this is from an article in Wikipedia on body surface area, BSA), which equals 19,000 cm squared. If an average of only one millimeter of water is trapped by the suit (i.e., within the structure of the textile and between the suit and your body), then a volume of 1,900 cm cubed of water is being pulled along with you.
Given that water has a mass of approximately one gram per cm cubed, this adds 1900 extra grams to your body. This translates to about 4.2 pounds of extra weight that you have to pull through the water.
The question is: would you rather have slightly better hydrodynamics or lesser weight. Personally, I'll go for the lesser weight any day. Your thoughts?
I have swum in both the Speedo Aquablade, which is almost impossible to get anymore; and the Fastskin 1.
The former seemed to me considerably lighter in the water, and I prefer it still for longer events.
The FS1 seems to give me slightly better times, but I don't feel quite so slippery in the water as I do in the Aquablade.
I have never tried the FS2 and wonder if anyone could comment on this relative to the two I have tried. I was reading about the FSPro, M.Phelps' comments on this at the Speedo website, and a Washington Post article.
It's still really expensive--$300 or so (slight discount here and there.) But I am wondering if any of you have tried this one, which is supposed to be much lighter than its predecessors.
Also, if anybody knows where you can still get Aquablade long john style men's suits, I would much appreciate the reference!
I have swum in both the Speedo Aquablade, which is almost impossible to get anymore; and the Fastskin 1.
The former seemed to me considerably lighter in the water, and I prefer it still for longer events.
The FS1 seems to give me slightly better times, but I don't feel quite so slippery in the water as I do in the Aquablade.
I have never tried the FS2 and wonder if anyone could comment on this relative to the two I have tried. I was reading about the FSPro, M.Phelps' comments on this at the Speedo website, and a Washington Post article.
It's still really expensive--$300 or so (slight discount here and there.) But I am wondering if any of you have tried this one, which is supposed to be much lighter than its predecessors.
Also, if anybody knows where you can still get Aquablade long john style men's suits, I would much appreciate the reference!
