I have been a fan of Dr. Kenneth Cooper and his writings for a couple of decades and have been reading an older book of his that reccomends "striking" exercise such as running for aging athletes.(boomers) He contends that as we age we need this sort of exercise to promote bone density. He also suggests higher ratios of weight training to aerobics for the same reason. I have only been swimming for a couple of years now and must say that my body has never felt healthier and more pain free. So, I am reluctant to go back to dealing with all the aches and pains associated with running. So here is my question of you experienced swimmers. Do you complement your swimming with dryland training such as running and lifting? If so how often and what types? Do you think Cooper is correct in asserting the need for weight bearing exercise over non weight bearing activity?
Lots of questions. Just curious about this one.
Regards
Spudfing
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I've always been a bit puzzled by this contention that swimming doesn't help bone density because it is supposedly not "resistance" exercise. What kind of swimmers did they test? People who paddle around gently just doing head-up *** stroke, people who swim 3-5 times a week for exercise doing at least two strokes briskly, or people who race and train for it (or just train as if they were going to)? Since water is 880 times denser than air, shouldn't the effort required to move through it require pushing against resistance?
I've always been a bit puzzled by this contention that swimming doesn't help bone density because it is supposedly not "resistance" exercise. What kind of swimmers did they test? People who paddle around gently just doing head-up *** stroke, people who swim 3-5 times a week for exercise doing at least two strokes briskly, or people who race and train for it (or just train as if they were going to)? Since water is 880 times denser than air, shouldn't the effort required to move through it require pushing against resistance?