Slim down to swim faster

Swim 3000+ QUALITY yards a day, eat right (use the right supplements), get sleep and the body will morph into the one with the correct muscle mass and correct strength for swimming fast.

Funky Fish, Why do you ask? are you still powerlifting? If so, I don't think it will complement swimming if you are sacraficing swim workouts to get the lifting in. In my case, my upper body strength has increased since swimming, but leg strength and muscle mass has suffered considerably......the inverse of running track, but right now I am not concerned because times are still coming down. Lance Armstrong's legs are not that big when compared to a powerlifter, but they where turning out 500 watts for 30 mintues. I don't think a powerlifter can hold 500 watts for 1 minute..... that is if he could get to 500 watts. I think my point is train the muscles for thier intended purpose and with whatever time/energy is left, incorporate some dryland lifting and let the muscle mass come into its own equilibrium.

Hi! What distances are you aiming at? If you are a sprinter in *** or butterfly I think you need to be very muscular to see any negative effects from your volume. Sprinters in freestyle and backstroke tend to be a little bit more slimmed. I have been considering this very same question several times, but when I think about it and try to visualize how much bigger a whole in the water I create with my current muscle mass compared to where I could be if I slimmed down....also taking into consideration loss of strength the focus points has always resulted in getting rid of those extra pounds of fat instead of muscles....I am not extremely muscular however....just a little bit more than avarage. If you look like a competitive body builder I think you have serious problems with your speed due to your volume and should definately consider loosing muscle mass to gain speed (and beauty! ;) ) If you are aiming for distance swimming you might want to consider to loose some volume in any case if you are clearly above avarage in muscle mass. Another idea is to google the top swimmers in the world in different distances and see if you can create some sort of benchmark in the weight/length ratio... my 2 cents /Per

Swim 3000+ QUALITY yards a day, eat right (use the right supplements), get sleep and the body will morph into the one with the correct muscle mass and correct strength for swimming fast. Rtodd, thanks for the response. Currently I swim 5-6 days a week, 3 practices are 4-5000yds, the other 2 are 2500yds. I feel that these are as quality as I can make them (20-25% kicking, 20% drill/stroke work, and the rest is a mix of distances between 25yd sprints to 500yd swims). On good days I can get 5000 done in about 1.5hrs. Due to a heart issue last year, my diet has gotten pretty strict and is "heart healthy". Glutamine is the only supplement I take currently. I typically get 8 hrs of sleep each night, except on weekends when I get 9. Why do you ask? are you still powerlifting? If so, I don't think it will complement swimming if you are sacraficing swim workouts to get the lifting in. In my case, my upper body strength has increased since swimming, but leg strength and muscle mass has suffered considerably......the inverse of running track, but right now I am not concerned because times are still coming down. My lifting focuses on basic compound movements, but I only spend a total of 3hrs a week with the weights. I'm guessing I spend about 6.5 - 8 hrs. a week swimming between 18 to 22,000yds. Again, thanks for the suggestions. I may have to experiment with the weightlifting and do the high-rep/low-weight thing and see where that gets me. We'll see.

Current stats are: Height: 5' 10" Weight: 174lbs Body fat %: 4-6 Chest: 45" Arms: 16" Waist: 30" Thighs: 23" I'll get some current pics in the next day or so. The main reason I asked this is that I'm within 2-3 seconds of swimming as fast as I did in high school (22yrs ago), and I have a personal goal of meeting or beating my times from back then. I'm currently about 20lbs heavier and much stronger weightlifting-wise, but I'm after the speed. I believe my bodyfat is probably close to what it was back then. I think that by starting this thread I've answered my question, in that I'll try and loose about 10lbs of mass and see what happens. Thanks again to everyone for the responses, and hope to see some of you at Nationals this May. Take care.:wiggle: Well, I'm going to swim against the tide here...personally, I think that body shape is much less important than: buoyancy, flexibility and "feel for the water." In other words, IMO the reason muscle-bound people often swim poorly is that they tend to sink, have zero flexiblity, and thrash in the water. A muscular person can still be plenty hydrodynamic if you have the flexibility to hold a tight streamline. The fact that you are within 2-3 seconds of your HS times (which is awesome) after adding 20+ years and 20 lbs of muscle, confirms it to some degree. How are you going to lose 10 lbs of muscle? Stop lifting entirely? Based on your current training regime, I don't think that will do it. At this point, swimming alone will probably keep you pretty buff unless you limit calorie intake. Some people are just predisposed to be that way. Steve Lundquist was pretty muscular; it didn't prevent him from winning Olympic gold (though it does seem that breaststrokers are often more buff than other swimmers). Bottom line: you swim a lot, have 4-6% body fat, a 30" waist and are contemplating losing 10 pounds. Geez, Captain America...IMO, I wouldn't be thinking too seriously about losing weight! If you do, I predict you will feel weaker and swim more slowly. Just my :2cents:! Good luck.

Wow, Certainly does not sound like you are letting the lifting interfere with your swm workouts like I feared. Hey, If you have the energy and time to get the lifting in, fine. Glutamine is good for cutting weight while trying to preserve muscle mass. Sounds like you are ripped.

what are your current swimming times what is your current strength level Ande, Thanks for the response. Current stats are: Height: 5' 10" Weight: 174lbs Body fat %: 4-6 Chest: 45" Arms: 16" Waist: 30" Thighs: 23" I'll get some current pics in the next day or so. The main reason I asked this is that I'm within 2-3 seconds of swimming as fast as I did in high school (22yrs ago), and I have a personal goal of meeting or beating my times from back then. I'm currently about 20lbs heavier and much stronger weightlifting-wise, but I'm after the speed. I believe my bodyfat is probably close to what it was back then. I think that by starting this thread I've answered my question, in that I'll try and loose about 10lbs of mass and see what happens. Thanks again to everyone for the responses, and hope to see some of you at Nationals this May. Take care.:wiggle:

what are your current swimming times what is your current strength level :51-53 on the 100yd free :56-58 on the 100yd fly :23 on 50yd free :25 on 50yd fly Strength level based on various workouts: 295 on flat bench x 1 215 on seated shoulder press x 1 365 on squat x 1 225 on good morning x 1 145 on barbell curl x 1 255 on close grip bench x 1 bodyweight + 125lbs chin-up x 1 crunches on the swiss ball x 45 in a set That's about it I guess. :cane:

How much mass would one have to lose in order to present less resistance in the water? not sure put up a current pic and stats Ok, got a pic taken, stats were listed earlier. Please forgive the "lunkhead" expression, just don't do well with photos. Thanks again for the input. 870

Hi! What distances are you aiming at? If you are a sprinter in *** or butterfly I think you need to be very muscular to see any negative effects from your volume. Sprinters in freestyle and backstroke tend to be a little bit more slimmed. Superfly, thanks for the response. I would consider myself a sprinter, although I'm not very tall (5'10"), I swim 50s and 100s in both free and fly. When I get older I might try distance, but not yet (still don't have the patience). I'm not quite "bodybuilder big", but am fairly muscular. I'll probably ease off the weights and see about losing maybe 10 lbs and see what happens.