Strength of top swimmers

I understand that getting stronger will benefit me. I am just trying to find out how strong the elite swimmers are so I can have a goal. Once I get to that strength level, I know I can spend less time concentrating on strength, and more on swimming

I almost got my Junior National Cut when I wasn't doing that much lifting. In my senior year of high school, I thought that I would get my cut if I stepped up the lifting. I did and swam worse that year. Of course, I had very little guidance on my lifting regiment. I plan to get serious with my lifting in the fall with the focus on range of motion/sets than how much I lift. Also, I really need to find a good dryland program for a 200fly400IMdistancefreestyler.

If you are swimming the 400 IM, you definately don't need to be lifting a lot of weight. You need to have a great aerobic capacity. If you were lifting a lot for the 400 IM and sacrificed swimming time, I would expect your time to get worse. I am training for the 50 and 100 breaststroke, so I am not too worried about my aerobic capacity right now. I really want to hear what some of the sprinters can lift, say in the bench press, squat, leg extention, tricep extention, lat pull, overhead pull downs (straight arm lat pull) Anyone know where I can find workouts be Brendan Hansen

Most of the lifting numbers come from skills with a particular lift. So, for example, the guys who do a lot of pullovers will have good pullover numbers, and the guys who do a lot of chin-ups will have good chin-up numbers. But the strength in the water wouldn't necessarily be different. Also, just because elite swimmers aren't large and muscular doesn't necessarily mean it won't be beneficial for you to get stronger. A lot of Masters swimmers are pretty big, and fast because of it. Personally, I'm a lot faster at 190 pounds than I was at 160. My advice is to just go for it, see how much stronger you can get without comparing to other people, and see if that makes a difference in your swimming speed.

I understand that getting stronger will benefit me. I am just trying to find out how strong the elite swimmers are so I can have a goal. Once I get to that strength level, I know I can spend less time concentrating on strength, and more on swimming Well, like I said, you can't really know how strong someone is just by looking at their lifting numbers. Some guys are just good at lifting weights, or at doing particular lifts. I've heard that Alain Bernard can bench press a pretty big amount, but I'm not going to chase that number just because a fast swimmer did it. There are other great swimmers who can't bench a broomstick, but still have strength in other ways.

remember that strength training like weight training or dryland usually correlates with loss of flexibility. Not only do phelps, lochte, natalie, dara have a ridiculous strength to weight ration, but they are also unbelievably flexible. Natalie can stand up, bend over, and touch her elbows to the ground.. and just search a video of dara stretching on youtube or something and u will see what i mean.. Phelps and lochte have tremendous underwaters, and kicks due to their back, leg, and ankle flexibility. Dont think that getting stronger will help you if it is gonna make u stiff as a board

It's very possible to become stronger, even gain muscle mass, and still retain flexibility. Many professional bodybuilders can do the splits (boys and girls). Also, getting stronger does not necessarily mean that you "bulk up" or loose flexibility. Many Olympic weightlifters have to be flexible in order to perform their lifts accurately. :weightlifter:

I love guessing with absolutely no knowledge......I would guess top sprinters have around a 300lb bench plu/minus 50 and can probably do about 25-30 pull ups. This would be a guess for upper body. Maybe lower body would be a 350lb squat. What top swimmers can do is apply large forces for extended duration and cope with lactic acid. Weight room will not help as much here as actually swimming. I say yes to lifting, but it cannot substitute or interfere with the pool time.

don't know any professional swimmer who can push those numbers. In the pool it's all about functional strength anyway; given a particular athletes technique, things like bench press and squat aren't very useful. I think most people would be very surprised to see how little weight Olympic swimmers push on the standard lifts, but would be pretty impressed at some specialized, functional lifts. Is 300 lbs alot? Tiger Woods benches that much. Shaun Crawford benches over 350. Do you need that to run the 200? I don't think it is a reach for the fast swimmers to have impressive lifts. I bet Gary Hall Jr could bench 300 in his sleep. You may not see alot of sprinters doing it because it is not paramount to fast swimming, but that doesn't mean they can't do it. Somebody asked how much sprinters could lift, that's all. I think less technical lifts, like a lat pullover machine, would better show the true strength of swimmers. That's why I mentioned pull ups for reps. It's more of an indication of swimming specific strength.

lezak looks very strong I remember eddie telling me as a freshman, brendan could do 40 reps on bench press with his body weight recently I've done 5 or 6 reps with mine the key thing for swimming is strength vs body weight vs body shape vs swimming technique Kirsty Coventry is very fast but not she's pretty thin and doesn't look real strong