Does anyone know how strong the top swimmers are? Guys like M. Phelps or B. Hansen, how much can they lift with their legs, bench, lat pull, curl, tri ex, etc. I am making weight training a big part of my workouts, but I understand, at a certain point, adding more muscle or strength is not going to be of much benefit.
Parents
Former Member
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.
I 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.
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.
I 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.
