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.
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.
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.
