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.
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Former Member
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.
You can bench a lot if you are built for it and you specifically train for it. It's a technical lift. Top swimmers tend to have long arms and loose shoulders, which makes for weak bench pressing. Alain Bernard, who has to be one of the strongest elite swimmers in the world, can reportedly bench 130 kg (source). That's under 300 pounds, but it's a good number for the swimmer body type.
Also, I think that swimmers still haven't really exploited the potential for improvement from strength training. Track sprinters are big, strong guys these days because strength is important to them. Tiger Woods also made an effort to bulk up. When you're doing the high yardage that a lot of swimmers do, strength is always going to be secondary.
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Former Member
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.
You can bench a lot if you are built for it and you specifically train for it. It's a technical lift. Top swimmers tend to have long arms and loose shoulders, which makes for weak bench pressing. Alain Bernard, who has to be one of the strongest elite swimmers in the world, can reportedly bench 130 kg (source). That's under 300 pounds, but it's a good number for the swimmer body type.
Also, I think that swimmers still haven't really exploited the potential for improvement from strength training. Track sprinters are big, strong guys these days because strength is important to them. Tiger Woods also made an effort to bulk up. When you're doing the high yardage that a lot of swimmers do, strength is always going to be secondary.
