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
I have to say, after reading all the answers, I am not finding things that match up with reality. It seems that you all, as a whole, don't think weight lifting is that important. There are guys that are strong and swim fast, and their are guys that are not strong and they also swim fast. Seems like it really doesn't matter.
That mentality flies in the face of a few things. First, men are stronger than women. Men swim faster based on that fact.
Second, Dara Tores has severely tweaked her training. Old school days she was doing little in the weight room and 40K per week. Now she is at 20K per week and lifting her butt off. She is now faster, even with age related changes that should make her slower.
My hunch is that quality, targeted strength-training for women produces relatively better results in swimming than it does for men because women have to work much harder to build muscle (thanks to all the estrogen, I guess), whereas men can be naturally more muscular without really working at it and they might easily cross a certain tipping point where they get too much muscle and it actually hurts their swim times. So a woman who adds muscle can probably improve her times (relatively) more than a full-grown guy (teens don't count).
In the same way, perhaps flexibility- and balance-training like pilates and yoga would benefit male swimmers more than females. (Not as a replacement for weights and time in the water, obviously, but as an addition).
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Former Member
I have to say, after reading all the answers, I am not finding things that match up with reality. It seems that you all, as a whole, don't think weight lifting is that important. There are guys that are strong and swim fast, and their are guys that are not strong and they also swim fast. Seems like it really doesn't matter.
That mentality flies in the face of a few things. First, men are stronger than women. Men swim faster based on that fact.
Second, Dara Tores has severely tweaked her training. Old school days she was doing little in the weight room and 40K per week. Now she is at 20K per week and lifting her butt off. She is now faster, even with age related changes that should make her slower.
My hunch is that quality, targeted strength-training for women produces relatively better results in swimming than it does for men because women have to work much harder to build muscle (thanks to all the estrogen, I guess), whereas men can be naturally more muscular without really working at it and they might easily cross a certain tipping point where they get too much muscle and it actually hurts their swim times. So a woman who adds muscle can probably improve her times (relatively) more than a full-grown guy (teens don't count).
In the same way, perhaps flexibility- and balance-training like pilates and yoga would benefit male swimmers more than females. (Not as a replacement for weights and time in the water, obviously, but as an addition).
