Strength of top swimmers

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 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. Nathan, I agree. Bench press and squat take a lot of skill and specific training. I think less technical lifts, like a lat pullover machine, would better show the true strength of swimmers.

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.

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. That's why I mentioned pull ups for reps. It's more of an indication of swimming specific strength. Yes, 300 pounds is a lot. Most people in America can't bench their own bodyweight; so 300 is a nice lift. Are there any videos of Tiger Woods benching 300? I know his trainer has said that he could do it, but I also know trainers of professional bodybuilders who claim big numbers. I find it amusing because I'm friends with a couple of such bodybuilders who even laugh at the claims because they don't push anywhere near that :) I have also had the chance to train in the weight room with many Olympic swimmers, some which I've trained some I've just lifted with, and none have put up those kinds of big numbers. I'm just saying from my own experiences with knowing many of these athletes personally, they don't go for the amount of weight so they never build those kinds of lifts. Could they? Sure, and lots of people could. I'm just saying I haven't seen it and have had some first hand experience. All that said, I certainly haven't even trained with a majority of top level swimmers, so I'm sure there are the exceptions.

thewookiee, I know a little bit about weight lifting, and I am sure I am not missing what everyone is saying. Regardless of whether I agree with them or not on their philosophy of weight lifting, strength and swimming speed, I still want to know how much these guys can lift. I am pretty sure I won't find out here.:thhbbb:

After reading all the replies to my original question, it seems that no one really knows what the top sprint swimmers are doing in the weight room. In light of current research in the field of exercise science, I would imagine that sprinters have a variety of different phases to their weight training. A general conditioning time, a time for building muscle, a time for building strength, and a time to do more sport specific stuff at high velocities. I really would like to know what numbers these sprint swimmers put up during their strength building phase, just so I can have a goal to shoot for. I understand that at a point, adding strength is not beneficial for swimming, since lifting speeds at high weights tends to be a slow velocity movement (not very sport specific), but I am just not sure what that point is. Without the reasearch being their specifically on swimmers, the best invesigation I can do is finding out what the best are doing right now.

Then you need to pick a specific guy...cause everyone lifts a different amount and probably does a different routine.

I really would like to know what numbers these sprint swimmers put up during their strength building phase, just so I can have a goal to shoot for. QUOTE] I think you have missed what the people who know weight lifting are saying. Each top level sprinter is different in the amount and types of lifting they are doing. Alain Bernard looks huge. He maybe able to lift a lot of weight. Eamon Sullivan, on the other hand looks like a stick figure. He may not be able to lift the same amount or types of weight. Yet, both of them swim within 1 tenth of a second of each other in the 50 and 100 frees. Decide the lifts that you want to do and do them the best you can do, without worrying about what someone else can do.

Well, you got at least one specific number from Ande, Brendan doing 40 reps of his body weight.

True...wonder what he does now...several years after his freshman year