It's often said swimming makes your shoulders wider, perhaps breaststroke and butterfly in particular? Are there any real swimmers here who can confirm this with their personal experience?
If true, what length of time and intensity of swimming did it take to result in such changes? I suspect this can happen only to competitive swimmers.
When I was a kid, I was just tiny. Through high school, I started developing quite a bit more muscle, but I was still on the scrawny side at 5'9" and 130 pounds. Proportionally speaking, though, my shoulders were pretty wide.
Fast forward to today, I'm about 70 heavier and much, much more muscle bound than I was then. 'Course, I'm carrying about 15 pounds of padding, too, but I'm significantly bulkier than back then. After 2.5 years of swimming (took about 7 years off after swimming from 5-18), my shoulders are again proportionally wide. My lats, triceps, and back muscles see the biggest gains from swimming.
Buying suits is a pain in the rear! I usually have to shop in the big and tall section, then get approximately 12 feet of fabric around the middle taken in.
When I was a kid, I was just tiny. Through high school, I started developing quite a bit more muscle, but I was still on the scrawny side at 5'9" and 130 pounds. Proportionally speaking, though, my shoulders were pretty wide.
Fast forward to today, I'm about 70 heavier and much, much more muscle bound than I was then. 'Course, I'm carrying about 15 pounds of padding, too, but I'm significantly bulkier than back then. After 2.5 years of swimming (took about 7 years off after swimming from 5-18), my shoulders are again proportionally wide. My lats, triceps, and back muscles see the biggest gains from swimming.
Buying suits is a pain in the rear! I usually have to shop in the big and tall section, then get approximately 12 feet of fabric around the middle taken in.
