Hey, I'm a 16 year old junior in high school, and well, I'd appreciate it if I could get some help with my swimming. I started swimming last year and can do every single stroke legally (minus breaststroke...oddly enough...) but my favorite stroke is freestyle. I have swam a 100 free starting off the wall in 1:00 and I'm also wondering what the most efficient way to swim it is, because when I made that time (my personal best, sadly) I sprinted the whole time. In addition, because this start was off the wall, I did not get to start off the block, I am 5'8" and weigh 122 and I'd just like any tips you can throw my way! Thanks in advance, and I also swim the 500 free on occasion so I would also appreciate any help on this. (Last year I swam the 200 and 500 free, this year I am hoping to swim the 100 free and 500 free)
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Maglischo covers energy systems very well. It's a lot more complicated than just three tubes spewing this "energy" stuff into the muscles. There are motor units with different fiber types, and different fiber types use different sources of energy. Right now I'm looking at a table titled "Properties of FT and ST Muscle Fibers" in Swimming Even Faster. The table lists comparative values for things like glycogen content, power, and capacity for aerobic/anaerobic metabolism across FTa, FTb, and ST. This is the 1993 version of the book, so I'm sure there's newer research on the topic.
Maglischo covers energy systems very well. It's a lot more complicated than just three tubes spewing this "energy" stuff into the muscles. There are motor units with different fiber types, and different fiber types use different sources of energy. Right now I'm looking at a table titled "Properties of FT and ST Muscle Fibers" in Swimming Even Faster. The table lists comparative values for things like glycogen content, power, and capacity for aerobic/anaerobic metabolism across FTa, FTb, and ST. This is the 1993 version of the book, so I'm sure there's newer research on the topic.
