I'm a rookie in the pool, and am surprised that keeping one's weight down appears to be less important than I thought. After decades of running with the knowledge that every pound over my running weight added 20 secs to my p/m pace, am I ok being a little chunky? I do aspire to be competitive in my age class. Thanks, Steve
Lower body fat is generally correlated with faster swimming. That's the gist of the research I've read, but there's not much research. Also, the studies are all correlational. Swimmers who have less fat tend to be faster. What this doesn't necessarily mean is that any individual will swim faster from making an effort to lose body fat. If you go on a diet or a cardio bender to lose weight, you'll lose not only fat but muscle.
In swimming, body weight is supported and not a huge issue (I'd be more concerned about body shape as it affects drag), but muscle is a huge issue because it's what you use to swim. If the benefit from lost fat doesn't overcome the detriment from lost muscle, you'll swim slower by losing weight, even when the ratio might lead to faster running. It's just due to the differences between the two sports in how weight affects performance. In studies of elite athletes across sports, swimmers and other weight-supported athletes (like kayakers) tend to have slightly higher body fat than runners.
This is such a good post for masters swimmers - thank you Jazz!
And readers, please decide if you are trying to swim faster times or if you are trying to last longer swimming in the cold open water.
Alison Streeter and Lynne Cox are not "fast" swimmers. But they can stand the cold water for long periods of time. The very fast open water swimmers are more lean in shape than either Alison or Lynne.
The King of The Channel, Kevin Murphy, is currently recovering from bypass surgery... so who is to say this is all healthy.
My "big masters swimmers" who swim pretty fast in workout and faster in a tight tech-suit, would definitely swim fastest without dragging along a large belly and or behind.
Personally? I plan to loose a little jiggle to balance out the loss of my beautiful B70. Or heck maybe even before.
Lower body fat is generally correlated with faster swimming. That's the gist of the research I've read, but there's not much research. Also, the studies are all correlational. Swimmers who have less fat tend to be faster. What this doesn't necessarily mean is that any individual will swim faster from making an effort to lose body fat. If you go on a diet or a cardio bender to lose weight, you'll lose not only fat but muscle.
In swimming, body weight is supported and not a huge issue (I'd be more concerned about body shape as it affects drag), but muscle is a huge issue because it's what you use to swim. If the benefit from lost fat doesn't overcome the detriment from lost muscle, you'll swim slower by losing weight, even when the ratio might lead to faster running. It's just due to the differences between the two sports in how weight affects performance. In studies of elite athletes across sports, swimmers and other weight-supported athletes (like kayakers) tend to have slightly higher body fat than runners.
This is such a good post for masters swimmers - thank you Jazz!
And readers, please decide if you are trying to swim faster times or if you are trying to last longer swimming in the cold open water.
Alison Streeter and Lynne Cox are not "fast" swimmers. But they can stand the cold water for long periods of time. The very fast open water swimmers are more lean in shape than either Alison or Lynne.
The King of The Channel, Kevin Murphy, is currently recovering from bypass surgery... so who is to say this is all healthy.
My "big masters swimmers" who swim pretty fast in workout and faster in a tight tech-suit, would definitely swim fastest without dragging along a large belly and or behind.
Personally? I plan to loose a little jiggle to balance out the loss of my beautiful B70. Or heck maybe even before.
