My great friend, the charming ignoramus Leslie "the Fortess" Livingston, and I recently had the opportunity to bandy about a debate topic in the November issue of Swimmer magazine.
Leslie has asked me to create a poll to see which of us had the more persuasive arguments vis a vis the usefulness of weight lifting to behoove swimming performance.
I tried to talk Leslie out of such a poll, because I wasn't sure her delicate albeit manly temperament could take the likely beat down she would get, vote wise.
After all, her teenage daughter had already proclaimed, in uncertain terms, that she was best off pleading Nolo contendere here (see en.wikipedia.org/.../Nolo_contendere if your legal skills are as atrophied as Leslie's). In her daughter's own words, "He totally owned you, Mom! Like totally! It was so awesome! He's so totally funny, and you are so totally uptight, Mom! I mean, it was like so totally embarrassing how much he owned you! Please tell me I'm adopted! Please tell me Jim Thornton is my real mother!"
Unfortunately, this kind of advanced rhetorical argument on my part fell on deaf ears, just as my advanced rhetorical argument--in which actual studies were cited!--also fell on deaf ears. Evidently, the dear girl has overdone the neck thickening machine, and in the process, mastoid muscle processes seem to have overgrown her ear canals!
I know that not everyone has received their copy of Swimmer yet. Rumor has it that those of us who live in the higher class zip codes get the extra virgin pressed copies, with the rest of you having to wait to the ink starts getting stale.
You will get your copies one day, I assure you! Just as you will get your H1N1 swine flu vaccines dosages when me and my friends at Goldman have had our third inoculations!
But I am getting a bit off the track here.
If you've read our Inane Point (Leslie) - Brilliant Counterpoint (Jim) *** for tat debate, Leslie asks that you vote in this poll for the person you think was RHETORICALLY superior.
Note: this does not mean which of us was right.
Hell, I have already conceded Leslie was right, and have begun weight lifting myself thrice weekly!
I am one bulked up monstrosity of a girly man at this point, and I don't plan to stop till you can bounce quarters off my moobs.
So. Forget all aspects of actual rational correctness here, and certainly forget all aspects of who is more popular.
And vote with your pitiless inner rhetoritician calling the shots.
Leslie, I warned you: Nolo contendere was the smart plea. But no, you just wouldn't hear of it!
Parents
Former Member
I found a study from Ball State that compared 2 groups of swimmers, one of which added weight-enhanced dips and pull-ups to their training regimen.
After 3 months, the weight-users shaved 1/3 sec. off their 25 yard crawl compared to the control group, but there was no difference in 400 yard crawl performance.
Whether that 1/3 sec. is statistically significant, I have no idea. Whether it matters for real-world competition is dubious, especially given the lack of advantage at 400 yards.
But then again, is 12 weeks long enough? And although dips and pull-ups might seem like the right exercises to do, the Phelps example provides at least some indication that they might not be. Perhaps weight-enhanced squats would have been a better choice.
On the other hand, a surprising study was done at U. Buffalo which had swimmers work out their lung muscles for one month by breathing against a valve that provided resistance.
Subjects who followed a resistance-breathing training program improved their respiratory muscle strength and their snorkel swimming time by 33 percent and underwater scuba swimming time by 66 percent when compared to baseline values. Participants using a program requiring high respiratory flow rates (endurance) improved their respiratory endurance and surface and underwater swimming times by 38 percent and 26 percent, respectively. The placebo training group showed no significant improvement in respiratory or swimming performance.....
"Results showed that the RRMT and ERMT protocols used in this study significantly extended swimming endurance through an improvement in respiratory muscle performance," said researchers. "These data are in agreement with previous studies in cyclists, rowers and runners. They suggest that athletes in most sports could improve their performance by undergoing respiratory muscle training. It is also clear that the greater the stress on the respiratory system, the larger the improvement in performance."
Maybe instead of lifting weights we should be blowing up balloons?
I found a study from Ball State that compared 2 groups of swimmers, one of which added weight-enhanced dips and pull-ups to their training regimen.
After 3 months, the weight-users shaved 1/3 sec. off their 25 yard crawl compared to the control group, but there was no difference in 400 yard crawl performance.
Whether that 1/3 sec. is statistically significant, I have no idea. Whether it matters for real-world competition is dubious, especially given the lack of advantage at 400 yards.
But then again, is 12 weeks long enough? And although dips and pull-ups might seem like the right exercises to do, the Phelps example provides at least some indication that they might not be. Perhaps weight-enhanced squats would have been a better choice.
On the other hand, a surprising study was done at U. Buffalo which had swimmers work out their lung muscles for one month by breathing against a valve that provided resistance.
Subjects who followed a resistance-breathing training program improved their respiratory muscle strength and their snorkel swimming time by 33 percent and underwater scuba swimming time by 66 percent when compared to baseline values. Participants using a program requiring high respiratory flow rates (endurance) improved their respiratory endurance and surface and underwater swimming times by 38 percent and 26 percent, respectively. The placebo training group showed no significant improvement in respiratory or swimming performance.....
"Results showed that the RRMT and ERMT protocols used in this study significantly extended swimming endurance through an improvement in respiratory muscle performance," said researchers. "These data are in agreement with previous studies in cyclists, rowers and runners. They suggest that athletes in most sports could improve their performance by undergoing respiratory muscle training. It is also clear that the greater the stress on the respiratory system, the larger the improvement in performance."
Maybe instead of lifting weights we should be blowing up balloons?
