Just wondering how other folks here balance gym and pool workouts.
Now that I'm back in the pool I'm adjusting my lifting quite a bit to complement the swimming.
Used to, I'd alternate upper/lower body on alternate days, with one day a week off.
Now that I'm in the pool, I feel like I'm not giving my muscles enough rest time, since a swim is essentially a whole-body resistance set.
So far, I've been swimming Mon/Wed/Fri, and lifting Tue (upper), Thu (lower), and Sat (core). As I get better swim-conditioned, I plan to re-adjust, probably with more pool time.
Any thoughts, tips, experience?
Parents
Former Member
History: I quit masters when I went back to school and started lifting instead. During my final semester and a half, I quit lifting too because I needed time the time for my thesis.
I returned to swimming about 3 years out of USMS swimming shape, and 9 months out of lifting shape (for me).
For the first 7 months back, I swam 4-5k 3x/week and lifted 3x/week. Swimming was a cut down USAS program, so it was heavy on IM and kick work. Lifting was A day: 5x5 squats, 5x5 bench, 5x5 inverted rows; B day: 5x5 squats, 5x5 shoulder press, 3xfailure pull ups; increase weight 5lbs every days (15lbs every week on squat, 15lbs every 2 weeks on everything else), and rest to 80% max weight once I failed horribly (less than 3x5).
Then I found USMS.org forums and got this dumb idea I wanted to break 1:50 scy in the 200 free. I added 1-3 more swim workouts of 2-3k meters for 4 months.
In April of this year, my USMS team disbanded because the USAS team needed the pool space, and the team was really small. I joined a much larger team, but the workouts were much easier. I dropped from 4-5k of USAS style workouts to ~3k mostly freestyle workouts. I maintained my solo workouts of 2-3k 1-3x/week and my lifting.
In October, I swam my first USAS meet, and I was so pissed at my 200 free time, that I added another 3 dryland workouts (light stuff) in addition to my lifting, and I more consistently get solo workouts. I am hitting 3 lifting, 3+ "conditioning/drylands" workouts, and 6+ swimming workouts.
Postscript: I say I swam 4-5k the first 7 months back. It was probably 5 months before I could finish a 5k workout if we happened to have a predominately free workout, and for the first month or so, I never finished the workout. The workout really were not meant to be finished, since they were 90 minute age group workouts, and we had 75 minutes from the time the doors were unlocked to the time we had to be out of the lanes for the age groupers.
History: I quit masters when I went back to school and started lifting instead. During my final semester and a half, I quit lifting too because I needed time the time for my thesis.
I returned to swimming about 3 years out of USMS swimming shape, and 9 months out of lifting shape (for me).
For the first 7 months back, I swam 4-5k 3x/week and lifted 3x/week. Swimming was a cut down USAS program, so it was heavy on IM and kick work. Lifting was A day: 5x5 squats, 5x5 bench, 5x5 inverted rows; B day: 5x5 squats, 5x5 shoulder press, 3xfailure pull ups; increase weight 5lbs every days (15lbs every week on squat, 15lbs every 2 weeks on everything else), and rest to 80% max weight once I failed horribly (less than 3x5).
Then I found USMS.org forums and got this dumb idea I wanted to break 1:50 scy in the 200 free. I added 1-3 more swim workouts of 2-3k meters for 4 months.
In April of this year, my USMS team disbanded because the USAS team needed the pool space, and the team was really small. I joined a much larger team, but the workouts were much easier. I dropped from 4-5k of USAS style workouts to ~3k mostly freestyle workouts. I maintained my solo workouts of 2-3k 1-3x/week and my lifting.
In October, I swam my first USAS meet, and I was so pissed at my 200 free time, that I added another 3 dryland workouts (light stuff) in addition to my lifting, and I more consistently get solo workouts. I am hitting 3 lifting, 3+ "conditioning/drylands" workouts, and 6+ swimming workouts.
Postscript: I say I swam 4-5k the first 7 months back. It was probably 5 months before I could finish a 5k workout if we happened to have a predominately free workout, and for the first month or so, I never finished the workout. The workout really were not meant to be finished, since they were 90 minute age group workouts, and we had 75 minutes from the time the doors were unlocked to the time we had to be out of the lanes for the age groupers.
