Pool / Dry Land: What's your weekly schedule?

At the moment, it's Mon-Fri 3:30 to 5:30, and 6:30-8:30 Sat mornings. The weekday morning workout was dropped right before the taper. After new years, it'll probably be two hours early in the morning, then another hour and a half five days a week with the school team, and another two in the afternoon. Ai ai ai!

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? I remember in high school and college hating to lift weights as I always felt tired and weak. Now, probably since I usually only manage two swims a week, I look forward to it. My routine is similar to yours in alternating days although I go through my whole upper, lower, core routine on each of the days I lift. Ultimately it probably depends on what your goals are though. Are you looking to compete in meets? If so in which events?

I've been swimming 5-6 days a week 2-3k yards per practice since starting up again at the beginning of Nov. and, frankly, I'm too sore to lift at this stage. I'm thinking that until I get in better swimming shape, it makes sense to swim more and not worry about strength training. Just curious, what was your exercise routine before November?

I swim M,Tu,W,F and sometimes Sa&/or Sun.I lift M&F.I lift right after swimming.I used to lift before,fearing I'd be sorer if I lifted last,but when circumstances caused me to have to swim first(I had to get the swim in before the noodlers arrived) I found I got a better work out swimming first. That makes sense to me, b/c I'd think the swim would be a better warmup for the lift than vice-versa. When you do both together, how much time do you spend on each? I've been debating whether to make my Saturday routine a swim+core. Before I got back in the pool, I used to do about a 25 mile ride on Saturdays.

Weights about 5X week Swim (solo) every day for about 2 hours with 40% of it being rest, mostly sprints, drills, slow 200's with strict form. Been doing it like this for about a month No former swimming background, 20 months ago I really didn't know how to swim or really ever tried more than a lap. 1st meet in Jan:) Good gawd, man, where do you get the time for THAT?! I'd kill to get that much time.

Assuming you are leading a real world life (family,career and all other obligations) you will have to prioritize. Is lifting supplementing your swimming or vice versa? If swimming is your priority then you schedule the lifting around the swimming. Never skip the swimming in order to lift. Remember, s... happens so there will be times when you have to miss a day of training. Cancel a lifting session if you have to. Remember, lifting complements and optimistically (but contentiously) improves your swimming. I have a semi-real life. Career and house, but no family. Still, that's almost as time-intensive because there's only one person (me) to take care of house, land, and animals, so free time is hard to come by. I've managed to split my work day into 2 half-shifts so that I have 2.5 hrs during each weekday to get to the pool/gym, change out, lift or swim, shower and dress, get back to work, and have lunch (which is usually leftovers that I bring w/ me b/c restaurant food will kill you). I I have more or less and hour to work out, including warm-up and post-stretch. Right now I'm transitioning. For the past couple of years, my focus has been on strength training and cycling. Now my goal is to be competitive again within 2 years. Ambitious, I think, for someone who's been out so long and doesn't have a coach, but I do better with goals. So I've already adjusted my gym routine to complement my swimming, swapping out some exercises, adding more core work and more stretching. My worst enemy is insomnia, which has plagued me since childhood. Because of what I do for a living, I can't be sleepy on the job. So if I have a bad night, I'll get as much sleep as I can and sacrifice the exercise. Last week, for instance, was a total wash, but I got back in the pool today, thank goodness. And insomnia is a much less frequent problem now than it was before I got back in shape, when I was overweight and sedentary. As for the relationship b/t lifting and swimming, I can tell you that it helps tremendously if you're returning to the pool. I tried swimming a few years ago and it was painful, and results were so poor I gave it up. After getting back in shape, it was like remembering how to ride a bike -- I had the strength and cardio-pulmonary capacity to hit my stride right off the bat. Now I lift b/c of the proven health benefits it provides, and to keep my whole body toned and prevent injuries that can come from doing one thing (no matter what it is) too often, intensely, and exclusively.

I am tired and I usually get leg cramps. I had a terrible problem w/ leg cramps starting out. I added stretches after my swim and increased my stretching after my lifts, and started keeping a water bottle at the end of the lane, and that helped tremendously. But now they're back, tho they don't come on as quickly, so I'm thinking of trying to increase the magnesium and potassium in my diet. I hate having my swim interrupted by a cramp. I have also had to face the fact that as much as I would like to and as much as I am making an effort to, I may never make it to a morning workout, which leaves after work and weekends. I once tried morning workouts, but I just couldn't warm my body up enough to make it effective. Turns out, it's not just a personal quirk. There really are "morning people" and "night owls", and for night owls, strength increases throughout the day. For morning people, strength is fairly even throughout the day. If I left it to my body, I'd go to sleep about 1:00 in the morning and get up around 9:00. As it is, I have to get up about 5:00 standard time, 6:00 daylight saving time. I need to go back to bartending. :chug:

I remember in high school and college hating to lift weights as I always felt tired and weak. Now, probably since I usually only manage two swims a week, I look forward to it. My routine is similar to yours in alternating days although I go through my whole upper, lower, core routine on each of the days I lift. Ultimately it probably depends on what your goals are though. Are you looking to compete in meets? If so in which events? Well, back when I was competing as a young'un, I was competitive in backstroke, crawl, and breaststroke, with backstroke being my strongest. I never did learn how to be fast in fly. Today I can't even manage it. Can't get my pull and kick to sync up. Wish I had someone to show me how it's done. Anyway, since I'm just starting back after a nearly 30 year "hiatus", it remains to be seen what I actually end up competing in, if anything. But my back and crawl still feel pretty good, and the breaststroke not bad. So I'm hoping I can perform well in short races for those 3. So doing a whole-body workout alternating w/ swims, that doesn't cause you problems? Sounds like you're never giving your muscles a day off.

During normal schedule, swim 4-5x a week with a masters team. Lift upper body and some core work 3x week, legwork 1-2x a week, and run 3+ times a week. Who ARE you people with all this time?!

This is something I am working on figuring out as well. My schedule is such that it is hard to have a consistent schedule week after week after week but occassionally it happens and I'm so happy when it does. I am currently trying to put weights back into my routine. I think you first have to look at any limitations you have schedule-wise. For instance, I have dance classes on wednesday nights and soon thursdays as well. Thursday mornings I feel completely beaten up from the wednesday classes and exhausted because we are there until 10PM or later. I've been swimming thursday nights but my body is clearly not recovered from the night before, I am tired and I usually get leg cramps. When dance starts on thursdays too I'll have to find a different day. I swim at least once a week and I have made an effort to make it twice a week. I would love to add a third day and I am trying to figure out how to make that work. Right now thursday, friday and saturday are the days I can swim but it seems I can never do all three in one week because other things come up. I have also had to face the fact that as much as I would like to and as much as I am making an effort to, I may never make it to a morning workout, which leaves after work and weekends. I have a spinning class I love on mondays but I am thinking of sacrificing it to make monday another swim day, I can spin on tuesday and do weights sunday and tuesday. I'm going to try to play around with that schedule and see how it affects my wednesday nights since I usually need to be well rested in order to do well and actually make it through the entire night.