This has been something I've wondered the last few years. I used to be a college swimmer, fit and trim, but the 10 years since then I've drank my fair share of beer and ate plenty of cheeseburgers. Just curious what peoples' take is on how much the extra baggage really effects swim races.
I don't really fit the swimmer mold anymore. I'm 31, 6'2", and 270lbs with a huge beer gut. I got some strange looks since the meet i was in recently was a USAS meet and I outweighed my competition by 100lbs in many cases. My first race in about 5 years i went 23.4 in the 50y free. I didn't expect to be that fast at this weight but at the same time I almost wonder if the added intertia is helping me more on the start and turns. Followed it up with a low 52 in the 100y free but I had a horrible reaction on the start and incorrect pacing. I think if i raced again today that'd be deep in the 51 range. For reference, typical non-taper times for me in college were in the low-mid 22 range at just a tick over 200lbs but I was obviously a lot stronger, younger, and doing a TON more yards at the time, that's why it makes me wonder just how much the weight is actually holding me back.
How much time do you think I stand to drop if i were 50lbs lighter? Could it be a measurable difference or something just slight? I guess I ask that to see if it'd be worth my while to drop that much weight quickly by dieting in addition to the swimming i'm doing. I don't really like dieting, and i generally eat what I want, when i want. Not gorging myself at every meal doesn't really seem to fit into my lifestyle :blush: Anyone have a similar story? "I dropped XX lbs and went XX seconds faster because of it."
Maybe it's an immeasurable, but I thought I'd ask for opinion anyway. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a "to diet or not to diet" discussion though.
Former Member
I have to admit I haven't sat still and pondered a subject like this for a long time. My final conclusion is based on observation - the fastest swimmers in USMS are typically not overweight. I do not know if that means anything, however.
Conversely, there are a whole lot of very fast swimmers in USMS who are bigger people.
From an overall health perspective, it is probably best to not be 270. But, from a swimming perspective, I can't say for sure one way or the other. I had a pretty solid opinion prior to seeing your video.
What could be noted is that the fastest swimmers are also training often and sustained. So these fast people that train all the time are going to be more slim coincidentally. Given this it's easy to draw the conclusion that slim is faster, but that's because the fast people are all slim. It answers the observation but still leaves this discussion where it's at.
I'd love to suggest that a skinny swimmer put on a heavy prosthetic beer gut and test with/without the weight, but it'd probably throw off their stroke so much that it wouldn't be a fair comparison. The only testing I personally can really throw out there involves me losing more weight by training, but then the question remains whether i got faster because of the weight or because of the training? Really hard to measure I know but that's what this discussion is for. Opinion and theory :) :chug:
Ok, took a while but I'm back with a few results.
First off the original post I had just had a meet in may and went 23.4 in the 50 free SCY. Weight was 270 at the time. Mid june in another meet i was still about 267-269 or so, and went 26.9 in a 50 LCM. Conversions, though not perfect, indicate this is about the same swim as the 23.4 a month before. This past weekend I was in another meet, weight has dropped 12 lbs since june to 257 or so, but I had also shaved down for this meet. Result was a 26.5 50 free LCM. It's hard to tell if the 4 tenths drop in time was from the weight drop or if it was just the shave alone. In some respects i wish now that i hadnt shaved so i could make a better comparison about weight... but it's still nice to see the clock stop at a faster time :)
I finally got video of a race. I realize this probably isn't the best thread to ask for analysis of the race, but it prolly wouldnt hurt here anyways can always make another topic if no one has anything to say here.
YouTube- swim_race1
I've highlighted myself as old-fat-guy for easy recognition. :D
If any of you have suggestions to improve my race I'd love to hear them! :)
The particular heat in that video was me against all 15-16 year olds at a USAS state championship meet ... so i had their ages doubled, and in many cases, their weight too. Strangely I still feel like i was beating up on a bunch of kids. :cool: (no summer masters meets in my state)
That must bust a lot of their egos. :D
I think extra weight is real bad. Elite swimmers are shreded.
You must pull the weight much like climbing a ladder.
Except that climbing a ladder you are fighting gravity, not so during swimming. You can push a car on a flat driveway with some effort, but not up a steep hill. I had 4 top 10 times in 1998 where I was probably at least 30 to 40 pounds heavier than I am now. These days I'm lucky to squeek out 1 top 10 and can't come anywhere near my 1998 times for 50/100 races (except oddly butterfly), even though I train twice as much and weigh significantly less.
I was 18 5-11 165 and 7% body fat. I went 23.3 in the 50y free and 50.5 in the 100.
At 33 I was 5-11 and 185 with 9% body fat. I went 22.6 in the 50 free and 50.9 in the 100.
Now, when I was 18 I could bench a max of 150. At 33 I could bench a max of 225.
Now I'm 35, I am still 5-11 and weigh about 195 with 9%, with a bench of about 275. Most of the extra weight is just muscle on my upperbody. My goal is to keep the strength and get down to about 180 for a racing weight by cutting out the heavy weights about a month or two before nationals and cut out all extra sugars and fat of my diet right now. I'd like to get in the 21's and a 48 or 49. I also want to get my 50 fly from 24.6 to a 23.9..... we will see what happens.
I think being stronger has helped my speed, despite the extra weight and affected "aerodynamics", I also think the extra weight is killing my endurance.
Just remember, muscle weighs more than fat. You might need to strive for more lean muscle than bulking up. Gosh, I would kill to weigh 195. One of these days, I will be there again!
I spent a little time on Google Scholar trying to find studies of body weight and its impact on swimming times. Admittedly, I didn't search too long, but I could find nothing academic on this topic--in humans, at least. Different fish, aquatic mammals, etc., but not people.
The general thought amongst the aquatic-animal-studying community is that humans are very poorly designed to move through the water.
Our entire sport, in other words, is devoted to doing our very best at something that evolution has designed us to be bad at.
Talk about your Ragnarok meeting your sporting existentialism!
(That is what we were talking about, wasn't it?)
Michael Phelps is simply less bad at something we humans are bad at. This definitely gives one a fresh and, dare I add, Norse form of motivation to work hard.
When I benched 310, my 100 free was 1:01. I now bench 185 and my 100 free is 57.
You can push a car on a flat driveway with some effort, but not up a steep hill
True, but I can push a lighter car on my driveway faster. At steady velocity the force applied by the arms is apposed by the drag force and the smaller force necessary to reaccelerate the body mass through the pull. Cutting weight reduces the drag force and the mass, so with equal arm force you will be faster.
These days I'm lucky to squeek out 1 top 10 and can't come anywhere near my 1998 times for 50/100 races (except oddly butterfly), even though I train twice as much and weigh significantly less.
That's a shame. What do you mean by anywhere near? Was the 30-40lbs solid muscle?
I took off alot of weight and my running performance suffered even though I was training harder. Turns out I have Grave's disease. Got it treated and it was magic.
I was 18 5-11 165 and 7% body fat. I went 23.3 in the 50y free and 50.5 in the 100.
At 33 I was 5-11 and 185 with 9% body fat. I went 22.6 in the 50 free and 50.9 in the 100.
Now, when I was 18 I could bench a max of 150. At 33 I could bench a max of 225.
Now I'm 35, I am still 5-11 and weigh about 195 with 9%, with a bench of about 275. Most of the extra weight is just muscle on my upperbody. My goal is to keep the strength and get down to about 180 for a racing weight by cutting out the heavy weights about a month or two before nationals and cut out all extra sugars and fat of my diet right now. I'd like to get in the 21's and a 48 or 49. I also want to get my 50 fly from 24.6 to a 23.9..... we will see what happens.
I think being stronger has helped my speed, despite the extra weight and affected "aerodynamics", I also think the extra weight is killing my endurance.
Our entire sport, in other words, is devoted to doing our very best at something that evolution has designed us to be bad at.
Talk about your Ragnarok meeting your sporting existentialism!
(That is what we were talking about, wasn't it?)
Michael Phelps is simply less bad at something we humans are bad at. This definitely gives one a fresh and, dare I add, Norse form of motivation to work hard.
Of course, we aren't as strong as gorillas, nor are we as fast as cheetahs. We are the smartest animals, so I guess we should all be doing Soduku instead of swimming.
