Though my form still needs a lot of work, I am considering starting strength training in the near future, since I have read about how it can help swimming speed, form, etc.
However, I am still struggling with the idea of why strength training is needed. Lets assume that lifting a certain weight in a certain way improves a core muscle, which will help steady my posture (?).
Now assuming I don't weight lift, but instead try to hold the proper posture (high elbow, etc.) for a long period of time, and gradually increase the time I do that over weeks and months, won't those muscle(s) automatically improve?
It seems to me that intuitively the proper muscles would gradually get stronger in order to adjust to the frequent usage - that way the exact muscles I need would get stronger, instead of having to train a large array of muscles that have a relation to swimming.
What am I missing?
Parents
Former Member
Strength training is very beneficial when done correctly. First of all no one should be training like bodybuilders. The goal here is too make a movement stronger, not an individual muscle all by itself.
Why is this beneficial? We cannot build the strength and explosiveness in the water that we can working out on land. We can train power much more effectively with ground based activity. Example - you can do 1000 starts and that will only improve your leg power to a certain extent but if you have a good lower body plyo program(boxjumps, etc) an athlete will see increase in lower body power immediately.
Strength training is very beneficial when done correctly. First of all no one should be training like bodybuilders. The goal here is too make a movement stronger, not an individual muscle all by itself.
Why is this beneficial? We cannot build the strength and explosiveness in the water that we can working out on land. We can train power much more effectively with ground based activity. Example - you can do 1000 starts and that will only improve your leg power to a certain extent but if you have a good lower body plyo program(boxjumps, etc) an athlete will see increase in lower body power immediately.
