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?
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Former Member
Traditional training does not necessarily mean that you will increase muscle mass. You can easily train for strength at low reps (2 - 8) with 2 - 3 minutes per set (of course heavier loads) and not see an increase in mass.
The point I am making and the question we should be asking is what type of strength is this. Is it strength we can use? Does increasing your lifts for a lat pulldown increase your stroke power in the pool. I believe it has some positive effects but is mostly strength that cannot be applied in the pool. Isolating one muscle and training it to work alone probably is not the most effective method for any athlete yet it is the most common. Performing exercises that train movements and engage the core musculature does make more sense to me.
Just my point of view and would love to hear everyones thoughts on this.
Traditional training does not necessarily mean that you will increase muscle mass. You can easily train for strength at low reps (2 - 8) with 2 - 3 minutes per set (of course heavier loads) and not see an increase in mass.
The point I am making and the question we should be asking is what type of strength is this. Is it strength we can use? Does increasing your lifts for a lat pulldown increase your stroke power in the pool. I believe it has some positive effects but is mostly strength that cannot be applied in the pool. Isolating one muscle and training it to work alone probably is not the most effective method for any athlete yet it is the most common. Performing exercises that train movements and engage the core musculature does make more sense to me.
Just my point of view and would love to hear everyones thoughts on this.
