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?
The first step is to find out what are your movement based impediments to strength. Here's a basic analogy: Take a car that has 200 horsepower. Let's say the tires are low and the emergency brake is on. Because of these impediments, the car "loses" 50 horsepower and now can only use 150 of that 200. To get back to 200, you can either pump up the tires and take off the emergency brake, or you can find a way to add more power under the hood (ideally you would do both). Putting air in the tires and taking off the emergency brake is a pretty easy way to reach 200. It would be extremely wasteful to add strength without removing the basic impediments, but that is exactly what people do in heading straight to into strength training without conducting a thorough assessment of their individualized movement needs. Likewise, the more power you add to add to any dysfunctional platform, whether a motor vehicle or an athletic body, the more strain you impose upon that platform. If you drive around with low and uneven tires and/or you leave your emergency brake on, adding more horsepower is not the first thing you want to do.
The best thing about taking the time to address the basics (like making sure the E-brake is off, or in athletics, making sure our movement fundamentals are sound), is that quality movement results not simply in an additive effect with 50 horses being 50 horses, but instead with a multiplicative effect where quality movement allows for even greater performance with the addition of strength.
In terms of exercise selection, we need to utilize more compound movements if our goal is to apply our strength in an athletic context. This strategy requires are careful look at what exactly are you trying to achieve with each exercise and forces an inquiry beyond "what muscles am I using?" Its easy to think, "Gosh my lats are sore, and I know that I use my lats in the pool, so that lat pulldown set must have done some good for me," but true growth as an athlete will require a more refined approach.
A big part of maximizing lat power is not simply the lat itself, but also training the supporting muscles to do their appropriate jobs when the lat is asked to perform a task.
Lat power in a pulling movement means nothing if your shoulder blades are unstable and you overuse your neck muscles to drive the movement. You won't fully train these supportive elements by locking yourself into a machine (nor will you train these supportive elements if you use poor technique anywhere). The exercise doesn't have to mimick swimming motions to be effective, so long as we respect the body's basic movement fundamentals in terms of training each region of the body to work consistently with its desired function.
The first step is to find out what are your movement based impediments to strength. Here's a basic analogy: Take a car that has 200 horsepower. Let's say the tires are low and the emergency brake is on. Because of these impediments, the car "loses" 50 horsepower and now can only use 150 of that 200. To get back to 200, you can either pump up the tires and take off the emergency brake, or you can find a way to add more power under the hood (ideally you would do both). Putting air in the tires and taking off the emergency brake is a pretty easy way to reach 200. It would be extremely wasteful to add strength without removing the basic impediments, but that is exactly what people do in heading straight to into strength training without conducting a thorough assessment of their individualized movement needs. Likewise, the more power you add to add to any dysfunctional platform, whether a motor vehicle or an athletic body, the more strain you impose upon that platform. If you drive around with low and uneven tires and/or you leave your emergency brake on, adding more horsepower is not the first thing you want to do.
The best thing about taking the time to address the basics (like making sure the E-brake is off, or in athletics, making sure our movement fundamentals are sound), is that quality movement results not simply in an additive effect with 50 horses being 50 horses, but instead with a multiplicative effect where quality movement allows for even greater performance with the addition of strength.
In terms of exercise selection, we need to utilize more compound movements if our goal is to apply our strength in an athletic context. This strategy requires are careful look at what exactly are you trying to achieve with each exercise and forces an inquiry beyond "what muscles am I using?" Its easy to think, "Gosh my lats are sore, and I know that I use my lats in the pool, so that lat pulldown set must have done some good for me," but true growth as an athlete will require a more refined approach.
A big part of maximizing lat power is not simply the lat itself, but also training the supporting muscles to do their appropriate jobs when the lat is asked to perform a task.
Lat power in a pulling movement means nothing if your shoulder blades are unstable and you overuse your neck muscles to drive the movement. You won't fully train these supportive elements by locking yourself into a machine (nor will you train these supportive elements if you use poor technique anywhere). The exercise doesn't have to mimick swimming motions to be effective, so long as we respect the body's basic movement fundamentals in terms of training each region of the body to work consistently with its desired function.
