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?
Jim,
This same statement can be true for any sport that requires continuous repetitive motion, hmm, such as swimming? As with anything else, you have to learn to do it correctly, either thru self education and/or instruction from a qualified source.
That's right, Wolfy! Jim's statement seems like excusifying.
I've had more injuries swimming that doing drylands (and hasn't Jimby had chronic shoulder problems, eh?), and responded accordingly on the last poll. I like to have power in both the water and on land, and drylands do help keep me injury free in the pool. Plus, wholly apart from swimming, I want be a strong, flexible, athletic person and not a piece of mush. Swimming alone doesn't give me that.
And, unlike many others apparently, my purely anecdotal experience is that my cross training and drylands make me faster in the water. If I abstained from drylands to await a perfectly well controlled study on the topic that passed the Jazz Hands & Jimby scrutiny, I'd be in a retirement home.
Jim,
This same statement can be true for any sport that requires continuous repetitive motion, hmm, such as swimming? As with anything else, you have to learn to do it correctly, either thru self education and/or instruction from a qualified source.
That's right, Wolfy! Jim's statement seems like excusifying.
I've had more injuries swimming that doing drylands (and hasn't Jimby had chronic shoulder problems, eh?), and responded accordingly on the last poll. I like to have power in both the water and on land, and drylands do help keep me injury free in the pool. Plus, wholly apart from swimming, I want be a strong, flexible, athletic person and not a piece of mush. Swimming alone doesn't give me that.
And, unlike many others apparently, my purely anecdotal experience is that my cross training and drylands make me faster in the water. If I abstained from drylands to await a perfectly well controlled study on the topic that passed the Jazz Hands & Jimby scrutiny, I'd be in a retirement home.
