Why is weight training necessary?

I hate cardio! That said, I did a moderate cardio class on Wed. I swam Thurs AM before my thighs started killing me. My stroke count, which had been deteroirating during workouts, stayed level and I was able to keep it through the workout. Legs still ache, but I swim tomorrow and will do the cardio on Mon.

Swimming is a great exercise,I'd say the best exercise,but it is not weight bearing so it may not help prevent osteoporosis as much as weight bearing exercises.More importantly for swimming speed ,it is fundamentally a high rep/low weight exercise and therefore it doesn't increase power as readily as proper lifting can. A few recent comprehensive discussions led me to come to the following conclusions: 1. As we get older, the benefits of cross-training become greater. 2. Anyone that has some body weight to loose may have better results in adding gym/cardio work. Some don't get good results in the pool in term of controlling body weight. 3. Dryland doesn't have to be done in a gym. 4. Cross Cardio work doesn't have to be done in a gym neither. 5. About weight training. Doing just a little makes a huge difference compared to doing none. It's point 1 which is of particular interest for me. I do not mind spending little time in the gym, even if it has a slightly detrimental impact on my swim performances, if it allows me to become a healthy strong old man!

If you could provide any references to support and elaborate on this concept -- I would be very interested to read them and appreciative. thanks

A few recent comprehensive discussions led me to come to the following conclusions: 1. As we get older, the benefits of cross-training become greater. 2. Anyone that has some body weight to loose may have better results in adding gym/cardio work. Some don't get good results in the pool in term of controlling body weight. 3. Dryland doesn't have to be done in a gym. 4. Cross Cardio work doesn't have to be done in a gym neither. 5. About weight training. Doing just a little makes a huge difference compared to doing none. It's point 1 which is of particular interest for me. I do not mind spending little time in the gym, even if it has a slightly detrimental impact on my swim performances, if it allows me to become a healthy strong old man! Solar -- you make a lot of sense -- there are huge benefits from strength training in all aspects of life. One thing I've noticed as I pursue my quest for the fountain of middle age, is that I do see results from less frequent weight training. In my twenties, I did some sort of strength training almost everyday with the workouts split so that every major muscle group was hit 3 times a week. The new and creaky me needs more like 3 or 4 days between each heavy weight workout. I have made huge progress in the strength department this year lifting on Wednesdays and most Sundays only. Very few of the published or posted guidelines for strength training seem to take age into account in any fashion. Strength training helps me: carrying multple children at once not complain about walking home from the grocery store with many bags stand up straighter shovel snow (think the swimming was good for that too) wrestle air conditioners (okay not so good there) maybe with the weight loss thing One thing I have to disagree with...Solar if that is you in those little videos you keep posting...you don't look like no old man!

A few cites and summaries: Narici M.V., Maganaris C.N. Adaptability of elderly human muscles and tendons to increased loading. J. Anat. 2006;208:433–443 Senile sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass associated with aging, is one of the main causes of muscle weakness and reduced locomotor ability in old age. Although this condition is mainly driven by neuropathic processes, nutritional, hormonal and immunological factors, as well as a reduction in physical activity, contribute to this phenomenon. Sarcopenia alone, however, does not fully account for the observed muscle weakness, as the loss of force is greater than that accounted for by the decrease in muscle size. As a consequence, a reduction in the force per unit area, both at single fibre and at whole muscle level, is observed. We recently suggested that at whole muscle level, this reduction in intrinsic force is the result of the combined effect of changes in (1) muscle architecture, (2) tendon mechanical properties, (3) neural drive (reduced agonist and increased antagonist muscle activity) and (4) single fibre-specific tension. Whereas several studies support the role of the last two factors in the loss of intrinsic muscle force with aging, alterations in muscle architecture and in tendon mechanical properties have also been shown to contribute to the above phenomenon Runge M., Rittweger J., Russo C.R., Schiessl H., Felsenberg D. Is muscle power output a key factor in the age-related decline in physical performance? A comparison of muscle cross section, chair-rising test and jumping power. Clin. Physiol. Funct. Imaging. 2004;24:335–340. Ageing compromises locomotor capacity and is associated with an increased risk of falls. Several lines of evidence indicate that both changes in muscle mass and performance are causative. Most studies, however, do not discern between effects of ageing, sedentarism and comorbidity. The present study compares the age effects in muscle cross section, force and power in physically competent self-selected subjects of different age groups. A total of 169 women and 89 men between 18 and 88 years, without any disease, impairment or medication affecting the musculoskeletal system were enrolled in this study. Calf muscle cross-sectional area was assessed by computed tomography. Muscle force and power were assessed by jumping mechanography. No significant correlation between muscle cross section and age was found in the men. A weak correlation in the women disappeared after correction for height. Close correlations with age, however, were found for peak force and peak power. Correction for muscle cross section or body weight further increased these correlation coefficients, particularly for peak power specific to body weight (r = 0.81 in women and r = 0.86 in men). The non-sedentarian population investigated here depicted a reduction of >50% between the age of 20 and 80 without a reduction in muscle cross section. This suggests a crucial role for muscular power in the ageing process. Possibly, the jumping mechanography as a measurement of anti-gravitational power output is a promising extension of the chair-rising test, known to be predictive for immobilization and the risk of falls. Kirkendall, D., Garrett, W. The Effects of Aging and Training on Skeletal Muscle? Am J Sports Med July 1998 vol. 26 no. 4 598-602 With age the number and area of fast twitch fibres decreases. The loss of muscle mass with age is secondary to age-related denervation of muscle fibres, particularly the denervation of Type II fibres. With age large numbers of type II motor neurons become nonfunctional; the neural input is disrupted. With reduced demand on skeletal muscle it adapts to the new lower requirement, but with increased demand the declines due to aging can be minimized

One often neglected aspect of resistance training for masters aged athletes is the importance of reversing the neuromuscular deterioration that takes place with age. There's a reason the "neuro" comes before the "muscular." The neurological part needs to be addressed before the muscular part, though in practice they should not be mutually exclusive. Unfortunately, most of the time we just heft some weight, watch the muscles grow big and puffy and then assume whatever we're doing is working. A split routine (chest-delt-tricep days; back-rear delts-bicep days; leg days) is fine for people training to be a statue (aka, bodybuilder) but it really doesn't help very much for anything athletic or functional real-world activities. The neurological component of strength training doesn't get much attention until Grandma goes to the emergency room after falling down in her living room and breaking her hip. You can't rely on the mainstream of the fitness industry to provide much guidance in these nuances because there is more money to be made in "Size Two in Two Weeks!" or "Spring Break Pecs in by April!" True, it is harder to quantify progress in terms of neuromuscular coordination without pure numbers, but the ancient practices of martial arts and dance have survived just fine without a hefty reliance on quantification. Since we are talking in a competitive or semi-competitive swimming context, it is best too coordinate everything so that the supplementary strength activities support the aspects that we DO quantify (aka, the pace clock).

Absolutely - swimmers should not be training like bodybuilders! If all you do is traditional lifts lying on a bench or sitting in a machine you will be very strong sitting down or lying on your back. These positions are not functional to the sport of swimming. I am not opposed to traditional training but it should only be part of puzzle and certainly not the entire thing. Check out this ASCA article that I have attached which I wrote a couple years ago relating to this topic.

I would think it isnt, for who wants to become muscle-bound?

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.

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.