Why is weight training necessary?

Just my point of view and would love to hear everyones thoughts on this. You're wrong. What you're saying has no connection to the reality of how a body creates thrust in the water. There is no such thing as "training muscles to work alone." Muscles are very simple machines that basically do one thing: contract. If a muscle undergoes training stress, it will contract better. What that means depends on the type of training. Train a muscle for endurance and it will be more efficient aerobically. Train a muscle for strength and it will, yes, get larger. In swimming, muscles respond to signals from the nervous system. You are training your brain, your spinal cord, and your peripheral nerves. That's what makes muscles work together or work alone, not the muscles themselves. The most important way to train the nervous system for swimming is to practice swimming skills. If you have the skill to apply force, larger muscles (from weight training) will apply more force in the water. It's not a bad thing, seriously. From what I've read, there's also a strength training effect on some less skill-specific nervous system attributes. Strength training doesn't just increase maximum force, it increases rate of force production, the ability to ramp up force quickly. Again, this has nothing to do with coordination or mimicking swimming motions in the weight room. If you lift heavy, you get this benefit.

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. Really???-- I have added heavy lifting once or twice a week to my regimen this year and I have had a marked (and satisfying) increase in muscle mass. Even at the age of 45 when you are supposed to have significantly less response, the difference is such that people from across the street comment on it. I am pretty sure its muscle, I actually lost 13 pounds during the process. Frankly, I am pretty happy about the results, I feel I have more functional strength (suitcases, air conditioners and swimming) and aesthetic change too. If traditional weight training, as you put it, doesn't cause an increase in muscle mass what does. Also: I vote on the side of pull downs (and pull ups) engaging the core -- I feel it plenty in there.

On non - pool days the gym can offer a mix of things such as cardio that will help also. But if you want to do cardio why not just get in the pool and swim?

Since you asked for my routine: My routine is pretty basic and based on simple principles and compromises with time -- I go two mornings a week and swim 4 mornings. I plan on doing some core specific workouts in the evenings with my kids (planks and side planks and stuff) but often I get really really sleepy around 7:30- 8 and can't do that. The weights: I aim for reps of 6 - 8 each set. I do 3 sets of every exercise. After I feel warmed up I try to do every set to failure -- it takes about an hour -- often I'll trim a few exercises off so I can get home in time to make the kids breakfast, then I make sure I do those missing exercises and trim others the next time. This is "best case scenario:" No machines except for the lat pull, only free weights: Back: Wide grip lat pulls (or wide grip chins) Narrow grip pull downs palms in while lying mostly flat (or dumbell rows) straight arm press downs incline back extension while holding medicine ball on head (I am sure there is a real name for that one but I am an amateur) Chest: incline dumbbell presses (30 degrees) weighted dips (used to hold a dumbbell between my feet but I bought a dipping belt for $18 that I can hang plates off with) Shoulders: upright rows with barbell lateral raises with dumbbells bent over lateral raises seated dumbbell press seated bicep curls occasionally I do some triceps extensions but it seems superfluous to me I have left the legs alone for now but added ton o' kicking (for me) to my swimming days My rule for the dumbbells is: If I can do 3 sets of 10 reps, the next time I go up 5 pounds. As an example, I started the incline press with 40# dumbbells and am now up to 70#. To me that's progress. And yes (jim) I do get DOMS. I have come to love the DOMS I am now a Domsophillic -- I get it from swimming too. Without it I feel like I have wasted my time. This is not meant as any type of advice or suggestion, merely a report of what I do.

I believe that resistance training that inlcudes all major muscle groups, whether done for tone or strength, provides additional structural support to the body and may assist flexibility and joint health. Whereas just doing lat pulldowns and tricep extensions for instance, to obtain more force for swimming, might actually be harmfull. I usually do some form of weight training 4-5 times ea wk and try to focus on at least half of the muscle groups ea time. Can't say if this has improved my swimming because I started swimming after I had a steady weight training program, but I can say the two together are appreciated by my wife:bolt:

I have added heavy lifting once or twice a week to my regimen this year and I have had a marked (and satisfying) increase in muscle mass. Even at the age of 45 when you are supposed to have significantly less response, the difference is such that people from across the street comment on it. I am pretty sure its muscle, I actually lost 13 pounds during the process. Frankly, I am pretty happy about the results, I feel I have more functional strength (suitcases, air conditioners and swimming) and aesthetic change too. That's pretty cool. Good results and not too much of a time commitment. Mind sharing your routine?

"So rather than saying something specific and wrong, you're saying something vague enough that everyone can agree on it, provided we each bring our own definition of "training in the same manner?" Your right, I should have been more clear. An example of "training in the same manner" is training the hamstrings to extend the hip, like we see in the pool. Instead of doing hamstring curls (which teaches the hamstring to flex the knee) do and RDL or bridge that teaches it to extend the hip. Train the core to rotate and stabilize instead of just doing crunches. Nothing against crunches, I do them and so do my athletes - we are just adding more to the exercise menu - not taking away. "When did I say I love lat pulldowns? Also, if you think they don't involve "core musculature", I think you're wrong. Pulldowns are pretty tough on the abs, and obliques as well if you do them one-armed. " Sure, they involve the core to some extent but the point is when performing the pulldown the machine supports you as opposed to the deeper muscles of the core that stabilize the spine (transverse abdominus, multifidi). Either way I USE THE LAT PULLDOWN and don't think its bad - we just have to add more to the program that to address all needs. "Yeah! Lat pulldowns are bad. Lat pulldowns are irresponsible. Lat pulldowns told Lee Harvey Oswald to do it. " Now that is your best post - very good. My whole point is that traditional training is good and so is a more functional approach. The key is to integrate the best of everything and to encourage people to try more than just your traditional exercises in the gym.

An example of "training in the same manner" is training the hamstrings to extend the hip, like we see in the pool. Instead of doing hamstring curls (which teaches the hamstring to flex the knee) do and RDL or bridge that teaches it to extend the hip. Well, this was my first point. The hamstring is just a muscle. It contracts, and depending on what the other muscles are doing and the position of the leg, it either flexes the knee or extends the hip. In either situation, the muscle does the same basic thing. It can't learn to do anything else, except in a figurative sense where the nervous system coordinates the muscles and can learn to apply more force in certain movements as compared to others. Even so, it's a misapplication of the SAID principle to say that dryland training of a particular muscle is better if it more closely resembles the movements in the water. Skills really don't transfer like that. I don't expect to have a powerful tennis serve just because I can generate a lot of power in the water. Yet the basic movement is the same. And I suck at tennis. Side note: hamstrings also flex the knee in swimming. Nobody kicks with completely straight legs.

Either way I USE THE LAT PULLDOWN... Irony: I almost never do lat pulldowns.

"Irony: I almost never do lat pulldowns" lol - yes, that is some irony for you... This is what makes a blog worth reading and most importantly gets people thinking no matter what philosophy you agree with.