Rest days, is it worth taking them?

How do I know if I am doing something wrong? It is better to think in terms of "recovery" rather than "rest." Recovery is important; it is at this time that you actually get faster. So swimming 7 days/week might be just fine if you recover between workouts, or one of those days is an "active recovery" day. For me, in many cases, active recovery is better than passive (ie, a complete rest day). Having said that, even the most hard-core coaches I know will usually only advocate 6 days/week of practice (though sometimes they make their swimmers skip a rest day after a meet). How much recovery you need depends on the duration and intensity levels of your practices. It may be -- especially at your age -- that you are recovering sufficiently between workouts. If you don't allow enough recovery, you'll know it because you'll be swimming slower in practice and meets and feel more tired. In more extreme cases of overtraining your times on intervals will fall way off and you might even have trouble finishing practices. You get tired even in warmup. You don't want to get to this stage. Numbers are good: resting HR, times on test sets, in-season performances at meets, that sort of thing. You need to get a good feel for when your body is suffering from cumulative training fatigue. Do NOT depend solely on subjective perception of fatigue, this can deceive you. The best advice: talk to your coach.

Even super heros need time off to recover. Don't train till it's too late & be in a docs office !:badday:

I swim 7 days/week 2-3 hours a day. I have heard of adding lifting to my program to improve my strength, but on days that I lift do I also swim? And if I do not add lifting into my workout routine and just continue with swimming 7/wk, do I take a day off? I heard Michael Phelps never took a day off since he was 11 years old and look where he is now... best swimmer in the world. Since the rest of us aren't a young phelps, yea, you need a rest day. Even he, one of the best swimmers right now, has gotten older and takes days off. If you are a younger person, your body recovers quicker. You are able to do more days of hard work and not be as affected by the training. If you are an older swimmer, then rest days are a must if you want to be able to train/compete at your best. The body needs time for the muscles to recover and rebuild. If you are swimming for fitness, then you probably don't need a rest day but still might be good once a week. So, the answer really depends on what your goals are in swimming.

Since the rest of us aren't a young phelps, yea, you need a rest day. Even he, one of the best swimmers right now, has gotten older and takes days off. If you are a younger person, your body recovers quicker. You are able to do more days of hard work and not be as affected by the training. If you are an older swimmer, then rest days are a must if you want to be able to train/compete at your best. The body needs time for the muscles to recover and rebuild. If you are swimming for fitness, then you probably don't need a rest day but still might be good once a week. So, the answer really depends on what your goals are in swimming. Thanks wookie. I am 17 male training in the off season for competitive swimming for my High School. I have read across the internet that some people swim 5x a week, others 7x a week, and I cannot decide on what I should be doing. I am very confused, as of right now I am swimming 7x a week and I might just continue that. How do I know if I am doing something wrong?

What works for one person doesn't always work for another. Blindly training like phelps, for most people, would be a good way to create an injury of some kind. A good coach will create a training regimen for an individual to target a given goal. This is what a good coach is for. If you don't have one, you should get one. If you do, then this is a perfect question for your good coach. They should be able to undoubtedly answer right away why they have you doing exactly what you're doing, and they should be able to quantify it to your current goals. If they can't do this, then it's arguable whether they fit into the "good" category of coaches. Just so i don't answer a question with a question though... Really a rest day or two per week isn't going to hurt most swimmers. Keep the lifting to a "complimentary" program rather than a "supplementary" program 3 maybe 4 days a week. Work abs/core alot. Swimming in practice should remain your main focus as far as training goes.

You might also consider what events you swim. It seems sprinters (50-100s) could benefit from more rest. Consider the type of training a sprinter does, i.e. short bursts of very fast swimming, then lots of rest between those swims. This could possibly apply to the larger picture when looking at what you do day in and day out. I'm a sprinter, and I notice I have better swims if I vary the intensity of my daily swims, and I really like the idea of active recovery. I'll hit it hard one day, and do ez swims, drill work and stroke work either the next day or day after. I'm also much older, so I've found that I can only stack 3 or 4 days max of hard swimming, then I need to either take a complete day off, or just piddle in the pool for a day or so. :banana:

Rest is good if your working hard on your training days. My favorite active rest is surfing once or twice a week. :applaud:

I am very confused, as of right now I am swimming 7x a week and I might just continue that. How do I know if I am doing something wrong? When your body can't take it any more. When you're starting to injure, or have zero energy, and not progressing. My stepdaughter, who was a swim team captain in her college (graduated this june) swam up to 10,000M-14,000M 5-6 days a week when she was in highschool and college. They'd also have 'off season', and tapers, and days off... and she'd also do some running and dryland strength training.

I am very confused, as of right now I am swimming 7x a week and I might just continue that. How do I know if I am doing something wrong? I can tell if I am overtrained by how long it takes me to get going in the warmup and have my shoulders feeling real good. If it takes 600 yds, great. If it takes 1500-2000 yds to start picking up the pace and feel warmed up, that is a sign of overtraining. Can you swim fast at the end of a workout? If you can't, this is also a sign of overtraining and perhaps a day off is necessary. At 17, I think you can swim every day as long as there are recovery swims in there.