Does swimming "inform" muscle growth? A dryland/weights q.
Former Member
Ok, so here's the thing. I know well and good by now that swimming does not really build substantial muscle mass. If there was any doubt, all you'd have to do is look at someone like Mark Spitz- an Olympic champion who clearly would have swam enough to see any of the benefits swimming had to offer:
www.tierraunica.com/.../6a00e551962103883300e55419aa128834-800wi
Compare that though to today's champions:
4.bp.blogspot.com/.../ryanlochte.jpgwww.popstarsplus.com/.../MichaelPhelpsPicture.jpg
Obviously huge by comparison. Now, the simple answer might be "weights. These guys do a lot more dryland than they did back in the day". But here's the thing- in all my years of lifting, I have never once seen anyone lifting beside me at the gym built like these guys. The people I see are jacked, sure, but proportioned very differently- and I've seen hundreds if not thousands of guys who were serious about weights!
The only time I *did* see, in person, people who looked like the pics above were, no big surprise, the guys on the local college's swim team.
So I contacted the coach and she was kind enough to send me their dryland routine- and guess what? Incline bench, deadlifts, flys, laterals, etc. etc. etc. In other words, the same identical program that countless weightlifters use every day. There was no magic formula to it.
So this left me really confused. Swimming alone doesn't build this sort of physique. But weights alone don't do it either.
Is their some sort of magic I'm missing here? Does something happen with the combination of the two that results in this type of build?
Please chime in if you have a lot of dryland experience or, even more so, if you're actually built like this from doing these things!
Thanks so much for your help,
BB
If we assume differences are seen (witness, again, his experience), I was looking for even further refinement on what is most efficient.
Such a person could tell me "hey, I see your goals, I got closest to that doing the latter (or the former)".
What is most efficient for what??? You haven't stated a single concrete measurable goal in this whole thread.
You have said that you use weights and swimming for 'fitness', 'fitness' is a great thing but how do you measure it? How do you know when you have acheived 'fitness'?
Might want to Google 'SMART goals' to understand how to establish and measure goals.
Goals would be - add 5% more muscle mass, lose 10 pounds while maintaining current lean body mass, swim 100 yards in 1:00, swim 10000 yards per week. Deadlift 500 pounds, etc.
Those I can help with. But a goal of 'fitness'? Not sure I can direct you other than exercise every day, get plenty of sleep, eat right, etc.
If we assume differences are seen (witness, again, his experience), I was looking for even further refinement on what is most efficient.
Such a person could tell me "hey, I see your goals, I got closest to that doing the latter (or the former)".
What is most efficient for what??? You haven't stated a single concrete measurable goal in this whole thread.
You have said that you use weights and swimming for 'fitness', 'fitness' is a great thing but how do you measure it? How do you know when you have acheived 'fitness'?
Might want to Google 'SMART goals' to understand how to establish and measure goals.
Goals would be - add 5% more muscle mass, lose 10 pounds while maintaining current lean body mass, swim 100 yards in 1:00, swim 10000 yards per week. Deadlift 500 pounds, etc.
Those I can help with. But a goal of 'fitness'? Not sure I can direct you other than exercise every day, get plenty of sleep, eat right, etc.
