Unfortunately, because of financial issues, I can't be part of a dedicated swim team/group. So, I do my laps at the local YMCA (ugh). But I haven't swam in about 3 years and really want to start to do train for competition in school (just started high school, 14 years old). Also, although not grossly overweight, I am, at 5'10 and 150 lbs. Do YMCAs have reputable coaches or am I out of luck and have to just do laps on my own?
Former Member
BTW, 5-10 and 150 is not even remotely overweight.
Do YMCAs have reputable coaches? Sure they do.
In the YMCA’s, USA-Swimming and High Schools you can find great coaches, good coaches, marginal coaches and bad coaches. A motivated swimmer can succeed with almost any of these types of coaches. Obviously, you will have greater success being a motivated swimmer with a great coach.
If you can’t get into any program, then of course, swimming laps on your own is going to be better than not swimming. And even if you swim on a team, you can still do extra laps on your own. In our school district we have 5 High Schools training in 1 pool, each team gets 1 ½ hours 3 days a week for in water training. The successful swimmers find additional water and dryland training time.
Good luck and keep us posted as the season progresses!
How old are you and are you male or female? If female and 5-10, I don't think you need to worry about stunting your growth.
The best way to learn about safe weight training is to get a trainer. Of course that takes time and money. There are also books out there for beginners, Weight Lifting for Dummies comes to mind.
Also, you can do resistance training without weights. Push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, pliometric jumps,tricep dips, core work such as planks and sit-ups all can build muscle and benefit swimming and your fat loss efforts.
As far as how much weight and how many reps, it is really dependant on your goals, and you also should vary it from time to time. Obviously a swimmer does not need to build muscles like a football player, but there is something to be said about building some good muscle strength because it will make you stronger in the pool.
I alternate between weeks of a little heavier lifting with low reps for strength gains, to lighter lifting with higher reps for endurance.
My cycles are anywhere between 3 to 6 weeks at the same type of training. I also take a few days completely off from lifting every 4-6 weeks to give myself some recovery. I am OLD(43), so if you are young, you will recover quicker, gain muscle and endurance quicker.
I am a guy, and at 5-10, especially for swimming is not tall (asians don't get very tall usually :'( ). I may get a trainer, my parents are looking in to it If i do, I'll probably get a swim coach instaed for more focus on swimming itself. On situps, I do about 100 a day and pushups, 30-40 both in one sitting. I know it's not enough but I just started so... :/
5-10 is average, and I still have a hard time believing you are fat. :) My 16 year old son is 5-11 and 145 and is all muscle, no fat. He lifts weights in the fall with the soccer team, but otherwise just swims the rest of the year. He has been lifting since he was 14 and 5ft tall and it did not stunt his growth. As long as you are careful, and watch for proper form, you should enhance your swimming, not hinder.
As far as how tall you are, just do the best you can with what you are given. I have seen some very, very good swimmers who are shorter than you, but because they have excellent stroke technique, are very fast.
Add some weight training. It makes you look smaller without losing weight. You BMI is 21-22. 25-30 is considered overweight, over that obese.
What I don't like about BMI is it does not take into account your muscle mass. So at 21-22, you could very well be overfat, not overweight, overfat. A combination of cardiovascular training and weight training can solve that without losing weight.
By weight training, I assume wegiht lifting? I've been staying away from that because of the "stunt your growths" myths, but I recently saw an article form webmd.com that light and high rep (what swimmers do anyay) will not affect my growth. But since I saw that now, I might start up weight traiuning. How many reps should I be able to do on the dchosen weight?
I was just reading this post and am curious how the HS season went.
And height/weight really depends on the person. When I was in HS I was 5'8" and 160+. So it all depends on your muscle mass.
Didn't go horribly bad. I didn't have much time for weight training actually due to 2 hour practices eveyr night plus homework.
Half of my meets were varsity level, and if not for a retarded blown eardrum, would have made a varsity letter, in my first swimming year.
I'm starting to reallly get into weight training, especially at school and I can feel myself getting stronger. Oh, and last tiem I went to the doctor about 2 weeks ago, I was 183 still at ~5'10. NOW I'm overweight. I don't think I was ever 150. Maybe 170.
