So I got the swimming bug again after the World Championships so I decided yesterday to do a swim meet without having swam at all in 12 years. It was more fun than I expected and I swam about as fast as I was when I stopped swimming (at age 17).
What changed since then? (1) I have no cardio (i.e. died on 35-40m of the 50m LCMs I swam) and (2) 40 extra pounds of muscle with not a lot of extra fat.
I have always been of the view that strength/weight training is vastly underutilized in sports in general and am going to put it to the test in swimming.
My training will consist of only technique training, sprints, kick and very very little yardage (like ~1200 yards a WEEK).
I figure that will be enough to get my cardio to where I can sprint a 50 without dying and I figure all you need for a sprint is to be able to go all out for the whole race, with the remaining factors being power and technique which don't require much yardage I don't think.
Anyone ever try it?
Parents
Former Member
What's your reasoning? Are you saying if you're tired from swimming you can't work as hard in the weight room or that swimming itself interferes with these things?
Well (1) is from personal experience with lifting and swimming. (lifting while swimming 12hrs/week = 5lbs muscle gained in 2yrs, quit swimming = 20lbs muscle gained in 3 MONTHS) There is also tons more anecdotal evidence and I'm sure some research on the matter. It's overtraining essentially.
After lifting heavy (the most optimal way to lift for strength and explosive power) the body needs rest for both the central nervous system and muscles to rebuild. It is why many serious lifters only lift a body part 1x a week but since swimming is full body you are going to be working out muscles "too much" if you swim a lot and lift. There is also some suggestions that cardio is catabolic as it is easier for your body to burn muscle for fast energy needs than fat particularly once it exhausts readily available sugars/etc. in the body.
I may not be explaining all the physiological stuff well but the bottom line is that swimming and weight lifting (particularly heavy weights) is too much on most non steroid enhanced bodies. (It is the reason you see a lot of steroid use in sports even by guys who don't look like arnold schwarzenegger (so they can maintain/add modest amounts of muscle while training hours of cardio intensive activities a day)
As for the benefits of heavy weight/low reps they are plentiful but mostly stem from improvements due to muscle fiber recruitment (i.e. you rarely work the very large fast twitch muscles unless you are doing explosive movements)
What's your reasoning? Are you saying if you're tired from swimming you can't work as hard in the weight room or that swimming itself interferes with these things?
Well (1) is from personal experience with lifting and swimming. (lifting while swimming 12hrs/week = 5lbs muscle gained in 2yrs, quit swimming = 20lbs muscle gained in 3 MONTHS) There is also tons more anecdotal evidence and I'm sure some research on the matter. It's overtraining essentially.
After lifting heavy (the most optimal way to lift for strength and explosive power) the body needs rest for both the central nervous system and muscles to rebuild. It is why many serious lifters only lift a body part 1x a week but since swimming is full body you are going to be working out muscles "too much" if you swim a lot and lift. There is also some suggestions that cardio is catabolic as it is easier for your body to burn muscle for fast energy needs than fat particularly once it exhausts readily available sugars/etc. in the body.
I may not be explaining all the physiological stuff well but the bottom line is that swimming and weight lifting (particularly heavy weights) is too much on most non steroid enhanced bodies. (It is the reason you see a lot of steroid use in sports even by guys who don't look like arnold schwarzenegger (so they can maintain/add modest amounts of muscle while training hours of cardio intensive activities a day)
As for the benefits of heavy weight/low reps they are plentiful but mostly stem from improvements due to muscle fiber recruitment (i.e. you rarely work the very large fast twitch muscles unless you are doing explosive movements)
