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?
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Former Member
Are you saying you can achieve failure in the pool from muscular microtrauma like you can from weight lifting? How do you determine that in the pool? Do you move the "speed pin" from 56.7 to 56.5 and when the swimmer blows out at the 50, you know they failed because of trauma because they had adequate energy to do that next 100?
I see no justification to say that lifting high weight low reps to failure can similarly be accomplished in the pool.
This.
There is zero evidence that muscle and strength gains from lifting can be accomplished with remotely close to the same efficiency as weightlifting in just about any sport and it is why athletes lift and why the biggest change in sports training across sports in general over the past 30-40 years has been strength/weight training (and steroids but still...).
Also, as discussed before, rest, diet, and recovery are of paramount important in adding strength and muscle mass, which is simply impossible to do if you are swimming too many yards even if you lift.
lastly, Tiger woods may be an athlete, but golf is hardly a good example of a sport or one that compares to swimming (or any sport that actually requires athletisicm :)
Are you saying you can achieve failure in the pool from muscular microtrauma like you can from weight lifting? How do you determine that in the pool? Do you move the "speed pin" from 56.7 to 56.5 and when the swimmer blows out at the 50, you know they failed because of trauma because they had adequate energy to do that next 100?
I see no justification to say that lifting high weight low reps to failure can similarly be accomplished in the pool.
This.
There is zero evidence that muscle and strength gains from lifting can be accomplished with remotely close to the same efficiency as weightlifting in just about any sport and it is why athletes lift and why the biggest change in sports training across sports in general over the past 30-40 years has been strength/weight training (and steroids but still...).
Also, as discussed before, rest, diet, and recovery are of paramount important in adding strength and muscle mass, which is simply impossible to do if you are swimming too many yards even if you lift.
lastly, Tiger woods may be an athlete, but golf is hardly a good example of a sport or one that compares to swimming (or any sport that actually requires athletisicm :)
