I am a Police Officer and I wanted to go the games next year for swimming. I was a swimmer in high school, was going to be a swimmer in college, but me and college didn’t get along well. I’m 26 years old and the games are next August. I have not done much swimming in the past few years. I have been seriously lifting for about 7 years and have made some nice gains. I want to try and keep as much muscle as possible.
Anyone have any suggestions on how to train for this? How often I should be lifitng and how often I should be swimming? I can give a solid hour (maybe a little more) every day. I don’t have a ton of time due to wife, 3 kids, and work. Any suggestions would be great! My current stats are 6 foot, 196 lbs, about 10% body fat.
Back when I swam competitively, I found that lifting during the swimming season didn’t work well. My shoulders would be tired from the lifting, I’d feel sluggish in the pool, and my technique actually got less crisp as a result. At the end of the day, training to be strong in swimming-specific motions was more helpful than training to be strong in the lifting motions.
Other than that, I once read some article with Jason Lezak saying that incline press was more helpful for swimming than bench press and to do a lot of lat pulldowns.
Not a swimmer, so take this with a very small grain of salt. As far as the lifting goes, you might consider Wendler’s 5/3/1 in season template to keep your lifts up. If you minimize the assistance work and stuck to the minimum reps it would be less likely to wear you out so you could focus on the swimming.
Like I said, just my two cents, but it might be an option to consider since you don’t want to give up the lifting. Good luck no matter what you try.
If I understand correctly and you are only competing in swimming, I would suggest getting some stroke coaching if you can. Speed in the water is overwhelmingly about technique (stroke efficiency, body position, streamlining etc.). Swim 4+ times weekly IMO focused on quality technical practice as opposed to workouts per se. Add 2 30-45 min. aerobic cross training sessions (stationary bike, C2 rower) if time/recovery allow. Drop lifting to a strictly maintenance approach at most if you really want to be competitive in the pool. Do mobility/foam roller/prehab stuff for your shoulders daily.
I also found a book called “Total Immersion” was really helpful for my own swimming as a slightly heavier guy and a bit of a “sinker”.
first off, you said the games are next august. thats a good 14 months to train for them…
second, you didnt mention how many events you want to race in. that will determine how many base miles you swim…
and finally, if you swam in high school, do the workouts you did in high school. stat off with what you did early in your season and progress then taper from there… just do what you can in your hours time…
if the games mean alot to you, up your training time…
I want to try for at least the 50m free, 100m free and 100m back. I might do one or two more, but those would be the main ones. Definitely nothing long distance. Thanks for all the suggestions!
The swim for TCA is only 50 meters…there is a pullup…bench and deadlift portion also. A 100m sprint and a 5k. You need to be well rounded…thankfully there are many different age divs. was thinking I would love to go to Belfast also.
