Swimming, Before or After Training?

Hey guys,

Over the summer I will be living right next to a very nice gym with a pool.

I am going to start swimming, hopefully every day.

Questions:

  1. What exact body parts will swimming work?
  2. Should I swim before or after workout?

Thanks,

David

  1. Swimming is a whole body exercise.
  2. Always do your priority exercise first.

Stu

So, if I am doing pretty much upper body one day, lower the body the next, for every day, I should always swim after?

You shouldn’t be doing weight training every day, 2 on, 1 off allows CNS recovery. You will make better progress this way. You can swim everyday but don’t swim sprints everyday.

When were you planning on swimming? Separated from training by hours or right after? If right after, have some BCAAs between training and swimming and half your PWO shake after your swim.

I will be swimming right after workouts as I will already be at the gym.

And why couldn’t I work out every day as long as I am working different body parts? And what is CNS?

CNS = Central Nervous System. This type of central fatigue accumulates and you need a low intensity day from time to time. It will affect your performance and can affect your immune system. That’s why no more tha 2 intense days to 1 low intensity day and at least 1 day with no training per week is recommended. Your swimming would be low intensity relative to your weight lifting so that’s why I said you can do that every day. 1 day should be a very low intensity sort of just resting by the pool and splashing around.

Stu

Wouldn’t you train your CNS to handle the increased payload tho?

I’m not trying to be argumentative here or anything, I’m not extremeley well learned on the subject.

But lifting for an hour and swimming for an hour. Doesn’t seem detrimental at all to me.

As you progressively increase your workload through higher loads or more volume, you will train your CNS. However, you can’t just jump in to a high volume program.

The question was, why not train everyday, and the reason is that you need recovery. The old 6 day a week body part program is lower intensity than an upper/lower split so more recovery is required. You can’t have a high intensity workout program without adequate rest.

There is nothing wrong with working out and then swimming.

Thanx for the response, I misinterpreted what you were saying, sorry.