Where do you guys see swimming in your programs?
Great, no impact, intense (if done right) cardio.
I think it’s great. Used to do it as a cool down. I really got into it and started swimming about a mile. Helped me lose weight and it’s low to no impact. The only downside is it can take along time to burn the same cals as running. All the cal counters will tell you swimming is harder AT A GIVEN PACE THAT NO BODY BUT A COMPETITOR CAN KEEP UP WITH.
[quote]tweaker wrote:
Where do you guys see swimming in your programs?[/quote]
Swimming fits into my program on a Sunday during the football season. I find light swimming, water running and stretching an excellent recovery method.
I’ll also throw some water sessions in during the off season if I am getting sorer than usual by the end of the training week.
You definetly use it as a low impact source of aerobic or anaerobic training.
For me and my team, it is used only for recovery techniques.
I would put swimming on off days, or seperate weight and swimming into am training and pm training.
Right after jumping in…and just before getting out of the pool.
In order to lose fat, I think you’d have to really immerse yourself in swimming. Before I read about G-Flux on this site, I experienced it on my own during my only high school swimming season, where we completed 5 after school swimming sessions per week, three weight training sessions per week, and a Saturday dryland/swimming workout.
The total exercise was usually upwards of 20 hours, and while the program wasn’t exactly brilliantly designed, my bodyfat sank and over the course of the year I put on 10 lbs. I’m guessing my bodyfat went from 10 to 6%, and at the end I only weighed a little over 165 lbs, but it was still the heaviest I had ever weighed up to that point.
I can’t speak about the recovery process, because I experienced constant soreness from swimming and lifting, however after years of swimming and that one serious season, my lung capacity and lat strength are relatively great considering my overall fitness.
A lesser amount of swimming would still lead to a change in body composition in my opinion, but it all depends on how difficult the program is combined with how much you eat.
I am not swimming for weight loss. I only weight 165 at 5’9". My goal is to be 175 by June 2007. I think that is realistic. My other goal is to build up endurance.
After reading the latest article here on bulking, I am going to attempt to bulk clean. The good thing about swimming is that it makes it easy to eat more. Now, I eat clean, so that shouldn’t be a big deal.
Total Immersion is a great book on swimming.
My current workout is:
swim for 30-45 minutes (M through F)
workout for 15-20 minutes (MWF)
run 1-3 miles (MWF)
I do the above back to back. I am trying to improve my endurance and concentrate on my fast twitch muscles.
The workout right now is:
pullups
pushups
dips
ab work
rotator cuff work
I am trying to increase the quantity of the first four every time I workout. I am up to 3x3’s for the pull-ups. And that was tough to get to since I had just swam. I superset the ab work with the push-ups.
Now, my one buddy who lifts said that doing all that cardio would make it harder to gain. And I do agree. However, I have increased my calories to compensate since I still want the cardio benefit.
When February comes along, I will start to integrate weights back into the program and add weight to the above exericses. I will probably stick to just adding lunges, box squats, and deadlifts. Then, I will switch to lower reps as well.
I LOVE swimming! A few months ago, I added going to the gym, and found it has improved my strength and endurance in the pool. Now I’m totally addicted to both. I’ve recently started experimenting with splitting up going to the gym and swimming into separate days, although some days I still do both.
Micki
[quote]TheWookie wrote:
Despite my above post, I think swinning is awesome as well. What routines do you guys do?[/quote]
My current approach is to swim sidestroke and attempt to reduce the number of strokes it takes me to get across the pool. And I do this non-stop until I have to rest. Then, I rest for 30 seconds, and I repeat.
At the end of my swim, I do about 4 laps of freestyle. Again, I try to reduce the number of strokes I take to get across the pool. I concentrate on stroke form.
tweak
I do hypoxic training when I swim, sometimes I’ll just do about 40 laps of varying strokes for active recovery though.
For hypoxic training I do freestyle no-breath sprints for 4 sets x max distance I can go. I’ll also do sets of swimming 25m underwater with decreasing rest periods starting at 2min and going down to 20seconds. Then I’ll also do 30-50m swims depending on how relaxed I can get my heart rate on any certain day and keep the rest interval at 2 minutes (sometimes 3 minutes if I’m really trying to lower my heart rate).
I’ll also throw a diving brick to the bottom of the pool, (only 10’), grab it and then kick my way back up. Surprisingly, that’s an incredibly good leg workout.
When my lifting buddy comes we also do a pretty intense buddy swim workout. One person treads water with their hands out of the water in the deep end, while the other person sprints down the lane and back as fast as they can freestyle, then the person who was treading does the sprint, and the sprinter starts doing no-arm treading.
Hope you guys find those swim workouts beneficial, I know I sure as hell do.
-DTC
[quote]tweaker wrote:
I am not swimming for weight loss. I only weight 165 at 5’9". My goal is to be 175 by June 2007. I think that is realistic. My other goal is to build up endurance.
After reading the latest article here on bulking, I am going to attempt to bulk clean. The good thing about swimming is that it makes it easy to eat more. Now, I eat clean, so that shouldn’t be a big deal.
Total Immersion is a great book on swimming.
My current workout is:
swim for 30-45 minutes (M through F)
workout for 15-20 minutes (MWF)
run 1-3 miles (MWF)
I do the above back to back. I am trying to improve my endurance and concentrate on my fast twitch muscles.
The workout right now is:
pullups
pushups
dips
ab work
rotator cuff work
I am trying to increase the quantity of the first four every time I workout. I am up to 3x3’s for the pull-ups. And that was tough to get to since I had just swam. I superset the ab work with the push-ups.
Now, my one buddy who lifts said that doing all that cardio would make it harder to gain. And I do agree. However, I have increased my calories to compensate since I still want the cardio benefit.
When February comes along, I will start to integrate weights back into the program and add weight to the above exericses. I will probably stick to just adding lunges, box squats, and deadlifts. Then, I will switch to lower reps as well.
[/quote]
What on Earth are you doing with all that endurance stuff and calisthenics if you are trying to focus on the fast twitch muscles and gain weight. Why are you waiting until February to lift heavy and get big and strong? To gain size with all that endurance stuff and calishtenics you would have to out-eat Ronnie Coleman himself.
[quote]KombatAthlete wrote:
What on Earth are you doing with all that endurance stuff and calisthenics if you are trying to focus on the fast twitch muscles and gain weight. Why are you waiting until February to lift heavy and get big and strong? To gain size with all that endurance stuff and calishtenics you would have to out-eat Ronnie Coleman himself.
[/quote]
I grew up with asthma, so I was never able to develop my cardio until now. There are overweight folks at the gym that can kick my cardio right now.
I am using advair, so I can run now, but since I was never able to do more than 100 meter sprints, I have a lot of work to do in this area. I just want to bring myself up to where I should be before going heavy again.
I was doing two push days and two pull days before. And I took my body weight up from 150 to 170 in six months. I have cut about 5 pounds since going off that program. But I had a hard time cutting with horrible cardio.
I want to do a clean bulk, but I want to be able to run 7 minute miles. I am barely doing 12 minute miles now. I would love to be able to run 7-9 miles with my climbing gear (about 40-50 lbs) to a climb, climb the route, and run back. But I don’t want to be a twig.
I’m thinking my ideal bodyweight will be 175-185. If I get too heavy, I won’t be able to do any complicated climbs. And 185 might be pushing it at 5’9".
If you’re trying to bulk up I don’t see it in your program. I guess if you eat a LOT and do some short distance crawlstroke and butterfly that could be somewhat beneficial. Just make sure you eat a LOT.
DD
[quote]devilBASTARDdog wrote:
If you’re trying to bulk up I don’t see it in your program. I guess if you eat a LOT and do some short distance crawlstroke and butterfly that could be somewhat beneficial. Just make sure you eat a LOT.
DD[/quote]
I am doing a slow bulk. I am getting some very slow results with the pull-ups and dips. I will see better results once I put box squats back into the program.
My legs are being neglected, but the run is killing them since my legs are not used to running any distance. Once I can overcome that problem, box squats will go back into it. I might add lunges first since I seem to be favoring one leg in the run.
I figure I am burning about 200-300 calories doing the swim, and I’m burning on average about 200 calories three day a week on the run.
However, the swim makes me extremely hungry, so I am gaining about .5 to 1 lb a week. This is slow, but this will change once I have built up the cardio.
Cheers,
Brian