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Swimming is great, in many ways - great cardio, super low impact, endurance strength, high base metabolism, and puts you in line to have a good physique. The b

by debacle 14y ago

Swimming is great, in many ways - great cardio, super low impact, endurance strength, high base metabolism, and puts you in line to have a good physique. The biggest problem is that a standard swim is 2-3 hours, whereas I can complete all my lifts in 45 minutes. I used to swim ~3 miles a day. That was before I had two kids, a house, etc.

dredmorbius 14y ago
For whatever reason, swimming picked up a pattern of really long-distance training routines, peaking in the 1970s and early 1980s with 10-12,000 yard/meter days (two workouts). Cycling had similar trends for a while as well. Both are activities in which the athlete is supported (swimmers by water, cyclists by the bike) and friction is minimal (rowing tends to get painful after an hour or two), allowing hours-long training sessions well past what would be the point of exhaustion in other activities. While this can help with skills development (though my thinking is that training in an exhausted state reinforces poor form), and may be a good way to keep kids off the streets, it's largely useless for developing maximum capability in the shorter-duration events typical of pool meets (50-500 yards / 50-400 meters), taking anywhere from 15 seconds to 5-6 minutes or so. The primary exceptions would be 1000m or 1650y events (10-15 minutes or so). Triathalon / open-water swimming is almost a wholly different sport. You'd benefit in swimming from a regime that's similar to other HIIT training: 15-60 second maximum-effort pieces followed by brief rest (5-15 seconds) and a repeat, in sets of 8-10 or so. Incorporate warmup, skills drills, and strength training, and workout time drops markedly. I still enjoy doing longer pieces and the whole-body flush accompanying them, but they're not something I undertake daily or even weekly.
- debacle 14y ago
  When swimming competitively, 2-3 miles is the norm, and 4-5 would be for longer practices (usually Saturday mornings or the Friday before a break) You don't just get in the pool and lap swim. We would do laps on 1 minute intervals (sprint the lap, rest for 30 seconds, repeat), 100s on 90 or 120 second intervals, 200s on 4 or 5 minute intervals, etc. You've also got isolation exercises ( pull/kick/swims, 25s off the block, half-pool 25s with the turn, etc) But during a 3 hour practice, you still wind up swimming a few miles. Even doing an average of 25 yards a minute (a snail's pace), you're looking at 2.5 miles.
  - dredmorbius 14y ago
    Trust me, I'm all too familiar with swim workouts.

by debacle 14y ago

dredmorbius 14y ago

For whatever reason, swimming picked up a pattern of really long-distance training routines, peaking in the 1970s and early 1980s with 10-12,000 yard/meter days (two workouts). Cycling had similar trends for a while as well. Both are activities in which the athlete is supported (swimmers by water, cyclists by the bike) and friction is minimal (rowing tends to get painful after an hour or two), allowing hours-long training sessions well past what would be the point of exhaustion in other activities. While this can help with skills development (though my thinking is that training in an exhausted state reinforces poor form), and may be a good way to keep kids off the streets, it's largely useless for developing maximum capability in the shorter-duration events typical of pool meets (50-500 yards / 50-400 meters), taking anywhere from 15 seconds to 5-6 minutes or so. The primary exceptions would be 1000m or 1650y events (10-15 minutes or so). Triathalon / open-water swimming is almost a wholly different sport. You'd benefit in swimming from a regime that's similar to other HIIT training: 15-60 second maximum-effort pieces followed by brief rest (5-15 seconds) and a repeat, in sets of 8-10 or so. Incorporate warmup, skills drills, and strength training, and workout time drops markedly. I still enjoy doing longer pieces and the whole-body flush accompanying them, but they're not something I undertake daily or even weekly.

debacle 14y ago
When swimming competitively, 2-3 miles is the norm, and 4-5 would be for longer practices (usually Saturday mornings or the Friday before a break) You don't just get in the pool and lap swim. We would do laps on 1 minute intervals (sprint the lap, rest for 30 seconds, repeat), 100s on 90 or 120 second intervals, 200s on 4 or 5 minute intervals, etc. You've also got isolation exercises ( pull/kick/swims, 25s off the block, half-pool 25s with the turn, etc) But during a 3 hour practice, you still wind up swimming a few miles. Even doing an average of 25 yards a minute (a snail's pace), you're looking at 2.5 miles.
- dredmorbius 14y ago
  Trust me, I'm all too familiar with swim workouts.