No one has made a single argument that you do not have to put time in the pool. However, to say that strength and conditioning do nothing for you is just plain wrong. No one said it was going to make you a great swimmer. I am arguing that if you are a decent swimmer, it will make you better.

Again, wherever your "high school" swimmers went to college, they are doing strength and conditioning and I bet they are faster/better now than they were when you had them.

You're so far beyond "missing the point" that it's pretty amusing.

make sure you stay in with the in crowd, you could contribute something of your own instead of cheering on the cool kids

Well, this thread went about as expected.

did he do both?

I would bet that a collegiate swimmer whose specialty is the 100 meter breaststroke WILL NOT have a faster 1500 meter freestyle time in college than he/she did in high school. Especially, if that swimmer has gotten significantly stronger over that period.

Couldn't bench enough. Was only able to do one.

I have a reasonable perspective on this: I swam club swimming from age 12-17, and university swimming from age 17-22. In club, we did lots of weights (2-3 hours per week). In university, we didn't. In club, I was a better pure sprinter: my 50s and 100s were my best events. In university, my focus shifted to the 200s and 400s because I just didn't have the raw speed anymore. I'd often even-split events, including stuff like 200m butterfly.

From stuff that my club coach would say, I could see mild dryland training being useful for a triathlete in terms of injury prevention - making sure that your smaller stabilization muscles still see some workout as your cycling and running muscles expand. You could also train aiming for more flexibility, but I don't see the outright weightlifting as being all that useful. The increase in muscle mass would probably hurt your cycling and running speeds.

Of course, I say all of this as a programmer, which means my opinion means absolutely nothing.

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STAC Zero Trainer - Zero noise, zero tire contact, zero moving parts. Suffer in Silence starting fall 2016

Um, how about performing the test on just 12 intercollegiate swimmers? These kids are already in their athletic prime. Now, introduce a little strength and weight training to a bunch of newbies or your average age grouper, and they are gonna see dramatic improvements. How can this even be questioned? Oh, that's right, it's Slowtwitch.

FWIW



http://www.roadcycling.com/...tronger_003229.shtml

Don't even bother trying brother! As you have noticed, it's hard for some the guy's to see over their nose! (pink)

Fixed it for you.

Oh, and a less snarky response: The swimmers in the group got stronger. They did not get faster. Repeat: stronger, but no faster. That means the extra strength didn't help them get faster. Whether they were new or experienced is irrelevant.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

So let me get your position right.......Wil not ask for pubmed stuff or sling names. .........If you have 2 mediocre triathlete swimmers. Swimmer "A" swims 5 hrs aweek.Swimmer "B" swims 3 hrs a week a 2hrs weight train. You are saying Swimmer "B" will get faster than swimmer "A". All else being equal.

I didn't know they let programmers post here. I've got to talk with management.

Where did I say ANYONE had to swim less? You put in the same amount of pool time. You just ADD strength training.

And as a note; In college the strength and conditioning is going to be different based on what your specialties are. Sprinters are going to be lifting heavier weight than the distance swimmers are for obvious reasons. One needs power, the other endurance. If you are lifting light weight with 10-15 reps, you arent going to gain bulk, you will gain lean mass.

Anyway, I am done with this thread. And I STILL stand by what I say. There isn't a college in the entire country that isn't doing dryland/strength and conditioning no matter if you are a distance swimmer, backstroker, breath stroke etc.......they just have different weight training specified to their needs.

Have a good day!

How are most triathletes going to put in extra time doing strength training? If you're already at your limits in terms of using available hours, why would you add in something useless like that? Here's a scenario

Let's say you and I are equally paced swimmers. For most of the year we've been swimming 3-4 times a week for ~4hrs average. Now, for the next year I swim 6 hours/week and you continue on with swimming 4 hours a week but do 2 hrs / week of strength training. Take a WAG on who is going to race faster?

OK. Let me rephrase. Swimmer "A" swimms 3 hrs but adds 2 hrs swimming. Swimmer "B" swims 3hrs but adss 2hrs weight training............... Editted, did not see "you are done"........Bye bye little boy ......................If you change your mind, I can give you Mike Burton's e-mail. Was kinda of a good swimmer and coaches, He will say you are wrong if you are talking about anyone thats not uber elite

One thing I have thought about with the whole weight training concept. If you have larger forearms, does that not create a stronger catch and propulsive force through the water? Maybe not a strength thing, but a larger paddle??

To get bigger guns.

Ha.....................Just eat spinach

Hmmm... maybe this is why I can't swim a straight line. I used to play tennis a lot and my right forearm is larger than my left. (sorta kinda pink font)

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Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.

Yes.

Bands are better but do an open grip pull up does help. Bands allow you to replicate the exact motion of your stroke, where pull ups don't, but they definetly do help!

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NCCP certified Comp coach

I love having a pull-up bar around, helps me A LOT!!! When I pull a muscle while swimming I can just hang and let gravity help stretch me out!

My N=1, bigger arms doesn't help swimming, just more mass to move.

the guy swimming 8 hours...:)

who cares....this is why an AG triathlete can go from fattie to FOP in about 3 years......

for some reason, we complicate it......

Running? no way....it would take years. why? beacause most runners realize you run to be a faster runner....

Swimming? Please....Guys in my masters class coming in under 1 min for 100s.....not gonna compete with that in 3 years!

Biking?......nope....

Triathlon? Yes!....you can outwork a large pecentage of the AG population because we make it harder than it needs to be.....S/B/R is all you need to do.....i'm convinced 90% of the field beats themselves by just not training specifically for the sport, and believing to get faster you do things besides s/b/r....