Swimmer Ryan Lochte lifts weights

Triathlon Forum
1

Three times a week, for up to two hours. I recommend we all follow his lead, provided that we meet his criterion:

“I was already pushing myself in the pool as hard as I could,” he said. “So I had to find another way to make pushing myself possible.”

Article at http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/fashion/20fitness.html

There’s another article there today on Rebecca Soni, a top American breaststroker who had a heart problem. An interesting bit describes a coaching change:

Mark Schubert, the coach who had recruited her from the Scarlet Aquatic Club in New Jersey, left U.S.C. in the spring of 2006 to become the national team’s director. His replacement, Dave Salo, has a different training philosophy, favoring high-intensity, low-mileage workouts over the high-mileage regimen that Schubert followed and that Soni had grown up with.
…
At last spring’s N.C.A.A. meet, Soni came within tenths of a second of the time she clocked as a freshman to defend her title in the 200-yard breaststroke. The next month, she posted a personal best in the 200-meter breaststroke in the dual meet against the Australians.

That sold Soni on the program.

2

Lochte (pronounced LOCK-tee) swims 3 to 5 miles most days, sometimes even twice a day. Few non-Olympic hopefuls could, or would want to, replicate that kind of distance.

I hate reporters. They never get anything right. That’s roughly between 5000 and 9000 yards per workout. LOTS of non-elite swimmers do that every day, “sometimes even twice a day.” Just not as fast or intense as Lochte.

As for weight training, I have no expertise when it comes to adding it to a triathlon-specific training routine, so I won’t opine. But I would like to point out that Lochte is training for a very specific set of short-distance events. His longest event (the 400 IM), though arguably THE toughest race in swimming, will take him less than 4 minutes to complete. At his level of competition, for those kind of events, hitting the weights is mandatory.

As for Dave Salo, I don’t think anyone can argue that he’s certainly gotten results with his system. I don’t know that it’s right for distance swimmers, but he seems to do great with sprinters and breaststrokers. I like that he thinks critically and questions some of swimming’s conventional wisdom.

Also:

During one such incident, she checked her heart rate and counted 400 beats in a minute.

Holy crap! How is that even possible?

3

During one such incident, she checked her heart rate and counted 400 beats in a minute.

Holy crap! How is that even possible?

That’s a good question. I certainly couldn’t count that quickly and accurately, and I’m not sure any HRM on the market goes that high. Count by two?

I guess if you HR is really around 200, and you’ve got an extra firing mechanism, you might hit 400.

4

Phelps is a big believer in lifting as well. I don’t really think it’s a surprise that swimmers lift.

5

Good stuff Ken. With that, another relevant bullet from the article:

Even though Lochte has been swimming since he was 9, he has not yet perfected his strokes. “I spend more time on stroke mechanics now than I ever have,” he said.
**
He also spends part of each practice slowing things way down.

“The only way to really work on technique is to swim very slowly and really think about every little thing that you’re doing,” he said. “How your body is positioned, what your hips are doing, the positioning of your shoulders and hands and feet.”

6

Good stuff Ken. With that, another relevant bullet from the article:

Even though Lochte has been swimming since he was 9, he has not yet perfected his strokes. “I spend more time on stroke mechanics now than I ever have,” he said.
**
He also spends part of each practice slowing things way down.
**
“The only way to really work on technique is to swim very slowly and really think about every little thing that you’re doing,” he said. “How your body is positioned, what your hips are doing, the positioning of your shoulders and hands and feet.”

As E-Bell (where’s that from?) pointed out, one must keep in mind that the events, and thus the physiology being trained, he’s doing don’t exactly apply to endurance athletes like triathletes. He has maxed out any fitness gains he’s going to get in the pool, so he works on technique and the anaerobic contribution that is important for such short events and elite competition.

Having said that, stroke mechanics are seriously important for swimmers at all levels. We all know that, right?

7

“Having said that, stroke mechanics are seriously important for swimmers at all levels. We all know that, right?”

Do we? :wink:

Actually, I’ve said this before, but my swim coach dropped a hair over 10 seconds per 100m off of my swim times just with some changes in my stroke in less than 60 min. The coolest part is that I never reverted back to my “old” way of swimming.

8

I had exactly the same issues with my heart. Even when I went into triage at the ER, the bp/hr machine had difficulty reading a pulse correctly. An ECG usually showed mine in the vicinity of 280 to 300 bpm. Episodes were usually triggered during waterpolo and swimming. It wasn’t life threatening and I admit there were several times that I drove myself to the ER. No big deal. All fixed up now.

9

As E-Bell (where’s that from?)

Taken from my name. First initial E, last name Bell. Also how it used to appear in heat sheets, so folks started calling me that when I was a kid.

10

“I don’t know that it’s right for distance swimmers, but he seems to do great with sprinters and breaststrokers.”

Not surprising as I always found these two groups to be unique breeds of swimmers. Breaststrokers who swam freestyle only a little faster than their breaststroke and barely needed to workout and great sprinters (we used to call them drop dead sprinters) who couldn’t break 6:00 in a 500.

11

There was also a bit in there about the importance of significant kick sets, including kickboard sets.

As for Salo v. Schubert, we’re all unique little snowflakes, and a wide diversity of coaching styles and beliefs is a good thing that lets a swimmer fin the one that best allows them to reach their potential.

12

Yeah I was going to say the same thing. A recent Outside magazine article on Phelps commented on his new gym routine.
So…why don’t people here lift?

13

I’m feeling cynical today - and have to say I find the article a total waste of a read - there’s nothing in there that should shock or surprise anyone that’s familiar with top level swimming. Dryland, weight training, technique, positioning, etc - this is all stuff that any seriously competitive swimmer obsesses over daily - and sometimes twice daily (typically twice daily).

.

14

Well, some people do (myself included, albeit on a once-a-week basis), but the argument against would be that competitive swimming is fundamentally different from competitive triathlon, and that a few olympic swimmers who lift doesn’t mean that all endurance athletes should lift. There are major differences in the sport / training / physiology involved. It’s not really a valid comparision.

15

Jill, good points about kick sets. Triathletes like to believe that they don’t kick due to wetsuit, but any swim start and the turbulent froth indicates that this is far from the truth. I’m increasingly convinced that one of the best things we can do for a faster bike and run is do lots of swim kick sets so that we are ready for that in racing. If you notice, we all kick harder for all the accelerations and tactical situations in racing. Many “kick sets” happen in open water tactics without us even realizing it…best to practice that in training too.

Dev

16

Lochte lifts weights but he also smokes pot and drinks they couldnt put that part in the article…

17

I’m sure lots of successful athletes do things like that.

I know in college I was known to do one of the things you mention a minimum of once a week, and tried the other a couple of times.

/shrug

18

Reply not specific to Ken; it’s just a general response to the thread.

I swam D1-A in college, and we lifted. I think it was a bad idea for the vast majority of the team to lift. Our coach was, and continues to be, a complete moron. He genuinely thought a lack of strength was keeping our guys from going sub 1:37 in the 200 free, sub 44 in the 100, and sub 20 in the 50. He had the total sprinters in the weight room 3 times per week; what a quack!

The vast majority of swimmers are already chronically overtrained. We swim too hard, too often. (note–this doesn’t mean triathletes shouldn’t swim hard every time if they only swim 3 times per week, Dev…). We probably would have gotten faster if we simply followed more of an Easy Day, Hard Day, Easy Day, Hard Day, etc. pattern.

What is lifting? It is a super hard day! Nobody is going to tell me he can lift then go S/B/R hard later in the day…at least nobody on this forum. What do I do if I want to get back in swim shape? Do I go to the gym? Hell no. I go to the pool, then I go to the pool again, then I go again, then I go again, and again, and again, again, again, again, etc, etc, etc…

These guys do tons of quality in the pool. Until you reach a point where you don’t get faster out of quality in the pool, then it might be time to re-evaluate. 99.9999% of swimmers don’t ever reach this point. I firmly belive we would have been better off doing a super hard set in the pool instead of a super hard day in the weight room.

If weights mean you complete one fewer effective, hard S/B/R sessions per week, then it is not worth it!

There is a reason swimmers, cyclists, and runners have “another gear” compared to triathetes, and it has nothing to do with weights. It has to do with extra time specifically training in the single sport. The other day “Roady” posted a typical week for him. He is riding hard 3-5 times per week. That usually doesn’t work in triathlon. If you are only able to ride hard 1-2 times per week because you are already running hard 1-2 times per week, then how in God’s name are you going to throw in a hard weights session? I think most triathletes would actually be even better if they simply skipped the weight workout on a weekly basis. Its counting against the number of hard sessions you can accomplish, and it is not helping you on race day…sounds like less is more on this one.

Alright…I gotta stop, but this is a real issue I have with many multi-sport athletes. Bottom line is weights = BAD.

19

I feel that doing the right kind of strength training really helps. Maybe not directly with speed, but with form, injury prevention, and muscular imbalances.
Doing heavy bench press and curls - obviously not beneficial. I do a lot of stuff with resistance bands, stability balls, and the BOSU - I guess that’s not really lifting…just my “gym work.” And I think it helps a lot.
And if I can’t do 12 - 15 reps of something, then there is too much weight and will only add bulk. Not what I’m going for…

20

Yeah, I agree with you. As a general term, though, “lifting” tends to connotate something other than you described. That’s why I questioned your first post.