So I was down at the pool again this Sunday, taking another novice lesson so I can change my name to “Triathlete68”. After the session, our instructor advised us to hang around and watch some of the stronger masters swim so we could better visualize what swimming is supposed to look like.
Well, I did and was duly impressed and marveled at the smoothness of their strokes and the seemingly effortless speed they generated. But as a few of them climbed out of the pool I was struck by the size and shapes of their bodies. They were well over 20 to 30 lbs. overweight and their muscles were hidden by thick layers of rubbery fat. They reminded me of sea mammals; like seal bipeds.
Then to make matters worse, I stuck around to watch a masters water polo match. Holy Jesus! These guys were monsters, but not in a good way. Every single one of them had huge barrel chests, relatively small legs and layers of fat all over them. Kind of like ballooned up rugby players with thick necks and f***d up ears.
So, what’s my point? Well, first off I know I’m generalizing. My observations over a short period of time of a small sample of athletes are strictly anecdotal and unscientific. Plus, these were masters, mostly middle aged swimmers and water polo players. They obviously share no resemblance to their younger prep and college athletic peers. But still, as active and fit as they seemed to be they did not LOOK fit.
Looking fit and being fit can often be mutually exclusive things. We have all seen the lean and well muscled chain smoking guys who probably couldn’t run around the block. And of course, there’s the ultra skinny couture models with their health issues. But please, I would be totally bummed if after working out 7 to 10 hours a week I still looked like the average Joe.
Anyway, I’m glad I’m a multi sport athlete who also participates in sports such as running and cycling that seem to do a better job of keeping one lean. I’m still excited to finally one day becoming a real “swimmer” but I’m glad it won’t be my only sporting activity. I didn’t like the payoff.
You seem to be hinting at an inverse relationship between looking fit and success in the water.
Without having any evidence to support my argument, I will venture to say that there is a weak direct releationship.
Swimming is much more technique-intensive than either cycling or running. Therefore you CAN be a hog and still motor in the water. Obviously at the fastest levels it becomes important to be void of fat, but carrying that extra weight around has many less adverse effects when you’re floating as opposed to when you’re fighting gravity while running or cycling.
Come to Masters swim in Colorado Springs if you want to see some fit swimmers. Wow.
They most likely aren’t competitive. I think most Masters swimmers swim for the workout, not so much for competition. But of the three disciplines, it is the one that requires technique over fitness.
I’ve seen my fair share of phat cyclists. Over the weekend I rode much of the Mulholland Century course and you’d be surprised at the number of overweight cyclists there were out there.
Running, go to the start of a marathon and look at the BOP runners, most of them are overweight.
Most TNT athletes that I’ve come across are phat as well.
It just depends on where they are in there training and if weight loss is a goal. I suspect the ratio of phat to skinny athletes in the three disciplines is the same.
There was a guy in the lane next to me yesterday with a big beer gut (5’8 probably 225lbs). I was doing 100 repeats at 1:35-1:37. This is all out for me and he swam 2000 meters next to me at this pace non-stop. He wasnt really even winded. Here is a guy who has been swimming competitively since under ten years of age. While he couldnt run a lap outside, his swim technique is flawless. There I am next to him at about 7 % body fat flopping around like a wounded duck…just another example of how technique rules in swimming over fitness (to a point).
Is this a good depiction of the type of guy you’re talking about?
This guy beat both Monty and I (who went 1-2 in the 45-49) by nearly two minutes in the swim and he’s in the 50-54 AG. He doesn’t ride too well, but puts up a decent run. (BTW: He’s also an early Hawaii IM top contender.)
Old timer Brevet riders win hands down in this category. Talk about plump. They ride 30 lb old fashioned steel bikes as well. Nicest, most unassuming people I ever met though.
I’d probably fit into that category. I’m getting slimmer but still a bit overweight, have some love handles to speak of and don’t look like a typical triathlete…but I’ll always finish top 5% in the swim. For me, like people have said, it’s technique. I know how to swim (have been swimming competitively since I was 8 years old) and it is a subconscious thing for me. I can easily make slight adjustments to my stroke to get extra power if need be - don’t need to think about it. I just swam 5K the other night at a constant pace of 1:35 per 100m and felt fine at the end of it. No struggles, no issues, no pains. And at IM, I will probably come out of the water early and get passed by a 1000 athletes on the bike and run. Now I may look more like a triathlete come race day, but 3 months ago I definitely didn’t and could still kick ass in the pool (relatively speaking). that being said, the gusy on my team that are world champions, they are definitely fit and look like the stereotypical swimmer.
Or you’re wearing a skin tight wetsuit that doesn’t necessarily suck in the fat spots and makes you looked like a cross between a string of german sausages and a seal.
One of the great things about swimming competitively for three or more hours a day is that you can eat a lot of anything and not gain weight. The downside to this is that you learn to control your weight by simply exercising a lot. When you can’t do it anymore, it’s really easy to put on a lot of weight, and it can take a while to learn how to keep yourself at a reasonable weight through eating less and better. So, I think that a lot of former competitive swimmers have trouble keeping the weight off.
Go to a masters-level (i.e. not world class swimmer, but people with lost of open-water competitive experience) and you will see a lot more “baggage” than any other sport I can think of. The body composition is certainly much less of a hinderance than weight bearing sports, and actually increases bouyancy, which is a plus.
Check out Channel swimmers; people with <20% body fat can’t spend 12 hours in 55d water.
It is called the built in wetsuit effect. I know quite a few masters swimmers who thrash me by 5 second per 100 m in the pool, and then we get into a tri and I am ahead of them. Since I have no “built in wetsuit”, I benefit more on race dayn (plus the fact that I have 20 years of having to navigate in open water, tactically drafting, sighting and using the pre race warmup-geographical countours and water flow patterns to use the currents to my advantage). That being said, the real swim studs are down in the 5% body fat range like lean runners and cyclists.
Without seeing the guys you’re talking about it’s hard to generalize. From what you said they could really move in the water, so who cares what they look like. I’d rather look flabby & be fast than ripped & be SLOW! Most career swimmers have very thin legs b/c they are rarely worked. I have been in competitive swimming since I was 8 years old & have seen all types (I am now 35), & what you have to remember about swimming is that you don’t have to look like Phelps to be fast. Swimmers tend to be bulkier than many other top athletes (most of the time). They traditionally have broad shoulders, weigh more than other top athletes in other sports, have barrel chests, etc…I can’t speak for what gravity, work & home stresses, & daily BS can do to a persons body, but I will say that some of the fastest swimmers I know that race triathlon most would probably call “unfit” or “overweight” by triathlon standards. The swimmers I am thinking of can really kick some @$$ in the water!
I used to watch a guy where I swam that w/o a shirt in one would probably say he was a little flabby & out of shape. Then I would watch him knock off 10x100s all UNDER 55 seconds, & he’d barely be breathing hard. The funny thing is that the guys you see come into the pool that are all buffed out & ripped usually SUCK once they hit the water.
Your comment is an example of thermogeny and impact excercise.
-Swimmers have low/no impact in the water and core heat is constantly leaving the body (being water is a very good conductor.)
After which sport are you the hungriest post session??
-For me Im starving a couple of minutes out of the pool, followed by cycling (I have a 2-3 hour mark that I can smell every fast food joint). Runnning tends to make me thirsty more than anything, I dont get hungry for a couple of hours.
So for me, it seems that the less impact and heat loss I have, the more I crave food. I would think this supports your observations of fat swimmers. Just an idea, Keau
I know what you mean. After my little swim session where we completed maybe 300 meters I was starving. I never have that feeling immediately after a run or ride. Could that be a clue?
swimming makes me SOOOOO hungry… I think part of it is the sensory deprivation of staring at the bottom of the pool. And tasting chlorine makes you crave something that actually tastes good!
The swimmers on my college team are varied in body shape and type. Weight-wise, we are almost all higher than the cyclists around here and most definitely the runners, as swimmers pack on those beautifully broad shoulders and arm muscle. Almost all of the distance swimmers tend to have some body fat, as opposed to the stick-thin runner bodies. A couple of the sprinters are skinner (one of the girls I train with looks more like a marathon runner than a swimmer), but overall swimmers just have bigger bodies.
I am certainly not fat, but I’m 15-20 lbs bigger now that I’ve been swimming almost exclusively for the past six months as opposed to running 70-80mpw. My body fat hasn’t changed, it’s just all the muscle you gain from swimming.
But that’s besides the point, you were talking about people who really are overweight. A master’s practice is not a good sample, many of them are not truly competitive swimmers. Go to a college swim practice, you’ll see normal, healthy looking bodies.
I bet that I have lost 5 sec/100m easy if not more as I have dropped from 237 now down to 191 over the last five months. As much as I work on it and put in more yards I really needed that extra blubber. I am holding out that when I throw on the wet suit for my two big races later in the year that I’ll be bobbing like cork, I hope.
One of the great things about swimming competitively for three or more hours a day is that you can eat a lot of anything and not gain weight. The downside to this is that you learn to control your weight by simply exercising a lot. When you can’t do it anymore, it’s really easy to put on a lot of weight, and it can take a while to learn how to keep yourself at a reasonable weight through eating less and better. So, I think that a lot of former competitive swimmers have trouble keeping the weight off.
This is it on the nose!
I am 6’0 and Currently 170. In college I swam at about 158, I was never “cut” but I was about 8-9% BF. I had the chance between my junior and senior year in high school to spend about 3 weeks at the olymipic training center in Co Srpings, Co. One of the many tests I did out there was to track every (seriously every activity to the point that you wrote down that you were writing it down) activity I did during the day and also everything you ate during the day. During that time I was swimming close to 20,000 yards a day and actually did 20,000 meters a few of the days. The data showed that I was eating around 7200 calories a day and was in a 100-150 calorie deficit. I can rememeber many times order 3 or 4 big mac and eating them in one sitting or eating an entire large deep dish Pizza Hut pizza by myself in one sitting. This was the norm every day during High school and college, all you can eat places hated me. My college team got kicked out of a all you can eat pizza place after a meet once. These are learned activities, and very hard habits to break, food is addictiv, in a big way. After the elligibility and scholarship ran out I quit swimming all together, but I kept eating like I was swimming. Four years after I quit I balloned up to 220 pound from around 160
I have struggled with my weight ever since. I got back to about 185 from the 220 and held that for about 6 years. But 185 still is not triathlete fit, but i know I could kick nearly every triathlete ass in the pool at 185. Recently I had 2 ankle surgeries which forced me to sit for the better part of last year. So i put on weight again and went up to about 195, since then I have really clamped down and have lost 25 pounds, but it is a huge struggle not eating until you are totaly full.
A few other notes. Becasue of swimmers eating habits you will see guys with extended stomachs, not fat. Seriously if i push my stomach out I look like I am 5 months pregnant becasue my stomach has streached over the years to accomodate all the food I used to eat. Also don’t assume that a chubby ( not fat or massively over weight) person is not fit in terms of cardio, and also don’t assume that swimming is only a technique sport. I’ll bet you man for man that the average fit swimmer has similar cardio rates as cyclists and runners. technique only gets you so far in swimming, after that it is blood sweat and tears- that i know for sure.
