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Conditioning
 
Swimming for Conditioning with 5/3/1?
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DoubleDuce
Level 4

Join date: Jul 2008
Location: Tennessee, USA
Posts: 11517

TisDrew wrote:
DoubleDuce wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
C-Bear wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Swimming is good for recovery.

It's not running though. For conditioning, run miles and sprints.

The benefits will far outweigh swimming.


Interesting; could you elaborate on the how and why?


In my youth, I was a very good swimmer. My technique was excellent, and it was like I wasn't even working out when I did it - it was just lap after lap (in an Olympic pool) with no problems, all good.

I loved the workout it gave, and it's a necessary skill to be good at swimming.

But.... compared to running? If you're looking for conditioning for a sport or something, you're going to be looking for the thing that makes you feel like you're dying. That's what's going to expand lung capacity, increase your endurance, and, perhaps most importantly, make you be able to not only function, but perform the task you have to with some degree of skill, regardless of how tired you are.

Just my opinion.


You can always swim harder or do any of a hundred drills. You can get good at jogging too, but that doesn't make running poor conditioning. It just means you need to pick up your pace or find a hill.

I'm willing to bet I could have you feel like you're going to die within 5 minutes of being in the pool.


5x100 butterfly on 1:30 intervals anyone? ;)

That being said, FightingIrish is right on some points. Just for the sake of running/sprints being leg-dominant, they'll burn more oxygen being much bigger muscles than shoulders/lats but I'd have to say swimming dominates in terms of lung capacity (underwater/no-breathing laps are good too). But it just depends on your passion and how you approach it. I'd definitely agree swimming can be a low-intensity recovery session, but it can also be just as challenging as a ladder sprint workout.


I can not swim butterfly. My swim coach had me try it once, told me I looked like a wounded dieing butterfly, and never asked me again.

I was a breaststroker.

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TisDrew
Level 0

Join date: Feb 2009
Location: Florida, USA
Posts: 545

DoubleDuce wrote:
TisDrew wrote:
DoubleDuce wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
C-Bear wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Swimming is good for recovery.

It's not running though. For conditioning, run miles and sprints.

The benefits will far outweigh swimming.


Interesting; could you elaborate on the how and why?


In my youth, I was a very good swimmer. My technique was excellent, and it was like I wasn't even working out when I did it - it was just lap after lap (in an Olympic pool) with no problems, all good.

I loved the workout it gave, and it's a necessary skill to be good at swimming.

But.... compared to running? If you're looking for conditioning for a sport or something, you're going to be looking for the thing that makes you feel like you're dying. That's what's going to expand lung capacity, increase your endurance, and, perhaps most importantly, make you be able to not only function, but perform the task you have to with some degree of skill, regardless of how tired you are.

Just my opinion.


You can always swim harder or do any of a hundred drills. You can get good at jogging too, but that doesn't make running poor conditioning. It just means you need to pick up your pace or find a hill.

I'm willing to bet I could have you feel like you're going to die within 5 minutes of being in the pool.


5x100 butterfly on 1:30 intervals anyone? ;)

That being said, FightingIrish is right on some points. Just for the sake of running/sprints being leg-dominant, they'll burn more oxygen being much bigger muscles than shoulders/lats but I'd have to say swimming dominates in terms of lung capacity (underwater/no-breathing laps are good too). But it just depends on your passion and how you approach it. I'd definitely agree swimming can be a low-intensity recovery session, but it can also be just as challenging as a ladder sprint workout.


I can not swim butterfly. My swim coach had me try it once, told me I looked like a wounded dieing butterfly, and never asked me again.

I was a breaststroker.


Haha, I was like that the first few months I was learning. My arms couldn't get out of the water. Once my arms were consistently above the water, I got faster. Then you learn the kick and then it's smooth sailing.

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Xen Nova
Level 1

Join date: May 2004
Location: California, USA
Posts: 5846

Swimming can be a tremendous conditioning tool.

The problem is that we're pretty far removed from our aquatic ancestry so swimming will take some time to develop as a skill. And you need to be pretty efficient at it. Take a good month or two of swim lessons and you'll be fine. Totalimmersion.com and find a good masters swim club.

When you can complete a workout such as

50m Crawl
25m Hypoxic(underwater) Swim
50m Crawl
50 Burpees
15s rest

50m Crawl
25m Hypoxic (underwater) Swim
50m Crawl
50 Pushups
15s rest

50m Crawl
25m Hypoxic (underwater) Swim
50m Crawl
50 BW Squats
15s rest

x 3-5

Then you'll have MONSTER conditioning. I know this water polo team that set up rings right by the pool they would do muscle ups and shit between laps. So Look into the workouts that water polo players go through, it's usually similar shit. Those guys are usually fucking tough. Its really about how hard you push yourself, you can make it as hard as you want. When you're really strict with your rests you can still get that "oh my god my heart is going to explode" feeling. But if you're swimming you HAVE to focus on your form more and you MUST relax, you can't start flailing or you'll stop moving. Running causes a lot of injuries because people don't notice their lapses in form. If you're swimming a lapse in form or a calm mindstate means you start drowning and sucking in water lol.


Oh it's also an excellent way to lean out and drop some body fat, it also serves as great gpp for your lats and hips. If you kick hard you'll feel it in your glutes for sure. And different strokes really work different muscle groups. It's very restorative to get blood flow to those areas.


Plus come on dudes...

Let's be honest...

We're on a bodybuilding site...

any excuse to get in a speedo, jump out of some water dripping wet and pose a little we should be trying to take advantage of. It makes vegas pools that much better because you can actually swim and most importantly my junk looks fANTASTICALLY GARGANTUAN in a speedo. ;)

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rocket man 400
Level 0

Join date: Oct 2010
Location:
Posts: 44

Just alternate swimming and hill sprints. FreeStyle swimming with good technique ( learn to swim right, learn the proper rotation of the body and proper arm pull through the entire stroke, check out some video technique sites) Swimming is an awesome conditioner ..... Do 10 sprints in your condo pool with recovery easy swimming in betwween. To make it harder use "mitts" on your hands.
Same thing with hill sprints...some days use BW only, other days wear a wt. vest..start at 10 lbs and work up.
And try hill "walks" wear a 100 lb vest and walk briskly. Very tough on a steep hill.
If I were u... I would alternate the swimming, hill running, and hill walks. And I would also include a long brisk walk for about 40 min to 60 min. every fourth session....and I would do the conditioning every other day and hit the weights on the other days.

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