swimming as a workout

[prophet]

well, i'm not concerned so much with the cardio aspect of swimming as the muscle development. all the swimmers i know have pretty big backs... what's the best way to use swimming to develop lats, as mine are pretty underdeveloped? is there specific strokes? does it depend on training intensity? regularity? what?

[Sportsmedjosh]

What are you currently doing for swimming now.

[prophet]

Originally Posted by Sportsmedjosh

What are you currently doing for swimming now.

absolutely nothing, my dad was interested in getting back into it after he goes on vacation. he is using it as a utility to build endurance and lose weight though, it's perfect for him because he doesn't have much use of his abs anymore. but yea... i'm doing absolutely nothing, just looking to get into something new.

[cabezon]

swimming uses a lot of core muscles, especially in a crawl with a flutter kick. Breast stroke will be more symmetrical, and possible easier. Did he have surgery?

All swimming strokes work the lats. To build size, sprints, just like running. Butterfly is more a power stroke and would demand more from your body, but will destroy you quickly.

[prophet]

Originally Posted by cabezon

swimming uses a lot of core muscles, especially in a crawl with a flutter kick. Breast stroke will be more symmetrical, and possible easier. Did he have surgery?

All swimming strokes work the lats. To build size, sprints, just like running. Butterfly is more a power stroke and would demand more from your body, but will destroy you quickly.

he had a kidney removed...

butterfly is a bit out of my league i think... at least at first or unless my dad shows me how it's done.

[cabezon]

Originally Posted by prophet

he had a kidney removed...

butterfly is a bit out of my league i think... at least at first or unless my dad shows me how it\'s done.

Wow, best wishes to your dad for his speedy recovery. was it a donation, or did he lose it? Has the doctor cleared him to be in a pool with the wound site? I dont know where you get them, possibly sports authority or such, but a pull bouy, might help him from twisting while he swims, its two short pieces of foam attached by short ropes. the foam rests against the legs front and back and the ropes connect them between the legs.

you might want to try web fingered gloves, with baggy or drag shorts on, for power training

[prophet]

Originally Posted by cabezon

Wow, best wishes to your dad for his speedy recovery. was it a donation, or did he lose it? Has the doctor cleared him to be in a pool with the wound site? I dont know where you get them, possibly sports authority or such, but a pull bouy, might help him from twisting while he swims, its two short pieces of foam attached by short ropes. the foam rests against the legs front and back and the ropes connect them between the legs.

you might want to try web fingered gloves, with baggy or drag shorts on, for power training

yea he lost it. it had cancer. he's been cleared for everything and is just waiting until it doesn't feel like it's stretching anymore.

i'll look into the webbed gloves, but as soon as i start i think i'll just do sets of sprints. to start... something like 5 sets of 200's. it's a 50m pool so that would be 2 full laps.

[cabezon]

That sucks, I hope your Dad recovers well.

200's aren't sprints. go the fifty, get out of the pool and dive back in.

[prophet]

Originally Posted by cabezon

That sucks, I hope your Dad recovers well.

200\'s aren\'t sprints. go the fifty, get out of the pool and dive back in.

that could work too. how many sets should i do?

[cabezon]

I dunno? how far do you swim now? you wanted to do 5 sets of 200's, how about 20 sets of 50's, that still puts you at the KM mark. You were talking about building muscle now, not being aerobic. at some point your arms will turn to jello and you won't be able to swim. do one more.

one of the killers that we did in swim practice was to do the 50's every minute. So, if your first 50 was in 45 seconds, you got 15 seconds rest. by the end, you got out of the pool and did it again barely any break. At the end, if you were over a minute you got to do a kick turn and try to catch up. I was the distance guy, I got killed on these sprints. try to do that for 20 minutes.

ooh, HS, that was 20 years ago. where's my guy with the walker?

[prophet]

Originally Posted by cabezon

I dunno? how far do you swim now? you wanted to do 5 sets of 200\'s, how about 20 sets of 50\'s, that still puts you at the KM mark. You were talking about building muscle now, not being aerobic. at some point your arms will turn to jello and you won\'t be able to swim. do one more.

one of the killers that we did in swim practice was to do the 50\'s every minute. So, if your first 50 was in 45 seconds, you got 15 seconds rest. by the end, you got out of the pool and did it again barely any break. At the end, if you were over a minute you got to do a kick turn and try to catch up. I was the distance guy, I got killed on these sprints. try to do that for 20 minutes.

ooh, HS, that was 20 years ago. where\'s my guy with the walker?

that sounds like a damn good workout. i might try to do that.

[cabezon]

I just saw the swim gloves at Dick's for $20