Winter Swimming and Starting Strength | Wade Stokes

[stef]

​My friend Jason got me into powerlifting a year ago, mainly because he got tired of hearing me complain about my lower back. A 56-year-old American living in Tallinn, Estonia, I had been trying to compete at masters swimming fitfully over the previous few years with no success, either for my spine or my intermittent dreams of late-in-life athletic glory. On Jason’s advice, I bought the blue book and started my novice linear progression. A year later, as a masters world champion in winter swimming, I stand as proof that Starting Strength can super-charge your athletic performance, even if your sport is unimaginably unpopular.

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[Tom Ives]

Wow! Even though I do enjoy an athletic challenge, I do not think I will ever try this sport.

Congratulations!

[Alexander Dargatz]

I also was a competetive swimmer decades ago in school. But I have never heard of Winter Swimming before. Crazy!

This is another inspiring story, Wade! Thanks for sharing!
And great progress with your detruncated NLP! That's pretty strong after a short time for an old dude

Granted, racing in ice water in winter is not as competitive as events in pools in the summer. There are thousands and thousands of pool swimmers faster than me.

Yeah, maybe, but they don't get into the ice water, do they?
Warm water swimmers are now all officially pussies.

Though... I have to admit to being one myself. I thought I was pretty tough. Hm, maybe I need to start winter swimming just to prove myself that I am not ... damn.
(although, now that I think on it, I actually swam in the ocean on the shores of Scotland in winter, once. The water was barely liquid. I'll just count that.)

I have a question for you, Wade: are you doing all of your swim training in the cold water? Or only a few laps, short distances, to adapt to the cold and the main part of the training in a regular pool, where you can swim longer/more?
Thanks!

[Wade S.]

Alexander - thanks for the question. In winter swimming, most of the swimmers will do their swim training in pools, and then they do their cold-water acclimatization outside.

During the winter season, I would swim two or three times per week in addition to my two strength workouts. Then, two or three times per week I would go to a winter swimming place in Tallinn that has a changing room and a sauna right by the sea. I usually go into the ice three or four times for around two or three minutes each, and in between I would spend around ten or fifteen minutes in the sauna. For acclimatization, especially given that my longest races meant less than two minutes in ice water, this was enough for me. And the saunas and the cold-water immersions become fun and social with all the other crazy winter-swimming people around.

Winter swimmers who compete in 1km swims or ice miles do a lot more training in the open ice water. The hardest part of swimming in cold water is getting used to having your head in the water - talk about brain freezes. Those who compete at the longer distances just get used to the extreme discomfort. Sprinters like me don't break through that mental barrier - I have a lot of respect for those who swim fast for 15 minutes in freezing water. For me, I am happy with my little short races.

There are two organizations that arrange winter swimming competitions - the IISA and the IWSA. I competed at IWSA's event in Bled, but I was happy to see that the records I broke would have also been records for the IISA. Their websites have a lot of information - take a look at IWSA - International Winter Swimming Assocation and Home | IISA.

Hope all that helps.

[Alexander Dargatz]

Thanks Wade for taking the time to answer, especially as it seems you needed to register in the forums specfically for that. I appreciate it.

Seems logical how you describe the training and preparation, and the cold water adaptation seems doable. I have not been swimming for years, but always thinking I might get back into it once the kids are out of the house. I'll keep Winter Swimming in mind, thanks again.