SS combined with swimming?

[SmokingSnake]

Hi folks, a bit about myself:
I have been swimming on a professional youth league for 3 years, and basically started going to a local gym about a year ago, I used to do 3 weighted anerobics on the gym and 3 times used swimming as my aerobics, I love swimming and the cardiac and respiratory systems were always very important for me to keep in good shape.


I am currently on the second month of my SS program.
Since I have started the program I have stopped swimming as I saw all over the place it might interfer with the rehabilitation, and I would really like to know if anyone here is combining swimming with the program?


I am currently working on sunday, tuesday and thursday, was thinking to put in monday and wedensday as my swimming days
I could maybe use the swimming days with no fast sprints and strictly freestyle with a few backstrokes, no butterfly or breaststroke which are harder on the muscles...

Would love to hear people's experience and if that's recommended
And also, did you guys feel an improvement with your swimming following the program?

[hbriem]

I haven't done Starting Strength while swimming, but for my first two years of lifting, I lifted in a similar way to SS twice a week and swam about 2-3 times a week. It worked well for me and I made good progress in both despite some shoulder problems (the reason I started lifting originally). I then injured my shoulder in a Master's swim meet and stopped swimming, semi-permanently (I only swim occasionally these days, mostly when on holiday).

I feel lifting had a beneficial effect on my swimming, but not vice versa.

I wouldn't worry about it and just do it, fitting your lifting and swimming schedules together as best you can. Your lifting progress will probably be somewhat slower, but whatever.

[amazhad]

I would treat swimming like any other cardio workout. What matters is the intensity you plan to swim with. If you plan to swim with a high intensity (like training for competition), then I would swim on the same days you work out, but only after lifting the weights. Similar to what I've seen recommended to people on the board who want to do HIT while doing SS. If you plan on doing low intensity swimming, similar to what you get from a brisk walk, then swim on any day you want and it shouldn't interfere with the strength gains.

[Dastardly]

Go check the squat rx website. Boris was a competitive swimmer in his youth and combined it with powerlifting and kettbells to become swole and awesome.

[SmokingSnake]

ok, thanks for the replies, I am just wanting to swim because I like it and it makes me feel good tbh, training my cardio vascular capabilities... anyways I will start doing it in the next few days and would let everyone know how it goes in about a month or so

[Campbell]

I swim and do strength training. I just dont do them on the same day.

Mon, Wed, Fri = Strength
Sun, Tues, Thur = swim

[FatButWeak]

stop saying "cardiovascular." Stop thinking it.

What does that term even mean mean? If you swim 100 laps is that cardiovascular? What about one lap as fast as you can - is that cardiovascular? What if you swim one lap as fast as you can then take a 5 minute break, and swim another lap as fast as you can, then take a 5 minute break and so on a total of ten times; is that cardiovascular? Is jogging 5k cardiovascular? How about hitting a tire with a sledgehammer 100 times - is that cardiovascular?

Free your mind of these labels and you will be better able to intelligently think about your training and programming.

[TrackJunkie]

@FBW

Training for cardiovascular fitness is important for anyone who expects to compete in an event longer than about 15 minutes(and probably even shorter than that). If your point is that his training should be more specific to his sport than just targeting the right metabolic system, then I totally agree, but if you're telling him to ignore cardiovascular fitness, that doesn't make any sense.

[FatButWeak]

No. Im not telling anybody to igoner any aspect of "fitness." I'm asking him to think about what the term cardiovascular means. A sprinter has excellent cardiovascular fitness for a sprint; a marathon runner has excellent cardiovascular fitness for a marathon runner; an oyster diver has excellent cardiovascular fitness for diving down 30 feet below the surface while holding their breath. Cardiovascular only means (roughly) "of or pertaining to the heart, veins, arteries and other elements of blood circulation." That's why cardiologists use it when discussing Nanna's tingly legs. For an athlete, especially one concerned with weight training (as the OP clearly is) the use of such sloppy terms as "cardiovascular" is imprecise, incorrect (think of the misuse of the word "tone") and fosters a poor understanding of training and programming. Thinking about training correctly is the first step to training correctly. Hence my recommendation that the OP stop using the incoirrect term "cardiovascular."

Find another word: anarobic training? aerobic endurance training? energy system training? I dunno. It's your training.

[TrackJunkie]

Fair enough. Cyclists often use terms like FTP, VO2 max, lactate threshold and anaerobic capacity to more accurately describe what they're planning on training. I assume there are similar concepts in swimming.