When you’re involved with swimming competitively, there’s more than just performance swimwear and spending time training in the pool. It’s essential to use other elements to work out and get your body stronger so you can swim more efficiently. As you work to develop your competitive swimming techniques, it’s necessary to use other methods, including weight lifting. This process can build the strength in your muscles so you can swim faster and more efficiently, giving you the competitive edge in your races.

Which First?

You may wonder if you should spend your time in the pool first or if you should go to the gym and then the pool. When you swim first, you raise your body temperature and get your heart rate up, which means you will burn more calories as you spend time weight lifting. However, you are more likely to already feel tired when you hit the gym, which can severely limit the amount of effort you can put into your weight lifting routine. This includes resistance training, which is important for swimmers. On the other hand, if you go to the gym for weight lifting first, you will get to the fat burning element of your exercise routine more quickly. When you expend more energy in the weight room, you develop muscle more quickly, increasing the effectiveness of your strength training. Unfortunately, you will still feel more fatigued when you hit the pool and your muscles can actually be weaker for a period of time after weight lifting.

Why Weight Lifting?

Most people recognize using weight lifting as part of their competitive swimming training because it increases strength and helps build muscle, which is essential to a good performance in the water. However, keep in mind fatiguing your muscles and continuing to work out in the pool can increase the risk of injuries so it’s important to be careful. Other benefits of using weight lifting as part of your swim training is to improve your level of endurance in the water over time and to help you lose weight.

It can be difficult to balance weight lifting with your workouts in the pool, but it’s an important part of the process if you want to swim your best. Working with your coach can help you make the smart decisions so you don’t suffer from the negative impact of muscle fatigue, but you also don’t end up neglecting necessary parts of your training.

If you’re looking for the best competitive swimwear brands in Dallas, TX, contact us. We have everything you need to enhance your performance in the water.