Q
I’ve had a chance to look over your ebook. I’m very impressed but have a question regarding the weightlifting section. My son is 5′ 3″ and weighs 111 pounds. He will be a 10th grader and is obviously small for his age. Should he be doing the weight lifting considering his size and his age? If so, 1-2 times a week or every other day?
A
The focus is definitely not on power lifting and won’t stunt his growth. I have all my freshman swimmers lifting once to twice a week for maybe 45 minutes each session. Lifting every other day is fine alternating either upper and lower body work-out by days or sets. You could lift twice a week and do dryland on the third day, then the following week switch to two dryland days and one weight lifting. Keep me updated with his progress.
Q
My son swims the 50 free, 100 breast and is on 2 relay teams. The coach is having them lift 3 sets of 10 with moderate to heavy weights. My son says he can lift the first 2 sets without problem. When he gets to the 3rd set he has difficulty lifting rep 8, 9 & 10. Is this consistent with your coaching or is this type of lifting going to hurt him? He is a sophomore, weighs 115 and is 5’5”. From what I read in your book he should maintain his speed throughout all sets. Is this correct and does he need to lower his amount of weights per station?
A
Your son should be able to maintain the speed on the third set and if the last few reps are a bit challenging that is OK. He could take more rest before the last set or he could lower the weight to maintain speed. I would have swimmers do multiple rep sets once a in a while but not on a regular basis.
The workouts are written in a manner that is adaptive to any age group at any level. Some of the send-offs and some of the heart rate sets you’ll experience throughout the year can be adjusted by you as needed for your physical abilities.
- by Brad Burget, Author of Faster Swimming and writer/coordinator of the Faster Swimming Monthly Workouts