I am thinking about starting swimming tomorrow and as many as three times per week, and I am wondering if it will have any negative effect on my muscles because of the weight training I do. Currently, I do the following weight routine:

Day 1
BB Bench (4 sets)
BB Squat (4 sets)
DB Incline (2 sets)
BB Military Press (2 sets)
Seated Calf Raise (2 sets)

Day 2
Pullups (4 sets)
Straight Leg Deadlift (3 sets)
Seated Row (3 sets)
Upright Row (2 sets)
Situps (2 sets)

Day 3
Swimming 30 mins

Day 4
DB Bench (4 sets)
Deadlift (4 sets)
DB Shoulder Press (2 sets)
Standing Calf Raise (2 sets)
Weighted Dips (2 sets)

Day 5
Close Grip Pulldown (3 sets)
Leg Curl (3 sets)
BB Row (3 sets)
DB Lateral Raise (2 sets)
Shrugs (2 sets)
Weighted Leg Lifts (2 sets)

Day 6
Swimming 30 mins

Day 7
off/swimming


Would it be wise of me to do take on swimming given that I am doing this routine? I just don't want my strength to end up going down because of overtraining my muscles with swimming.

Swimming is cardio just like running or any other activity. Unless you're doing sprints less than 50 meters (and are quite good), you won't even begin to approach a use of your muscles that is comparable to weight-training.

You will probably be sore if you haven't swam in a while though.

I am thinking about starting swimming tomorrow and as many as three times per week, and I am wondering if it will have any negative effect on my muscles because of the weight training I do. Currently, I do the following weight routine:...Would it be wise of me to do take on swimming given that I am doing this routine? I just don't want my strength to end up going down because of overtraining my muscles with swimming.

I've been swimming (laps and drills) 3x per week for over a year and have not noticed a drop off in strength training intensity.

In fact, early morning swims have (seemed) to make me hungrier - and thus able to eat more quality foods to encourage muscle growth.

Swimming is cardio just like running or any other activity. Unless you're doing sprints less than 50 meters (and are quite good), you won't even begin to approach a use of your muscles that is comparable to weight-training.

You will probably be sore if you haven't swam in a while though.

:nod:
Sometimes you will notice the soreness from weight training affecting your muscles while you swim.:lol: But that's not a bad thing either.

I would definitely encourage you to swim if you enjoy it.

I thought by the title you meant swimming with some form of weight on you, in which I was going to reply "Bad, bad idea". But swimming and lifting weights is an excellant idea. Since swimming is almost no contact to anything, it's very hard to get injured.

So I just got my new schedule for school this semester, and it turns out that I might not be able to swim on days I would normally swim, or normally want to swim. However, some days I have very few hours of class. I was wondering, would swimming on the same day as lifting make much of a difference? (or is it just as was said before, that swimming woulndn't come close to comparing with weight lifting?)

Should be ok as long as you don't combine the two workouts. :lol: