Brother Michael and BartBoy,you seem fairly knowledgable on this subject. id like to pick your brains so that i may understand better what i need to be doing. Nutrition is my big weak point, i simply do not know what foods i should be eating bar avoiding crappy junk food and eating fresh meat n veg
Protein is the big thing, whether it's in powder or meat or liquid (milk for instance) form, just make sure you are getting enough of it. If meat weren't so cheap here I would just buy some protein powder. Meat is something you should be eating every day, but if you are still struggling to get enough protein in, just buy one of these:
http://www.myprotein.co.uk/products/pea_protein_isolate
http://www.myprotein.co.uk/products/impact_whey_protein
http://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/product.php/272/18/super_pea_protein_isolate
http://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/product.php/276/18/whey_protein_concentrate_82___instantised_
and if you have some to spend and want stuff that (apparently) tastes better, try:
http://www.myprotein.co.uk/products/true_whey
Pea protein isn't drastically different from whey, but it costs less. And when buying protein, don't fall for all the marketing shit, just go for value. The ones I posted are the most cost effective from an already very cost effective site. I'd be cheap and just the awful tasting unflavored kind, but the chocolate, mint chocolate etc are probably the best bet. For whatever reason, the chocolate ones are the only ones that taste like what they are supposed to taste like.
Also eat leafy green vegetables and whichever fruits taste good to you. Don't avoid eating fat and don't avoid eating carbs and don't avoid eggs because they are "high in cholesterol"; as long as you are getting enough fat and protein and carbs in on a daily basis, you can eat whatever you want in order to maintain a calorie surplus to build muscle. Eggs by the way are an excellent protein + fat source and cholesterol intake isn't strongly related to serum cholesterol levels anyway. Make sure to take in lots of fish oil if you aren't eating fish on a regular basis; just buy fish oil capsules in bulk and take in as much to get at least 2g of EPA/DHA per day. But check the label, a 1000mg fish oil capsule often only has 300g of EPA/DHA, so you would have to take at least 7 a day.
this is how my normal weeks worth of exercise goes
Cardio/Endurance:
tues, thurs, sunday = 1.5 hour swimming sesh on each, typically averaging 3000m in an hour (depends on what we focus on)
there is also provision for a further 1 hour on a friday evening, however this is mostly technique work for speed lifesaving and isnt really a massive cardio load.
Make sure you are resting enough between your swim sessions and weightlifting sessions.
Weights/Land conditioning
3 times a week is my target, not sure if this is enough, but its all i realistically have time for.
its organised in a 5 month block, each month the exercises stay roughly the same but the reps/weight/technique differs. (month 1 = increasing reps through the month, 2 decreasing reps, increasing weight, 3 circa 20 reps at fast pace, 1 rep a second for example, 4 is the same as 2, 5 is a taper month gradually lifting less an less
I would scrap this plan. In order to get stronger, you must increase the load in as linear a fashion as possible. Increasing and then decreasing and then increasing sounds very counterproductive to me.
Incline chest
front pull downs - modified to mimick swimming stroke
I would avoid too much specificity when it comes to weight lifting. IE, you don't need to mimic a swimming motion in the weight room to make that swimming motion better. Just focus on making the muscles involved in that action stronger in their full range of motion.
seated narrow grip row - oft varied, one day ill use the machine, next i may do inverted press ups using the smith machine, or pull a levered bar bell
front/side raises - usually combined with a squat
bicep curls - standing, usually single arm and often incorporate a shoulder press at the top of the curl
tricep - standing, but sometimes lying down on my back with arm across the body with weight on the opposite side and then extending my arm
lat pulls -
free space - chop n change between pectorals, decline press or wood chop/weighted side bends
leg press- sometimes swap for weighted step ups
calf raise
quad extensions
hamstring curls
normally i end then with a small core set - plank, med ball, gym ball, dish, ... lots of compound exercises like holding a 6kg bar and sitting up with it and looping it over my feet to my bum. really good exercise this as you have to really crunch to get that bar clear of your feet. i normally alternate this with raising my legs and arms to meet in the middle from a stream line position... it ensures that the core in engaged 100% of the time, becuase if you arent in a crunch your in a dish position or somewhere between the two.
after that, i normally have a little test for my self which is to do as many unaided wide grip pulls ups as i can.
You could simplify this a lot, I would focus on squat, bench press, overhead press, deadlift, some sort of row, and chin ups. If you high bar or front squat, then I would do Romanian Deadlifts to get more hamstring work. You want minimal overlap between chin ups and rows, so when you row you want to pull towards your chest to minimize the lat involvement. Chin ups should be done with a shoulder-width grip to ensure a large range of motion and add weight if you can do 10 in a row. I would get a dip-belt and progressively add weight or reps on a weekly basis. IE, do sets of 5 with 15lbs lets say, and then try to get 8 reps in a set prior to adding another 5lbs etc.
Accessory work: curls + weighted ab work, see this post:
http://forums.finalgear.com/sports/the-physical-conditioning-thread-35664/page-8/#post1404823
And make sure you are increasing the load over time and doing low reps/sets. I like 3 sets of 5 for every lift I just mentioned, and 1x5 for conventional deadlifts. Accessory work can be higher reps, but again, make sure you are increasing the load over time. You ALWAYS want to be lifting more than the last workout, and more could mean more reps or more weight but you want to aim for more weight when possible. For squat, deadlift and bench press, you should be able to add 5lbs to your reps every time you do that lift. Then progress will slow to match the other lifts, but you should still be adding weight on a weekly basis. If you are stalling, try to increase the number of sets you can do until you feel comfortable adding more weight.
With OHP for instance, let's say you stall (this is almost guaranteed to happen at some point) at 125lbs for 3x5 and try as you might you can't lift 130 for more than 1 set of 5. Over the next few workouts, try 125lbs for 4 sets of 5 and then 5 sets of 5. At that point, you should be able handle 130lbs for 3 sets.
Also apart from maybe the legs/lower back, you want to minimize the overlap in one workout. So separate OHP and bench press because they both heavily rely on the triceps for instance. Try something like day A: squat, bench, rows and day B: overhead press, chin ups and deadlift. Also you want to ideally work in some explosive work such as power cleans or power snatches, here is an excellent easy to follow video on how to power snatch:
http://vimeo.com/14870568
so thats the exercise, im quite happy with it... it doesnt take inordinate amounts of time to do because you super set the exercises with little rest and its swimming focused.
You can keep the workout I mentioned above to less than an hour assuming you don't take long breaks between each exercise. But I would focus on one lift before moving on instead of super-setting them. Swimming involves many if not all muscles in the body and any workout that involves all the muscles of the body is swimming-focused workout.
but where i come unstuck is eating. i eat lots, but i bet its not the right things. i plan to get some whey isolate this week and start taking it. but eating for recovery is beyond me. i guess this is why i feel very sore the day after sometimes and sometimes the soreness is hampering my swimming.
after swimming i know i should be eating within 30 minutes, either banana's, yoghurts, cereal or such like but for weight training?
and what foods do i need to be eating during the day? i typically have corn flakes for breakfast, is it wiser to switch to oats or alpen? is it better to eat little and often? i need a diet that can give me energy to work out, grow and recover... but it baffles me because theres too much info.
See first paragraph. Soreness is normal but not necessarily an indication of a productive workout. Walking 10 miles will leave my legs much more sore than if I were to squat a few sets, but which one is making me stronger? Though it could mean that you are not sleeping and eating enough between workouts and swimming sessions.
After swimming and/or lifting, you want to eat carbs + protein, just eat food in general prior to and after exercising. Ideally you would even eat a little protein+carbs bit DURING lifting, but personally my stomach hates that.
I would eat oats instead of Corn Flakes because I enjoy the taste, but you can eat whatever gets you going. Meal frequency probably doesn't matter a whole lot, eat when you are hungry but make sure you are eating enough at the same time.
I hope some of this info is helpful