# Swimmers: help me do this?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimmers-help-me-do-this/347018>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 4, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimmers-help-me-do-this/347018 "2006-03-04T04:42:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2006, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimmers-help-me-do-this/347018/21 "2006-03-07T18:55:44Z")

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Should swimming at a moderate pace be viewed as cardio or muscle-building, or both? I ask because I just joined a gym that has a pool, and I"ve been using the pool on days when I don’t lift. Yesterday I went swimming, and I didn’t even do very much because I’m still building it up…I think I only did about 700 yards or so.

So today during my weight workout, I started with wide grip pullups as I usually do, on the assisted pull-up/dip machine. As usual I started with maximum assistance for a warm-up, and then went to no assistance…and found I could barely do even one! Usually I can do five or six pull-ups unassisted, and then five or six more with moderate assistance. What’s up with that? Am I still recovering from my 700 yard swim the day before?

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**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2006, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimmers-help-me-do-this/347018/22 "2006-03-08T00:14:50Z")

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> [@cowgirl](#):
>
> It helps me to think of my body propelling my legs rather than the other way around.
> 
> Same with your upper body. The strength is in your shoulders, chest and back, not your arms.
> 
> It was a big revelation to me when I saw stills pictures of a swimmer that showed how her whole body was twisting back and forth with every stroke, rather than lying flat while her arms and legs did the work.

Doh. Yes, absolutely. I nuked a whole part of my reply because it was along the lines of ‘Water is your friend’, but \*\*cowgirl \*\* said it much better. 😃 But if you’re still working on the face up float, that’s a bit advanced since this pretty much requires that you be comfortable with letting the water do most of the work, so to speak.

It’s like imagining that you’re reaching from your toes with each freestyle stroke instead of swinging your arm from the shoulder. Like throwing a ball (or a punch). But you’re saving the largest amount of force for the last half of each stroke, not the first half.

**Spectre** , most likely cardio, but it depends on whether you were doing endurance distance or just moseying along. I think you’re probably right in that you’re still recovering from the swim. But \*\*Least Original \*\* can likely answer better than I can.

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