The FAF AFAP Digest

Wow, you did quite a bit the last two weeks! I'm no expert, but I've been told to lay off the squats if you are going to go out for runs of more than 2 miles.

You seem to naturally have a good bit of power in your lower body, so you might want to ask yourself if doing lower body weights outweighs the risk for injury. With your natural leg strength, the core exercises you are doing, and the work you are doing with fins, you seem to have it covered pretty well. You might want to at least lay off the squats and leg press. Also, if hip is bothering you, definitely lay off the hip add/abd. sets.

Re: stop squatting. Bad idea.

Originally Posted by elise526

Wow, you did quite a bit the last two weeks! I'm no expert, but I've been told to lay off the squats if you are going to go out for runs of more than 2 miles.

You seem to naturally have a good bit of power in your lower body, so you might want to ask yourself if doing lower body weights outweighs the risk for injury. With your natural leg strength, the core exercises you are doing, and the work you are doing with fins, you seem to have it covered pretty well. You might want to at least lay off the squats and leg press. Also, if hip is bothering you, definitely lay off the hip add/abd. sets.

Well, that was my thought initially as well. Seemed like the kicking, fin work, running etc. covered the lower body. But both Jazz and Q thought I should still do the lower body weights. I see Chris re-emphasized the importance of leg strength in his blog today.

Going to lay off the other stuff + running for maybe 2 weeks. I might spin one day instead of running ... though it's so nice out right now ... But the running does seem to aggro the hip. I miss my running endorphins though.

Originally Posted by Jazz Hands

Re: stop squatting. Bad idea.

In general? Or not for the 2 weeks?

Originally Posted by The Fortress

In general? Or not for the 2 weeks?

I mean you need to squat.

that is really cool that you can swim at Sectionals. I wish that they had Sectionals when I was coming up. It would have been a good consolidation when I missed my Junior Cut in LCM in 1995 by 1 second in 200 fly. All the good stuff happens when I left USA Swimming in the late 90s.

Originally Posted by Jazz Hands

I mean you need to squat.

You're a man of many words, Jazz.

Read Lezak's view on squats. I'm with him. I think other exercises you are doing will cover it.

From Lezak himself:

"Getting the most out of the gym means being smart and not doing exercises that put a lot of stress on the knees and back such as power lifting exercises. That is why I do not do any squats, cleans, or dead lifts."

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jasonlezak1.htm

Funny how pain can work. Sometimes you can feel the pain in your knee and it is actually your hip that is injured. Sometimes you can feel it in your hip and it is your back that is injured. Can't remember the word/phrase for it.

I think you are referring to "referred pain".

If you are injured, don't make it worse.

Running is important to you, so don't let lifting ruin that. You can squat twice a week and still get a few long runs in.

I think you are doing too much in the gym. Just squat and be done with legs. Add a chest and a back and be done with heavy lifting for the day. This should speed your recovery so you can continue to hit the gym hard, run, and spend more time on the core work you actually enjoy.

Originally Posted by elise526

Read Lezak's view on squats. I'm with him. I think other exercises you are doing will cover it.

From Lezak himself:

"Getting the most out of the gym means being smart and not doing exercises that put a lot of stress on the knees and back such as power lifting exercises. That is why I do not do any squats, cleans, or dead lifts."

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/jasonlezak1.htm

Funny how pain can work. Sometimes you can feel the pain in your knee and it is actually your hip that is injured. Sometimes you can feel it in your hip and it is your back that is injured. Can't remember the word/phrase for it.

Thanks for the article, Elise. I'll definitely read it.

It's called sclerotogenous pain. (That's why my chiro thought pain in the trap indicated a labrum issue.) This is apparently a fairly hot topic in sports medicine at the moment.

Originally Posted by qbrain

If you are injured, don't make it worse.

Running is important to you, so don't let lifting ruin that. You can squat twice a week and still get a few long runs in.

I think you are doing too much in the gym. Just squat and be done with legs. Add a chest and a back and be done with heavy lifting for the day. This should speed your recovery so you can continue to hit the gym hard, run, and spend more time on the core work you actually enjoy.

Yeah, it seemed to work better not doing too much lower body work in the gym. That's why I thought maybe canning the leg extenions/leg curls, adductor/abductors was a good idea.

I don't know if it's an "injury" per se. I hate that word. I've certainly strained something that didn't like the overload from last week and isn't disappearing quickly. Although, to be fair, the initial strain had nothing to with lower body weights, as I did it 2 weeks before Auburn.

Yeah, can it

OK, either I'm going to be woefully under-prepared for my distance races or you need to start swimming some distance races. I was all psyched with myself that I've average 20K yards a week for the past week, thinking I'm really "cranking it up" for my 1000 next weekend and then I see you, serious sprinter, doing practically as much as me in the pool plus more outside.

Damn ... you're cranking.

I don't feel like I've been cranking as much in the pool as in the weight room. Before Austin, I was more like 10,000-14,000 per week. Since then, I've been + 15,000 with more aerobic work. Works better for me, I think.

Hey, I swam two 200s. That is distance, baby!