tryin to gain weight for a swimmer

jeff allen

New member
i swim competitively and during the off season i lift 3 days a week 2.5-3 hours a day working different groups each day so i get plenty of rest... i take whey protein after each workout... but try as i might i cant gain weight and i eat right but hey i go overboard sometimes... my program definately works me good and i am getting noticeably stronger but im not packin on the pounds like some friends of mine. so if someone out there who knows what i am goin through can you help me out? or other suggestions will help to.
 
Do you take carbs post workout as well?
Is your fat intake adequate?
Are you using compound movements with free weights?
Why are you lifting so long?
How much sleep do you get per night?
 
reply

pmiller383 said:
Do you take carbs post workout as well?
Is your fat intake adequate?
Are you using compound movements with free weights?
Why are you lifting so long?
How much sleep do you get per night?
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i have big box of raisins and some gatorade.
i believe it is adequate.
i do muscle isolation exercises so i work different muscle groups arms and chest monday legs and abs wednesday and a combintation of exercises but for endurance on friday so it may not be 2 to 3 hours per day but im in there for a while. i lift so long so i make sure to hit all the muscle groups in the body parts i am working that day. i actually am in bed by 10 30 and wake up at about 6 30so about 8 hours during the week and 10 to 12 on weekends calories 3000 a day
 
Up your calories to 3500 and see if that helps if not go up to 4000. Also drop the Isolation work and try out a full body routine using these movements as the heart of the routine:
Power Clean
Squats
Bench
Push Press
Deadlift
Pull-ups.
As for your calories try to split up 40%pro 40% carbs and 20% fats. So at 3500 calories thats 350g of protein and carbs and about 80g fat for a day. I would recommend using the diet tracker on here to make sure you are getting that much.
 
while trying to gain weight carbs are almost just as important as protein try to eat more carbs and keeping your protein at about 1g per pund of body weight, also whey protein is going to gain you weight its just going to make you leaner, look into a weight gainer like cytogainer, or all the wheys super mass 600, another thing you could do to save money is buy some waxy maize and throw that into your whey that will give you the right amount of carbs, but remember food is absorbed by your body the best so try to eat as much healthy food as you can
 
pmiller383 said:
Up your calories to 3500 and see if that helps if not go up to 4000. Also drop the Isolation work and try out a full body routine using these movements as the heart of the routine:
Power Clean
Squats
Bench
Push Press
Deadlift
Pull-ups.
As for your calories try to split up 40%pro 40% carbs and 20% fats. So at 3500 calories thats 350g of protein and carbs and about 80g fat for a day. I would recommend using the diet tracker on here to make sure you are getting that much.
Click to expand...

+1 Calories Bro...don't be afraid to put em away. And protien (if your lookinn to build muscle) which I assume you are, get 2 g for evry lb of your body weight and see if that also helps.
 
yea i like to stay with 1g per pound of bodyweight cause iv heard consuming to much protein is hard on your liver
 
pmiller383 said:
Up your calories to 3500 and see if that helps if not go up to 4000. Also drop the Isolation work and try out a full body routine using these movements as the heart of the routine:
Power Clean
Squats
Bench
Push Press
Deadlift
Pull-ups.
As for your calories try to split up 40%pro 40% carbs and 20% fats. So at 3500 calories thats 350g of protein and carbs and about 80g fat for a day. I would recommend using the diet tracker on here to make sure you are getting that much.
Click to expand...
our gym doesnt have a push press machine but i do the rest of those... benching 135. squat 120. pullups AMAP x3 +25 pound plate hangin off. deadlift 130 its a newer exercise so im gettin used to it
 
214boy said:
while trying to gain weight carbs are almost just as important as protein try to eat more carbs and keeping your protein at about 1g per pund of body weight, also whey protein is going to gain you weight its just going to make you leaner, look into a weight gainer like cytogainer, or all the wheys super mass 600, another thing you could do to save money is buy some waxy maize and throw that into your whey that will give you the right amount of carbs, but remember food is absorbed by your body the best so try to eat as much healthy food as you can
Click to expand...

i was talkin with my buddy and i havent started takin whey every day yet i gonna do that tomoro. i got school now so i cant work as much as i want otherwise i would look into it some more
 
jeff allen said:
our gym doesnt have a push press machine but i do the rest of those... benching 135. squat 120. pullups AMAP x3 +25 pound plate hangin off. deadlift 130 its a newer exercise so im gettin used to it
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I am sure they do, it looks like a bar with weight on both ends. All you do is lifting it from the ground to your shoulders than press it. I swore every gym had one...Just Messing with you dude, to be serious though drop machines and use free weights, they worked for the big guys in the past and they will work well into the future.
 
i went to college on a d-1 swimming scholarship.
i could never keep my weight up during the season.
looking back i know i was severly overtrained and wasn't getting enough protein.

i know training techniques have improved a lot since i used to swim, but swimmers still overtrain IMO.

and with bodybuilding people work out maybe an hr/day. swimmers workout HARD for 3hr/day.
body builders take in 1-2grams of protein/day.
swimmers should be consuming even more!
 
Hank Vangut said:
i went to college on a d-1 swimming scholarship.
i could never keep my weight up during the season.
looking back i know i was severly overtrained and wasn't getting enough protein.

i know training techniques have improved a lot since i used to swim, but swimmers still overtrain IMO.

and with bodybuilding people work out maybe an hr/day. swimmers workout HARD for 3hr/day.
body builders take in 1-2grams of protein/day.
swimmers should be consuming even more!
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i was hopin to hear from someone like you. our team does an hour of dryland training which consists of 35 exercises at 30-30 and later on 45-15 (how long and how much rest) and then its about 2.5 to 3 hours of swimming and you know how that goes. i am uppin my calories to i believe 3500 a day and i am currently on 4 scoops of whey protein a day+ regular meals and i am swimming now but its the offseason training.
 
pmiller383 said:
I am sure they do, it looks like a bar with weight on both ends. All you do is lifting it from the ground to your shoulders than press it. I swore every gym had one...Just Messing with you dude, to be serious though drop machines and use free weights, they worked for the big guys in the past and they will work well into the future.
Click to expand...
i actually do do a lot of free weights i prefer the dumbells and bars i use the machines more on my legs and some arms exercises... but my favorite dumbell exercise is one arm dumbell press where you lay down with your weights and hold one arm up and do ten reps with the other and switch i usually go until i drop which is what i like to do so that i know i worked hard enough cuz then i can go longer and heavier
 
jeff allen said:
i was hopin to hear from someone like you. our team does an hour of dryland training which consists of 35 exercises at 30-30 and later on 45-15 (how long and how much rest) and then its about 2.5 to 3 hours of swimming and you know how that goes. i am uppin my calories to i believe 3500 a day and i am currently on 4 scoops of whey protein a day+ regular meals and i am swimming now but its the offseason training.
Click to expand...

yeah, i know exactly where you are coming from!
the training is brutal and it's yr around if you want to compete at the elite level.
defiantly keep your calories up. and there is probably no such thing as too much protein. your muscles need as much as they can get to rebuild with the short amount of rest you get between workouts.
i'm not sure how old you are, but i would maybe look into vitamins or supplements that may help keep your natural testosterone levels up.
training that hard lowers natural hormone production and increases cortisol, causing you to lose valuable muscle when you train.
 
jeff allen said:
i actually do do a lot of free weights i prefer the dumbells and bars i use the machines more on my legs and some arms exercises... but my favorite dumbell exercise is one arm dumbell press where you lay down with your weights and hold one arm up and do ten reps with the other and switch i usually go until i drop which is what i like to do so that i know i worked hard enough cuz then i can go longer and heavier
Click to expand...
Thats good, I was just jokin with you b4 so that take it the wrong way. You may want to try switching up and going low volume for a while. Try doing stuff like 8 sets of 3 or 5 sets of 5 for your lifts, it may be just the stimulus you need to encourage growth.
 
Hank Vangut said:
yeah, i know exactly where you are coming from!
the training is brutal and it's yr around if you want to compete at the elite level.
defiantly keep your calories up. and there is probably no such thing as too much protein. your muscles need as much as they can get to rebuild with the short amount of rest you get between workouts.
i'm not sure how old you are, but i would maybe look into vitamins or supplements that may help keep your natural testosterone levels up.
training that hard lowers natural hormone production and increases cortisol, causing you to lose valuable muscle when you train.
Click to expand...
you look like college is a few years behind (not meanin anything but jeez to look like that!) im in highschool right now and i just upped the protein to four scoops a day plus all the food and i got a suggestion for a supplement that is carbs i think and i gonna check it out. otherwise i take calcium pills but i have a good 7 months until our season starts and the offseason training for swimming is relatively easy cuz its a swim club so the workouts can kill but its scaled back a lot from team practice
 
I'd say your calories should be at about 4500 calories. When i played soccer we would train and the only way i gained weight was with 4k-5kcals a day and it was even difficult then. Side note iyou're working out way too long in the gym. From what i've read pmiller is pretty much hitting it right on the head.
 
pmiller383 said:
Thats good, I was just jokin with you b4 so that take it the wrong way. You may want to try switching up and going low volume for a while. Try doing stuff like 8 sets of 3 or 5 sets of 5 for your lifts, it may be just the stimulus you need to encourage growth.
Click to expand...
i have been doin a lot of 3 by ten or AMAP i like the amap for some exercises but im not growin as much for some of the other exercises. and the 8 sets of 3 is taht like a heavier weight than usual and what does 5 of 5 do? like how does changing the reps and sets work?
 
Changing the amount of reps, say to a 5x5, will usually trigger a response from your body because of the fact that your can lift fairly heavy for 5 reps, and still pump out a good number of total reps. With 4x10, you can only use the amount of weight that you can complete 10 reps with, so while you get 40 total reps, its with a lower percent of your maximum intensity. So using a higher percentage of your max intensity for 25 total reps will allow you to see an increase in strength and size. You are usually doing more work in less time with a 5x5 program.
 
I was a swimmer back through high school and I was doing a swimmer (female) through most of college :woohoo:. From that wealth of knowledge came one thing. Eat boss. I was consuming 3000-3500 calories a day and not gaining an ounce of weight. You need to be hitting 4000 calories a day at a minimum. I know in high school we swam 2-2.5 hours a day after school, and in college they had practice 3-6 hours a day (they had two a day 3 hour practices fairly often). Those guys had to down calories like it was nobody's business just to stay as muscular as they were.

Since it's your off season, I would try to hit 4500cal/day. Learn to love peanut butter. I would also research a 5x5 routine. That's going to give you the most compounds exercises along with heavy weight. And there is nothing wrong with increasing legs, back, and chest in swimming. Plenty of the guys on the swim team were sitting at 190-200 lbs, but they were tall and incredibly lean. So research the 5x5 routine, you'll find a ton of info on the web about it. And start trying to find out how to include more calories into your diet. A quick way is to add 2 tablespoons of olive oil at the end of every meal. An easy weight gainer is just whey protein and ground oatmeal (use a coffee grinder). If you have extra time you can add more to the shake. And also eat peanut butter for snacks...spoonfuls of peanut butter.
 
Nabisco said:
I was a swimmer back through high school and I was doing a swimmer (female) through most of college :woohoo:. From that wealth of knowledge came one thing. Eat boss. I was consuming 3000-3500 calories a day and not gaining an ounce of weight. You need to be hitting 4000 calories a day at a minimum. I know in high school we swam 2-2.5 hours a day after school, and in college they had practice 3-6 hours a day (they had two a day 3 hour practices fairly often). Those guys had to down calories like it was nobody's business just to stay as muscular as they were.

Since it's your off season, I would try to hit 4500cal/day. Learn to love peanut butter. I would also research a 5x5 routine. That's going to give you the most compounds exercises along with heavy weight. And there is nothing wrong with increasing legs, back, and chest in swimming. Plenty of the guys on the swim team were sitting at 190-200 lbs, but they were tall and incredibly lean. So research the 5x5 routine, you'll find a ton of info on the web about it. And start trying to find out how to include more calories into your diet. A quick way is to add 2 tablespoons of olive oil at the end of every meal. An easy weight gainer is just whey protein and ground oatmeal (use a coffee grinder). If you have extra time you can add more to the shake. And also eat peanut butter for snacks...spoonfuls of peanut butter.
Click to expand...

This is very good advice.
 
Maverick60 said:
Changing the amount of reps, say to a 5x5, will usually trigger a response from your body because of the fact that your can lift fairly heavy for 5 reps, and still pump out a good number of total reps. With 4x10, you can only use the amount of weight that you can complete 10 reps with, so while you get 40 total reps, its with a lower percent of your maximum intensity. So using a higher percentage of your max intensity for 25 total reps will allow you to see an increase in strength and size. You are usually doing more work in less time with a 5x5 program.
Click to expand...
interesting... i will add that to my program how much rest would that allow between sets then?
 
Nabisco said:
I was a swimmer back through high school and I was doing a swimmer (female) through most of college :woohoo:. From that wealth of knowledge came one thing. Eat boss. I was consuming 3000-3500 calories a day and not gaining an ounce of weight. You need to be hitting 4000 calories a day at a minimum. I know in high school we swam 2-2.5 hours a day after school, and in college they had practice 3-6 hours a day (they had two a day 3 hour practices fairly often). Those guys had to down calories like it was nobody's business just to stay as muscular as they were.

Since it's your off season, I would try to hit 4500cal/day. Learn to love peanut butter. I would also research a 5x5 routine. That's going to give you the most compounds exercises along with heavy weight. And there is nothing wrong with increasing legs, back, and chest in swimming. Plenty of the guys on the swim team were sitting at 190-200 lbs, but they were tall and incredibly lean. So research the 5x5 routine, you'll find a ton of info on the web about it. And start trying to find out how to include more calories into your diet. A quick way is to add 2 tablespoons of olive oil at the end of every meal. An easy weight gainer is just whey protein and ground oatmeal (use a coffee grinder). If you have extra time you can add more to the shake. And also eat peanut butter for snacks...spoonfuls of peanut butter.
Click to expand...
during our season its about an hour of dry land so its 10 pound weights with varying exercises up to 35 with timed intervals with 30 seconds of rest and later on 15 seconds of rest doin these as fast as you can on a minute... then we get in and swim for 3 to 4 hours somewhere in there and you know how that goes... and i am currently takin 4 scoops of whey protein a day... i must say ground up oatmeal is a new one to me im used to the bowl once in a while but wow and i do eat peanut butter by the spoonful not as regularly as you are probably suggesting and im takin calcium pills too... and for offseason training i am with a club so its varying ages and the workouts are scaled back but im keepin in shape and durin the summer i plan on liftin after i swim... i cant now cuz it would be driving back and forth and its not gonna work
 
It kinda depends on the lift, but you can give yourself about 90 seconds or even more if you want. Most people will focus a lot on the compound lifts while using a 5x5 program, so rest between sets tends to be longer so you can give a strong effort on all of the sets.
 
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