Training to Get Weaker

Find the problem.  Fix the problem.  Mark Twight. 

I want to have a system whereby you have to prove your age to take up swimming as your main training modality. The system will be similar to the “you have to be this tall to ride,” but instead, of proving height, the aspiring swimmer will have to prove they are under 50. I understand this is a heretical view given that old people gravitate to swimming like politicians to the public tax trough, but there are simply too many problems with using swimming as your main training modality for us to allow old people to make this choice. Australia loves stateism so I expect that this will be widely endorsed by the usual people who like inventing rules for people to obey and elaborate methods of enforcing those rules.

The details need to be hashed out but the benefits of removing swimming as a training modality will be enormous. Below is a partial list of those benefits to old people:

• Your own body weight will have to be carried while you are training. Currently, we have deconditioned old people training without even the requirement to support their bodies. In other words, they are training like astronauts without having the medical team around them to facilitate the rebuilding of bones and muscles after their return from space.

• Training will be done under conditions where you can fall down. This trains balance and balance is important for all of daily life. Mark Rippetoe has written widely on this.

• There will be bone deformation and stress which is necessary to prevent bone loss associated with ageing.

• The training will include walking or running over uneven and rough ground. This trains the ability to recover rapidly from everyday stumbles thus preventing falls and fractures.

• Progressive resistance can be added as the trainee gains strength thus ensuring they continue to gain strength instead of losing muscle and conditioning as happens with swimmers.

• Training will be done in conditions which more closely approximate daily life. No-one swims around the grocery store or to the doctors office.

• Overhead lifts, such as presses, maintain the ability to work overhead in daily life. This is important for changing lightbulbs, lifting things onto high shelves, and also for maintaining shoulder health and mobility.

• Lifting weight off the ground (as in deadlifts) maintains the ability to lift things off the ground and move things around in daily life.

• Exercises such as loaded carries work innumerable large and small muscles as well as the coordination of those muscles for activities that are important in daily life.

This is just a partial list, there are many more benefits to training such that your body gets stronger instead of weaker. I find myself cringing a little inside whenever I hear the “but I’ve taken up swimming,” from friends and acquaintances. Sometimes this is in response to a tweak or injury, but increasingly, older people are taking up swimming because training in other ways (even modalities as simple as walking) is uncomfortably challenging. Training is supposed to be challenging; it is the only way to build capacity. Training appropriately is the ultimate delayed gratification test. The trainee is uncomfortable in moment and in the immediate future, but is building up capacity for the future.

Swimming is nice for leisure, recreation or even as a social activity, but if you are resorting to swimming for training you are training to get weaker.