Diet tips underweight swimmers.

Training Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hello friends,

My younger brother is 17 and about 6’1 and 170lbs. He swims 6x a week for 2 hr sessions and lifts ~3x a week inconsistently.
For you swimmers, he’s at 22.93 for 50yfr, 49.6 for 100yfr, and 1:01.1 for 100ybr.
We were both swimming and lifting until I left for college. We were also both stuck at plateaus very early in our LP cause we weren’t gaining weight.
This semester I’ve gone from 154lbs (5’10) to 171 and my deadlift has gone from 325x1-395x1, my squat has gone from 185x5-265x5. We won’t talk about my bench…

He’s been lifting inconsistently because he is stuck at around 185 on the squat and it’s demoralizing for him to get under the bar and fail.
Anyway, with that said, I love my little brother and I want him to smash all my times, take the school records, and win states his senior year, but I think he’s gotta gain some strength/weight before then.

I’m just here looking for some tips regarding when / what to eat if you’re an underweight swimmer who is plateaued early and can’t eat much before practice without throwing up.

Thanks, Christian

2

Christian,

I probably wouldn’t advise someone to gain weight who didn’t want to, especially if it may hinder their performance in their sport. That said, I would advise a slow weight gain via a small calorie surplus for those interested in that.

For both of you, I think your plateau has much more to do with the programming (LP) than your body weight so my advice would be to switch your programming to our Beginner Program (phase 2), Bridge, or similar.

-Jordan