Swimming as conditioning

Dr. Baraki:

I’m an early-ish intermediate. I’m currently running the BBM 7 Week GPP Hypertrophy template, after which I’ll be pivoting to the 12 Week Strength template to prep for a powerlifting meet.

I enjoy swimming and have access to a pool to swim laps once or twice per week. My question is how you would recommend incorporating swimming as conditioning into strength and hypertrophy programs. For instance, should I be mixing up variables like volume (more laps), intensity (speed), etc.?

Thanks so much.

Jason

I wouldn’t do this- mainly as it has a high potential to compromise strength and hypertrophy improvements (which is important to you given your programming selection) and doesn’t do a lot for non-swimming specific conditioning development.

Hi Jordan,

Can you please compare swimming vs C2 rower from conditioning point of view? Pros and cons of both?

Thanks.

The c2 rower is a far superior tool for conditioning than swimming minus the cost of the rower and the lack of it being swimming, which only matters if you’re a swimmer who is unable to currently swim.