T Nation

Need To Lose Size For Sport

Powerlifting
#1

I am a swimmer and was excelling at longer distance events; however, I became a little too T-manly for this. Currently I am 5’8.5’’ and 170 lbs! It’s really difficult moving through the water fast now, my recovery time just about doubled, and I am a little sick of wakeing up in pools of sweat from the excess mass.

My goal is to reach 155, maintain strength(if not improve), and improve swimming. I know I can do the latter because about 3 months ago I could pace 56 sec for 100 yards and now it’s difficult for 60 sec. I have no idea how to do this as far as diet and lifting, and to complicate everything I still will be swimming 2-3 hours a day(it’s training I can’t cut back.)

I am fairly lean (I think about 10% BF) so I need to lose a lot of mass and density. Usefull help will be appreciated.

Thinking about useing a kettlebell because a lot of fighters seem to have it and they are relativly small, advice?

#2

Yes buy a kettlebell as the muscles understand the kettley goodness shape of the kettlebell and instinctively know that you are not interested in muscle gain.

See not only is a calorie not just a calorie, 10 kg is not just 10kg anymore.

Seriously dude that is the worst reasoning I have ever ever read on this site without exaggeration.

#3

My reasoning for it was behind the ballistic strength required to lift the kettlebell would place less tension on the muscle for shorter time periods than say rowing, squating, or any other lift.

I asked for usefull advice too, so thanks.

#4

Imagine a guy who loves his car. Every weekend he spends time on the car, tinkering on this little thing and that little thing. Mag wheels, nice paint job, he even puts in the high quality oil. It’s just a shame he ignores the crack in the engine.

You are talking about mag wheels when you should be thinking about the engine. Catch me G?

#5

First of all, keep in mind that strength and size are very closely linked. So if you want to keep all your strength, it will be very difficult to cut size. Sit with that a moment. Accept it.

That said, if you’re determined to try, make a new rule for yourself: 9 working sets per workout, 4 rep max per set. This will require you to use extremely heavy weights (keeping your strength up) but will prevent you from getting in the volume which leads to hypertrophy. (Warm up well, though, or you’ll fuck yourself over good handling those weights).

You seem a little chunky to me for the amount of intense aerobic and weight work you’ve been doing. Are your starchy carbohydrates extremely high? Scale that back. Five of those pounds you lose could come from fat. If you’re eating pasta, potatoes, pancakes, etc., make that just one meal a day right after your swimming workout. (Take a post work out drink after your weight workout but skip the high carb meal an hour later if you’ll be swimming later in the day; it’s not necessary with the low volume you’ll be doing).

Hope this helps.

#6

It doesnt have to be a kettlebell for it to be lifted in a ballistic way. That is more a product of the exercise rather than the object you are lifting.

Keep reps at 4 or below, work each bodypart every other day and rest long between sets.

#7

[quote]spiderman739 wrote:
It doesnt have to be a kettlebell for it to be lifted in a ballistic way. That is more a product of the exercise rather than the object you are lifting.

Keep reps at 4 or below, work each bodypart every other day and rest long between sets.[/quote]

This advice is bad. Whoever started the erroneous belief that high reps = mass and low reps = no mass should be slapped in the face. And I have no idea why lengthening the wait between sets would help. And considering the fact that swimming is an endurance event (don’t even try to bring up shorter swimming events, last time I checked none of those involved less than 5 strokes) I don’t know why doing mostly 4 rep lifts would help him.

If anyone has any reports of losing muscle while maintaining strength (endurance strength, ie more than 10 reps, not max lift strength) I would be interested in hearing them.

#8

This was posted by C.T

To maximize relative strength (gaining strength but not body weight) I suggest:

  1. Focusing only on multijoint exercises (deadlift, squats, power clean, power snatch, push press, bench press, weighted dips, weighted chins)

  2. Keeping the reps low: between 1 and 5 if you are a man and 3-7 if you are a woman.

  3. Either use heavy weights or explosive movements.

  4. Minimize the eccentric portion of each lift (in other words try to decrease the time under tension for each rep).

A good relative/limit strength block that I like is as follow:

Week 1: 3 x 5 (80-85% of max)

Week 2: 3 x 5 (80-85% of max), 3 x 4 (85-90% of max)

Week 3: 3/2/1/3/2/1 (90% / 95% / 100% / 92% / 97% / 102%)

Week 4: 3 x 3(85-90% of max)

This was posted by C.W in relation to a question I asked about training for strength rather than for size.

No size? Try the body-for-life program. OOPS, forgot you wanted strength. Nix that idea.

You should perform the following
3 sets x 2 reps with a 3RM for each body part. Hit the same body part every 72 hours. Increase the load 3% with each subsequent workout. I’m sure I don’t need to mention the necessity of compound movements, do I?

I just thought that what with both of them coming up with kind of similar advice that there might be some truth in it. I figured it might be adaptable to the OP`s goals.