No Way wrote:
Brit Historia wrote:Man, I thought this thread was going to be about body shape/weight... Ledecky is borderline morbidly obese. And Phelps has triceps fat like my grandma.
Ledecky is 5'11 155lbs. That is actually very close to ideal. Why do you come here to post nonsense like that?
Galen Rupp is 5'11 and 138lbs. So that's embarrassing.
Ledecky is basically the same size/shape as Chris Solinksy, but an inch and a half shorter.
I don't disagree with a lot what you stated. Here is where we differ: 1) since swimmers are in lanes the entire race, often swim goggles fill with water, swimmers often can't see anything, swimmers go all out from the start so there is not a huge speed increase last 25m; 2) I am not going to accept as fact that swimming is not part of human evolution. There is significant evidence of S Asian countries doing exploration thousands of years ago on not so sturdy watercraft. I see freestyle swimming as very natural and most likely part of our human evolution.
In regard to explosive muscle power, 50m freestyle swimmers tend to be more muscular than 1500m swimmers. Look at USA swimmer Simone Manuel. Her height & weight is similar to Ledecky's h&w but Ledecky is chubby.
Ok I'll define "all around fitness".
A swimmer is more likely to be able to out bench, leg press, pull up, plank, pec fly a runner of equal quality.
Just my opinion.
They train their whole bodies more as they need to use their arms and legs as well as their abdominals and back muscles in key parts of swimming.