You've finished a training session. You're tired, you've pushed yourself, perhaps you've even set a personal best. The next day, you train again. Then again.
But is every session really making you a better swimmer?
Not necessarily. Performance depends on more than how hard you work. It's also about what you're training for and how your body adapts to that work.
Start with the goal, then plan the training
A swimmer aiming for a faster 50-metre freestyle has different needs from someone preparing for a 10-kilometre open-water race.
One places greater demands on explosive power, top-end speed and technique. The other calls for aerobic endurance, a sustainable pace and the ability to manage energy over a long swim.
So a good training programme can't simply be about adding more kilometres each week. Distance, intensity, frequency and recovery all need to be planned around the goal.
Improvement comes as the body adapts to the demands of training, rather than during the session itself. Without enough recovery, those adaptations can be limited.
A joint consensus statement from the European College of Sport Science and the American College of Sports Medicine highlights the importance of balancing training load and recovery for performance improvement.
More can come at a cost
Increasing training load too quickly or allowing too little recovery can do more than affect performance. It can also increase the risk of injury.
In swimming, the shoulders in particular carry the load of thousands of repeated strokes. When technique issues, insufficient strength and excessive training load come together, overuse injuries can develop.
The International Olympic Committee's consensus statement on training load and injury risk notes that poorly managed loads can be associated with a greater risk of both injury and illness.
The answer isn't to avoid hard sessions. It's to give your body a load it can tolerate, in the right amount and at the right time.
Feeling tired doesn't always mean you're improving
It's normal to feel tired after a hard session. A temporary dip in performance can also be expected during planned periods of heavier training.
But if paces that usually feel comfortable keep feeling hard, your sleep is disrupted, or you feel unusually exhausted for days, it may be time to reassess your training load.
Instead of asking “How many kilometres did I swim today?”, ask “What did I work on today to move closer to my goal?”
Every swim doesn't have to be especially hard or long. Balancing easy and intense sessions, increasing training load gradually and making room for rest when needed are all part of improving.
The aim is to make the best possible progress through the right training, rather than simply doing as much as possible.
