As the title says, wondering whether adding it into my gym routine will give a noticeable affect on riding?

Doubt it. Best training for cycling is…cycling!

I was told and use cross training because when cycling you are
not using most of your muscles. and do core stability training too.
But swimming is good for all your muscles and has no impact to your
body.

having spent most of my life either playing football or riding a bike, I find that my legs tend to sink making swimming difficult

swimming is good for the upper half so great for the downhill bits in biking

The best thing about swimming is……..

That one of the gyms I use in London has a certain Mrs Le Bon as a member. And she swims.

Which is nice.

I have found that long distance swimming has improved my stamina. Plus it has added strength to my skinny cycling shoulders.

Sold 🙂 Thanks all

@cynic-al – Have you tried cycling at a gym? The most boring activity in the worlddddddddddddd.

Swimming is excellent core exercise if done properly. You can lose weight quickly and gain aerobic fitness quite quickly IME.

If it's good enough for tri-athletes and iron-men it's probably ok for you. Go for it.

Yeah, it's OK. Mainly for lung function I find. It's insanely boring though, you need to find a focus. Improving each length is good for a while but I find the ability to turn off and just swim while your mind whiles it's way amongst the daisies is a good approach.

It'll improve your stamina and breathing quite a lot

I am going with rowing at the moment as it also provides the full body workout, and is relatively easy on the joints. If I had space for a swimming pool then I would have probably gone that route 😉

Personally I suspect that anything that gets the pulse rate up, muscles pumping and generally knackeres you out will be of benefit 😉

Maybe I've missed something, but why would 'cycling training' be done in a gym?

Personally, this year I've had great benefits from doing a Pliometrics session once a week. An hour and a bit well spent.

its deffo good .

Training for a triathlon at the moment and currently doing three sessions a week in the pool. Currently tires me out like nothing else, it's good though, I can really feel some progression..

@ScottChegg

I haven't said anything about training? We're not all out there to compete 🙂 I ride for a rush.

I find it beneficial!

having spent most of my life either playing football or riding a bike, I find that my legs tend to sink making swimming difficult

Legs sinking is nothing todo with muscles or body shape – lots of people make this mistake. It is poor technique and lack of balance in the water. If your legs sink, it is because you are not getting the top of your body pushed down into the water enough. If it was true that heavy legged people couldn't swim, triathlon wouldn't exist.

There is a great book called "total immersion" which teaches how to fix this so that you don't suck at swimming. I only suck a bit at swimming now.

Joe

I expect you're right, but I'll keep on believing it's my heavy legs as I find swimming too hard and very dull unless it's in the sea or underwater

I expect you're right, but I'll keep on believing it's my heavy legs as I find swimming too hard and very dull unless it's in the sea or underwater

I'm agreed with you there – I only swim in pools if I'm at hotels with work or whatever and don't have an option. Rivers with a current are the best swimming places (daniel start's Wild Swimming book is a great introduction to a bunch of decent river spots)

Joe

any exercise is good for riding really, walking, running swimming anything that gives you good leg muscles and arm muscles 😀

I started to swim a few months ago,and started to take it quite seriously about a month before entering my first triathlon…… 😉
Had a couple of coaching session to work on my front crawl and have been going once or twice a week for the last 2 months.
Wouldn`t say it made me a better cyclist,and time swimming eats into cycling time too but it seems to do a good job of counter acting my leg only exercise regime,with a good upper body work out and has seen the return of my six pack,so its not all bad. 😆