Swimming in Morning & Lifting Weights in Evening: Will I gain Muscle?

[Alic88]

Hi all:

Over the past 2 years now, I have been making major gains in cardio (running, but more specifically swimming). I've had the luxury of having a swimming pool in my house, and now I swim an average 2-2.5 hours every morning (6 days a week). I know it's not sustainable, but i've been doing it for a while, and I feel great.

I started weight training on alternate days some time back, but injured my shoulder (subsequently did physiotherapy and I feel fine now).

Now, I do swimming in the morning (as aforementioned), and in the evenings do some form of cardio (boxing with punching bag or treadmill) and ab workout (Athlean X videos).

My body is shredded, and I feel great, however I would like to gain some semblance of muscle mass while being lean. I won't be quitting morning swimmings. I burn a lot of calories through it, and it is a great neutralizer for my appetite cravings (lots of eggs in the morning, almond flour bread/meats for lunch, grilled foods for dinner + 2 protein shakes a day and dry fruits for snacks).


I have started doing basic lifting in the evenings (4X15 sets of bicep curls, hammer curls, tricep overhead, and lateral raises for shoulder) with my abs workout and minor cardio.

My Question is: Are these weight-lifting exercises actually building any muscle (aside from the very lean aspects of it)? Or is the swimming and cardio completely negating any gains I could make.

How can I incorporate weight-lifting in a way that I can still make muscle gains, while not compromising on my swimming schedule. Is it even possible?

Thanks in advance.

[GeneralSerpant]

Your arms will get a bit tougher and there might be some visual cues to indicate that.

As far as the instructions on this site go, muscle building will be rather limited if you are burning up all your calories in the morning and only doing a few exercises for your arms and shoulders.

Muscle building protocol calls for a calorie order that often runs into a surplus and coincides with temporal fat gain. Training for such consists of regular strength progression in terms of weight lifted or various other developments in performance.

[Alic88]

Your arms will get a bit tougher and there might be some visual cues to indicate that.

As far as the instructions on this site go, muscle building will be rather limited if you are burning up all your calories in the morning and only doing a few exercises for your arms and shoulders.

Muscle building protocol calls for a calorie order that often runs into a surplus and coincides with temporal fat gain. Training for such consists of regular strength progression in terms of weight lifted or various other developments in performance.

Thanks so much for this. I'm very happy with my waist size (28), and my lean body, so I feel that if I shift the paradigm (towards intense and extensive weigh training), it will lead to me losing my abs and my lean-ness.

I suppose i'll continue with this model.

Thanks once again.

[GeneralSerpant]

Thanks so much for this. I'm very happy with my waist size (28), and my lean body, so I feel that if I shift the paradigm (towards intense and extensive weigh training), it will lead to me losing my abs and my lean-ness.

I suppose i'll continue with this model.

Thanks once again.

Protein is important either way. There are some stickies in the Nutrition section about counting calories I implore you to acquaint yourself with.

Also, you don't necessarily have to get fat to build muscle, but that tends to be a more painstaking task nutritionwise.

[Garage Rat]

Probably not.
Hypertrophy takes some concentrated effort with training, diet and recovery.
You need to be dedicated to building muscle if you want good results.
You need enough intensity in your weight training to stimulate a response in muscle growth.
Do a search for muscle building programs.
Just doing the exercises won't cut it if your goal is to get more muscle size.
You need to be accurate in what your eating precisely so you can manipulate the calories and other macros if needed.
Protein needs to be higher than other marcos for recovery.
Research muscle building diets.
You need to rest enough for the body to recover from your intense training.
Extra swimming digs into this recovery and calories that could be used to help grow muscle.
I'm not saying you can't swim but you need to compensate for the used calories swimming.
Also if you do all this you have to be patient as natural muscle gains take a long time.
You need to think in terms of many months ever yearly for pure muscle gain.
Im not talking just bodyweight gain.
If your happy with what your doing just stick with it, if your not you have some work ahead of you if you want to get most out of what your doing.
Planning and goals are where to start.

[Alic88]

Probably not.
Hypertrophy takes some concentrated effort with training, diet and recovery.
You need to be dedicated to building muscle if you want good results.
You need enough intensity in your weight training to stimulate a response in muscle growth.
Do a search for muscle building programs.
Just doing the exercises won't cut it if your goal is to get more muscle size.
You need to be accurate in what your eating precisely so you can manipulate the calories and other macros if needed.
Protein needs to be higher than other marcos for recovery.
Research muscle building diets.
You need to rest enough for the body to recover from your intense training.
Extra swimming digs into this recovery and calories that could be used to help grow muscle.
I'm not saying you can't swim but you need to compensate for the used calories swimming.
Also if you do all this you have to be patient as natural muscle gains take a long time.
You need to think in terms of many months ever yearly for pure muscle gain.
Im not talking just bodyweight gain.
If your happy with what your doing just stick with it, if your not you have some work ahead of you if you want to get most out of what your doing.
Planning and goals are where to start.

This is all very informative. Thanks so much. I suppose on way to go about it could be to switch between swimming one day, and weights the other day. Weights: M,W,F (Plus abs), Swimming- T,Th,Sat (Plus abs).

This way I might not be killing my muscle gains as much, all the while having foods heavy in proteins and fats, with carb binge on Sat night.