A few years ago, Dr. David Costill at the Human Performance Lab at Ball State univeristy conducted a test on weight training for swimmers. Dr. Costill and the BSU Human Performance Lab have done much of the cutting edge original research now considered standard practice in excersise science.
He divided the group of swimmers into two groups, one did a traditional weight training program for swimmers. The other group did just dips and pull ups on a weight assisted machine. The Gravitron 2000 in the fitness center is an example of this type of machine. They did 3 sets of dips and 3 of pullups with as many reps as it took to reach complete fatigue on each set.
The study had the participants swim and lift for six weeks followed by six weeks of just swimming. Those doing the traditional lifting exercises showed no time improvement over 25 yards while those who did dips and pullups averaged an improvement of .3 seconds.
I find this to be a very interesting result. So hits those dips and pullups!
