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We just watched "Nyad" on Netflix, about Diana Nyad and her finally-successful crossing from Cuba to Florida. Riveting and engaging show!
I have not been able to see what her body looked like at the time. She was 64 when she finally achieved this life-long goal. At this age, she wore loose clothing appropriate to her age, so you can't tell.
I'm wondering, because Annette Bening played Nyad in the movie. Bening states she was in great shape, but she looks overweight to me, for a professional athlete. Quite wide around the middle, some flab on her back, like most of us older women. Nor did she look very muscular.
But perhaps the physical requirements for "open-water" long-distance swimmers is different. Would a thicker torso help in those conditions? More heat retention? Bening says she trained for a year, swimming like 8 hours a day. I would think she'd be quite thin---more like her co-star Jodie Foster.
This is in no way a criticism. I'm just curious. I looked up "Swimmers' physique" and it said "Tall, Thin, Muscular, but not overly so".
If by 'thicker torso' you mean 'more fat,' I suppose the extra fat would make it easier to float and would provide more energy which would certainly be useful for long distance swimming in the open ocean. As for myself I'd be satisfied going from one end of the swimming pool to the other. But I haven't swam in many, many years. Being able to make the swim from Cuba to Florida which I think is about 90 miles, is quite a feat.
Swimmers often have more fat than other aerobic sport athletes. Sometimes remarkably so. Look at great female swimmers like Abbey Weitzeil....world class athlete, incredible shape, but probably not as lean as some would guess. Swimming just doesn't penalize weight like some activities do, but it does reward power. And leanness often comes at the expense of power. And, of course, fat is more buoyant than muscle.
It's generally the sprinters who have the more lean, tall, muscular bodies with wide shoulders, etc. Many long distance swimmers don't have that sort of build. Sprinting activates more fast-twitch muscle fibers which have more potential for growth than slow-twitch fibers do. That's also why track sprinters tend to be quite muscular and defined whereas the elite long distance runners barely have any muscle at all.
With the amount of calories you'd burn you would absolutely have to have some level of fat reserves to have the energy necessary to partake in such long-distance events. I remember hearing about what Michael Phelps ate every day and was astounded as the calories he ingested. He isn't anything near the long-distance swimmer that Nyad was but same concepts.
I thought Annette Bening did an excellent job in the movie, and at her age I'm not surprised she is a little thicker around the middle. I didn't find it distracting.
I thought Annette Bening did an excellent job in the movie, and at her age I'm not surprised she is a little thicker around the middle. I didn't find it distracting.
Oh no, it wasn't distracting. Just made me curious. I'm not used to seeing elite athletes with a thick waist, well except Sumo types, lol. Or weight-lifters.
So I guess this might be the same idea. Actually, it made me feel better that a famous athlete could achieve what she did without a perfect-looking body. It was perfect for what she was doing, apparently!
I read a lot about Bening after seeing that, and she just loved doing that role and now swims incessantly.
Swimmers often have more fat than other aerobic sport athletes. Sometimes remarkably so. Look at great female swimmers like Abbey Weitzeil....world class athlete, incredible shape, but probably not as lean as some would guess. Swimming just doesn't penalize weight like some activities do, but it does reward power. And leanness often comes at the expense of power. And, of course, fat is more buoyant than muscle.
Great point I hadn't thought of. Swimming not penalizing weight makes sense. I looked up Abbey and she looks lean and muscular. Phelps looks like he's on steroids but he couldn't be. Lots of muscles there! But neither of them are "open-water"-long distance swimmers.
And yes, fat is more buoyant so I'm sure that would help in the cold water and staying afloat for days on end.
Great point I hadn't thought of. Swimming not penalizing weight makes sense. I looked up Abbey and she looks lean and muscular. Phelps looks like he's on steroids but he couldn't be. Lots of muscles there! But neither of them are "open-water"-long distance swimmers.
And yes, fat is more buoyant so I'm sure that would help in the cold water and staying afloat for days on end.
Yeah you need to separate the body types for sprint swimmers versus long distance swimmers. Phelps is a sprinter swimmer and has the muscles to do that. I would imagine a lean frame better for a long distance swim, maybe some fat for buoyancy?
Most of the sprint swimmers have a very muscular and lean body.
Great point I hadn't thought of. Swimming not penalizing weight makes sense. I looked up Abbey and she looks lean and muscular. Phelps looks like he's on steroids but he couldn't be. Lots of muscles there! But neither of them are "open-water"-long distance swimmers.
And yes, fat is more buoyant so I'm sure that would help in the cold water and staying afloat for days on end.
"Lean and muscular" are relative terms. By "normal person" standards, yes she'd be somewhat lean (and there's no doubt she's muscular). But compare her to a professional runner and it's a completely different story. But running punishes weight in a way that swimming doesn't.
Cycling is a good example of this sort of thing. Sprinters are powerhouses because flat ground doesn't punish extra weight. The primary resistance that must be overcome when cycling on flat ground is air resistance, and air residtance is mostly about the two-dimensional profile surface area, which doesn't get bigger very quickly as weight is added. So a 190 pound sprinter doesn't generate enough additional air resistance to put him at a big disadvantage compared to a 160 pound climber. But that thirty pounds of muscle has huge added value.
As you begin to fight gravity, however, things change. The negative impact of the added weight very quickly becomes the deciding factor. That's why professional cyclists who excel at climbing are very, very light. In fact, Tyler Hamilton once said weight was so important that it was almost more important than drugs, and this was back in the epo era. That's also why many of these guys have eating disorders.
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