by On most swim teams it is quite common to go hit the weights as a team. Unfortunately this is one of the worst things that can be done. Since the whole team usually has the same lift plan (ie. does the same exercise) swimmers try to rotate through the lifting plan. For simplicity lets assume there are 9 swimmers and 3 exercises for the workout: Dips, lateral raises(LR) and tricep extension(TE). So three people would start on dips , three would start on LR and three would start on TE. This is a big mistake. In this scenario, dips should always be performed first. It doesn’t matter to me if you eat dessert before dinner, but do not do accessory exercises before the big compound ones! Big compound exercises such as dips, chin-ups, standing press, and squats are the most important exercises for getting stronger. In terms of the Pareto Principle, these are the 20% that give 80% of the results! I honestly want to say they are going to give you 90% of the results. It is important to start your workouts with these so you can hit some big numbers and ideally hit a PR.
So here are two options:
-lift at different times
-be patient and wait your turn to do the compound exercise first.
Furthermore I think it is important to keep the same order in your workouts so you can track your progress better. Even with the secondary (such as rows) and accessory exercises try to keep them the same order if possible.