Wow congrats, that’s an incredible distance doing fly. Can you elaborate how it affects the central nervous system, do you mean it can be punishing on your nerves at certain points in your body?
Also, how does the body feel overall compared to say doing an equivalent distance doing freestyle? Have you noticed more strength across a group of muscles in particular as opposed to other styles of swimming?
I’m just curious because I’m approaching 50 and I have a reasonable butterfly technique from racing years ago, but I can only do 100m or so before it tuckers me out. I usually just stick to freestyle or breaststroke but I’d like to know if there’s additional benefits to doing long-distance butterfly.
Basically, I lift a lot so I have not experienced any strength benefit. That’s only because it doesn’t provide the necessary stimulus for muscle growth.
I will say my endurance improved a lot because of the exhaustive nature of the stroke. It’s not like a heavy bench press. Slow twitch fibers are extremely developed.
It’s basically doing thousands of reps with insanely light weight.
I will say it is extremely challenging compared to other strokes, even if done with good form.
Also, with the nervous system, I mean the muscles themselves are extremely tired. To use any muscle, you need a signal from the nerves to the brain.
When this is repeated in a strenuous fashion, i.e., butterfly stroke, this will fatigue your nervous system.
@Jasper
I see, yes I can imagine the muscles would get very tired from doing this stroke let alone such a long distance. That’s very interesting, you’ve given me some inspiration to include it in my routine. All the best and thank you👍
