Thread: Swimming
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Old 04-14-2003, 12:07 AM
spidey spidey is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Snyder, NY (via Toronto)
Quote:
Most serious long distance swimmers I know (human) have extremely low body fat.
Swimmers who do seriously long distance swims (like across the English Channel, for example), however, tend to have high body fat, see here. The fat adds bouyancy and helps with insulation and energy.

I think the issue with Greyhounds may depend on the individual dog, but they have REALLY low body fat, even the leanest human has a far higher percentage of body fat than a Greyhound - it's not really comparable as far as I know. I also suspect that it may also be related to a combination of their lack of bouyancy (no body fat) and their shape (a deep chest doesn't give you much horizontal surface area, which can help with floating).
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