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Training for Military Professionals
January 19, 2007
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Training With Partial Repetitions
January 18, 2007
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Which State of Change Are You In?
January 17, 2007
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Improve Post-Workout Recovery
January 16, 2007
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Get a Training Partner!
January 16, 2007
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Get Moving!!
January 10, 2007
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Swimming Workout
January 9, 2007
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Motivational Starter Guide
January 2, 2007
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How HyperStrike Helps You Lose Weight
December 23, 2006
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Burn More Fat with Circuit Training
December 20, 2006
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Assigning Weight (Load) to Your Workouts
December 20, 2006
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Knees and Toes
December 20, 2006
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Proper Progression
December 20, 2006
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Energy Systems Defined
December 20, 2006
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Gym Machines
December 20, 2006
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Swimming Workout
The Sport
If you are not a morning person swimming is not for you. There are frequently early morning practices as well as the standard afternoon practice. It may be warm, it may be cold, but as long as there is no lightning you will be swimming.
There are four strokes used in competition today: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. There are different distances used for races (i.e. 50, 100, 200, 400 and 1,000 freestyle) and a medley of the four strokes is call the IM (individual medley). In addition to the individual swims there are also relays of four swimmers.
Every swimmer should know all four strokes, if for no other reason than to add some variety to their workouts. Every swimmer should be proficient at freestyle, there is a good chance you will have to swim it in a relay. Younger swimmers should be encouraged to work on all four strokes and different distances.
The Demand
The demands of swimming vary greatly depending on the distance and the stroke. Some events are purely anaerobic, lasting about 20s. Other events take more than 15 minutes to complete. For the sprinters strength and power are paramount. For the distance swimmers (anything over 100m) strength endurance is most important. Breaststrokers need the most leg strength and butterfly is mostly upper body. For all strokes the mobility and strength of the shoulders is important.
Injuries
Shoulder problems are the most common complaint of swimmers. The repetitive motion is tough, especially when you are swimming around 10,000m per day. Usually this problem is caused by a flaw in technique. However, it can come about as a result of overtraining and under recovering.
The Swimming Workout
The first goal of your strength and conditioning program should be to keep your shoulders healthy. This would include stretching, mobility exercises and exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff. Stretching the rest of your body isn’t a bad idea either.
The second goal of your program is to maximize the energy system that you use for your event. Sprinters should use more power exercises single rep training while distance swimmers would do more circuit training.
The third goal is to improve the strength of your core muscles. The abs and low back are highly involved in kicking, especially butterfly. Remember that these are muscles and need both max strength (i.e. weighted exercises) and strength endurance (i.e. high rep exercises).
In the pool sprinters need to work on sprinting and distance swimmers need to work on distance. That being said, distance swimmers should use sprint training to get faster. Sprinters also need some endurance work, you may be swimming multiple events in one day at a meet.
Conclusion
Swimming can be a very fun and rewarding sport. But it does require a great deal of commitment to be successful.
The type of training you do is highly dependant on the events you swim. No matter what you swim you need to take care of your shoulders so you can continue to swim.
Have fun and don’t forget the sunblock.
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