Sprint 8 Swimming Workout

Earlier this week, we discussed the benefits of high intensity interval training and how it can stimulate human growth hormone (GH), which is necessary for building muscle and losing fat.

This Sprint 8 Workout can be applied to any fitness regime besides running, like rowing, skipping, cycling and swimming.

As the popularity of this workout grows, various intervals are coming to light as people experiment with it and find a method that works for them. Here’s one example that Bill Lauer, a retired professor, uses to prepare for his Senior Games competition:

1. Swim Sprint 8 Workout

• Moderate intensity: 75-yard freestyle for 90 seconds
• Moderately high intensity: 50-yard freestyle for 60 seconds
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle sprint for 30 seconds

This is one set and should be repeated 8 times. The moderate intensity, 90-second swim acts as your active recovery in between each set.

2. Swim Sprint 8 Workout in a 25-yard Pool

This set is done in a 25 yard pool with swim fins on.

• Moderate intensity: 25-yard underwater kick for 120 seconds
• High intensity: 25-yard swim sprint for 30 seconds
• Low intensity: 50-yard easy swim for 120 seconds

This is one set and should be repeated 8 times. The low intensity easy swim at the end is your active recovery.

3. Swim Sprint 8 Workout

This interval slowly builds the intensity from one circuit to the next, so pace yourself through the first set of 3 sprints as you will be ramping it up with each set. The low intensity, 120-second freestyle lap is your active recovery.

Beginner

• Low intensity: 75-yard freestyle for 120 seconds
• Moderate intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 40 seconds
• Moderately high intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 40 seconds
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 40 seconds

Repeat 3 times.

Intermediate

• Low intensity: 125-yard freestyle for 150 seconds
• Moderate intensity: 25-yard breast stroke for 40 seconds
• Moderately high intensity: 25-yard back stroke for 40 seconds
• High intensity: 25-yard butterfly for 40 seconds

Repeat 3 times.

Advanced

• Low intensity: 200-yard freestyle for 210 seconds
• Moderate intensity: 50-yard freestyle or breast stroke for 40 seconds
• Moderately high intensity: 50-yard freestyle or back stroke for 40 seconds
• High intensity: 50-yard freestyle or butterfly for 40 seconds

Repeat 3 times.

4. Anaerobic Swim Sprint 8 Workout

Beginner

• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 7 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 6 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 5 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 4 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 3 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 2 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 1 time
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 0 times

In between each sprint, swim an easy lap for 90 to 120 seconds for active recovery.

Intermediate

• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 3 times
• High intensity: 25-yard butterfly for 60 seconds, breathing 3 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 2 times
• High intensity: 25-yard butterfly for 60 seconds, breathing 2 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 1 times
• High intensity: 25-yard butterfly for 60 seconds, breathing 1 time
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 1 time
• High intensity: 25-yard butterfly for 60 seconds, breathing 0 times

In between each sprint, swim an easy lap for 90 to 120 seconds for active recovery.

Advanced

• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 0 times
• High intensity: 25-yard butterfly for 60 seconds, breathing 0 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 0 times
• High intensity: 25-yard butterfly for 60 seconds, breathing 0 times
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 0 times
• High intensity: 25-yard butterfly for 60 seconds, breathing 0 time
• High intensity: 25-yard freestyle for 60 seconds, breathing 0 time
• High intensity: 25-yard butterfly for 60 seconds, breathing 0 times

In between each sprint, swim an easy lap for 90 to 120 seconds for active recovery.

Source:

Campbell, Phil: Ready, Set, Go! Synergy Fitness. (http://www.readysetgofitness.com/)

Originally published @ FITLODE.COM

Swimmers’ Winter Warm-Up

It’s one thing to get yourself moving and out to the gym in the middle of winter, but it’s even harder if your workout involves diving into a cold pool.

If you’re a regular swimmer, you’ve probably devised ways to deal with that bone-shivering moment when you first enter the pool. The warm, humid environment helps to warm you up, but there’s always a jarring effect once you get into the water, no matter the temperature, and there’s those first few minutes when your muscles protest and stiffen up on you. So, here are some warm-up moves you can do before diving into the pool.

If your swimming pool is anything like mine, there’s the locker room and there’s the pool area, which doesn’t leave a lot of options for warming-up before you get into the water. There are a lot of moves you can do in the locker room area to warm-up. For instance, you can use the bench to perform a few push-ups to get the blood circulating in the upper torso.  Here are a few other exercises you can do to prep your body before it hits the water:

Side-to-Side Lunges with Windmill Arms – 30 seconds.

V-Stance with Torso Twist – standing in a wide stance, hold your arms out at shoulder height and swing gently from side to side to loosen up the vertebrae and get some movement happening throughout the core – 30 seconds.

Deep Squats – with your arms out in front of you at chest height – 30 seconds.

Leg Kicks with Alternating Arms – kick your legs up in front of you, bring your opposite arm up to meet the toe – 30 seconds.

Alternating Lunge with Warrior Arms – a combo of lunges and Warrior Pose. Keep moving with this one and watch your legs for hyperextension – 30 seconds.

Incline Push-Ups – using the bench in the locker room – 30 seconds.

Stair Running – when you get out to the pool area, use the spectator area to do a few laps of stair running before you hit the pool – 30 seconds.

If you don’t have access to any stairs, try Back Pedaling – crouch down and walk backwards as if you were on a bicycle and back pedaling – 30 seconds.

Of course, once you get into the water, you will want to do a few laps to finish your warm-up and to target those sport-specific muscles before your practice.

Another great way to warm up before your swimming practice is through nutrition. About an hour before practice, drink a whey protein isolate shake. Not only will this give you the fuel you need to get through your workout, but protein increases thermogenesis in the body, which warms the body up from the inside out.

Supplementing with Arginine helps increase blood circulation and is a great supplement to use in the winter months when our bodies are running a bit sluggishly. Published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, a recent study shows that supplementing with Arginine can increase your endurance and workout times by 20% which translates into a 1-2% improvement in race times.

The Arginine group showed a significant increase in the NO₂ plasma levels and a marked reduction in systolic blood pressure. During moderate exercise, oxygen uptake was reduced by 7% and during intense exercise, V0₂ amplitude was reduced, extending the time to exhaustion.

• Improves severe-intensity exercise endurance by 20%
• Significantly reduces systolic blood pressure
• Reduces the oxygen cost of exercise

Other benefits of supplementing with Arginine are:

• Improves blood circulation (by stimulating the production of nitric oxide, an endogenous neurotransmitter that helps to prevent vasoconstriction and initiates vasodilation by relaxing the smooth muscle cells of the blood vessels).
• Lowers blood pressure in some hypertension patients.
• Increases the release of the human growth hormone (HGH) from the pituitary gland.
• Helps counteract inflammation.
• Alleviates obesity and facilitates weight loss (by stimulating the release of HGH).
• Improves muscle performance.

For more information on the benefits of supplementing with Arginine, please read:

• Arginine Supplements Enhance Performance
• Nitrate-Rich Beets Boost Endurance
• Arginine is Good for Heart Health

Originally published @ FITLODE.COM

Building Stamina for Swimmers

If you’re a novice swimmer, one of your biggest challenges is stamina. Not having the strength to finish more than a couple of laps at a time before taking a break will negatively affect your weight loss goals.

Beginner swimmers lack technique and often waste a lot of energy with their movements, tiring easily. A well-seasoned swimmer will actually use less energy than a beginner because of their perfected technique. But if you’re tiring too easily, then your technique is going to suffer and you’re just going to get frustrated. Spend a couple of days in the gym to build up your stamina and upper body strength to ensure you’re going to get a rewarding workout in the water.

Stamina Building Workout

• Pull-Ups to failure
• Squats/Lateral Raise Combo with lightweight dumbbells (12 reps)
• Squats/Overhead Shoulder Press Combo with lightweight dumbbells (12 reps)
• Preying Mantis Push-Ups to failure – starting position is with your forearms flat on the floor
• Reverse Flyes with lightweight dumbbells to failure
• Cable Woodchoppers to failure each side
• Overhead Triceps Cable Extensions to failure
• Bench Dips to failure
• Biceps Cable Curls to failure

Perform 3 – 4 sets of this circuit, moving straight into the next exercise with little to no rest (less than 30 seconds in between). At the end of the circuit, rest for 120 seconds and repeat. You will want to perform this circuit a minimum of twice a week for the next six weeks to build up strength and stamina.

To improve your stamina, you must also focus on your breathing. Work on a three-stroke breath with your front crawl. This means that you will be alternating sides when breathing. This is known as bilateral breathing. What this does is forces you to get more out of your breath and ensures you’re more relaxed in the water so you’re not wasting energy. Compared to a two-stroke breath where you tend to gasp for air too quickly, bilateral breathing makes you more aware of your breath and you’ll relax into your stroke with more ease.

You will also want to focus on lengthening your strokes, making each one count from entry to exit. Reach as far forward as you can, using the full length of your stroke and bringing your arm back as far as you can.

For each lap, switch up your stroke so that you avoid using your legs too much. Swimming is mostly all upper body strength with the legs and torso acting as stabilizers. By switching up your stroke each time you push off the back wall and change directions, you’re giving your legs time to rest and ultimately, you’ll have more energy to finish your targeted number of lengths.

Perfecting Swimming Stroke Technique

Swimming, like many sports, is reliant on your body mechanics.

If your body is not exactly symmetrical, or if you have one side stronger or more dominant that the other – as many of us do – then you’re going to have to work harder on perfecting your stroke technique.

Even though there are swimming aids out there like pull-buoys that help keep your hips elevated in the water, when you’re competing, it’s just you and your body and the years of training you’ve put into the sport that will pull you through.

One thing that will help with balance and staying focused is head position. In the water, your body should assume the same position as if you were standing, only horizontal. Therefore, your head position is relatively neutral and your focus will be looking down. The key here is to be aware of what’s coming up six feet in front of you. This will help keep you swimming in a straight line and stop you from drifting over into your competitor’s lane. The more aligned your body is, the more efficient you will be in the water, as no time will be wasted in correcting body position once you’re moving with great speed through the water.

Another important factor is your hand entry position into the water. Your fingers enter the water first at the halfway point between a full arm extension and the top of your head. Keeping your hand in line with your shoulder, work towards a 170° extension of the elbow at the top of your stroke. At this point, you want to flex your wrist at 30° before you pull back, using the elbow to drive this motion. Watch out for dropped elbows – one of the hardest techniques to master – keep your elbows set high and this will drive your pull back with more power and efficiency. You can use cables/pulleys, straps or resistance bands to perfect this move.

Spend some time focusing on each component of stroke technique before moving onto the next. So, practice some drills, using only your legs to propel you through the water, while you focus on body position, head position and where your eyes are focused. Once you’ve mastered this, practice hand entry position and a 170° extension of the elbow before moving onto set elbows and wrists and pullback. This will help you perfect each stage of stroke technique without carrying any mistakes into the next stage of your stroke technique.

Originally published @ FITLODE.COM

Core Strength Exercises for Swimmers

Building and maintaining a strong core is a must for any athlete.

A strong core aids in the strength of other muscle groups and extremities. This, of course, holds especially true for swimmers. A strong torso allows a swimmer to stabilize their motion and stroke patterns while in the water. Let’s take a look at some great exercises that will help build your core strength and are simple to perform.

Abdominal Crunch

Abdominal training is an obvious way to increase core strength. Some of the most common and fundamental abdominal workouts are great for increasing a swimmer’s performance. The first exercise mentioned will be the Abdominal Crunch. First start by lying down flat on your back. Then place your hands behind your head and raise both your head and your feet slightly off the ground. This will be your starting position. Then begin to move your upper body forward by crunching your abdominal muscles. While moving forward, pull your knees towards your core. You can also add a twisting variation to your crunch by implementing a quarter twist. This is achieved by touching your elbow with your opposite knee as you complete each crunch. Rotate the direction of the twist with each crunch you perform.

Abdominal Pike

Another simple abdominal exercise is the Abdominal Pike. Start by lying down flat on your back. Then extend your arms behind your head so that your fingertips are pointing in the opposite direction of your feet. During this full stretch position, lift both your arms and legs slightly off the ground. This will be the starting position. While keeping your arms and legs straight, raise them simultaneously until they are in a vertical position. Your legs and arms should be parallel with one another at the end position of this exercise. Perform 3–5 sets of both the Abdominal Crunch and Pike, execute each set until you reach exhaustion. Remember, you can exercise your abdominal muscles multiple times in a week, unlike most muscle groups.

Jump-Squat-Jump

Our third core exercise is a variation of a squat named the Jump-Squat-Jump. Start in a standing position, with your hands behind your head and knees slightly bent. Begin the exercise by jumping from that position. While doing so, make sure to spread your feet apart before you land. Upon landing, lower your body until you are in a squatting position. From a squatting position, jump up. While in the air, bring your feet back together. Repeat these steps from the beginning. You should perform 3-–5 sets, execute each set until exhaustion.

Medicine Ball Pass

An effective core exercise that can be performed with a partner is the Medicine Ball Pass. Start with both partners sitting back to back. The partner with the medicine ball in hand, will then twist and pass it to the other partner. The partner who just received the medicine ball, will then twist in the opposite direction and pass the medicine ball back. Make sure both partners are twisting simultaneously during this exercise. Continue this until one or both partners hits the point of exhaustion.

The Medicine Ball Pass can also be performed in a standing and kneeling position. Rotate between all three positions during your regimen. Again, perform 3–5 sets of this exercise.

Since all of these exercises mentioned will be using a light amount of weight or just your own body weight for resistance, you will be performing a higher number of reps during each set. By implementing all these exercises, you will be able to strengthen your core with minimal equipment, in almost any location.

Originally published @ FITLODE.COM

Olympic Kicking Drills for Better, Faster Swimmers

Strong legs are the key to increasing strength and stamina in the water.

These Olympic kicking drills are tough and demanding and just what you need to improve your performance.

1. Using a kickboard or swim fins, these exercises are designed to enhance your training experience:
2. Increase your speed with these demanding kick drills. Kick for five minutes as fast as you can and rest for one minute. Repeat each set two to four times.
3. Kick for 25 metres, stop, then kick for another 25 metres, increasing your speed each time for a rapid set of four. Repeat each rapid set, two to four times.
4. Working your way up to 10 sets, kick as fast as you can for 100 meters, rest for 20 seconds, then kick for another 100 meters.
5. This 20-minute kicking drill will test your endurance. Alternating between 25-meter sprints and 50-meter recovery swim, kick continuously for 20 minutes.

Tips

• Do not do all of these exercises on the same day.
• Focus on the stroke you want to improve.
• Make sure you take the time you need to rest between reps until you increase your strength.

Originally published @ FITLODE.COM

Training Secrets of an Olympic Swimmer

Building strength, perfecting body mechanics and technique.

It doesn’t matter how much you train in a day, if you don’t perfect your body mechanics, it won’t make much of a difference to the finish line.

For Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, spending more time on stroke mechanics is more important than the 3 to 5 miles twice a day that he puts into his training.

The trick is to slow things down and focus on what your body is doing. Keeping straight in the water is essential, especially off the wall. Being streamlined for at least 15 meters off each flip turn, Lochte is able to transition into the stroke with increased momentum and this is key.

“The only way to really work on technique is to swim very slowly and really think about every little thing that you’re doing. How your body is positioned, what your hips are doing, the positioning of your shoulders and hands and feet.”

Body position is also crucial. Lochte recommends using a pull buoy between the legs and concentrate on keeping your stomach above the water during backstroke. Work with the water not against it.

Kicking is Key

Kicking drills are also important to develop strength and body position. The amount of kicking that most elite swimmers do in practice has gone up at least 20 percent in the past few years. Kicking drills will help you build stamina and strength, and improve performance so that you get the most out of your stroke.

That old staple, the kickboard is every swimmer’s best friend. In order to build stamina and prevent exhaustion, a swimmer must have strong legs and the kickboard is the ideal fitness tool. It helps with stability because your arms are still and allows you to focus on your legs.

In addition to his practice in the water, Lochte recognizes the benefits of weight training and the strength it adds to his overall performance. He spends three times a week in the gym and focuses on building core strength.

Core Strength

Every sport benefits from building core strength. This is especially true of an elite swimmer who relies on the agility of their torso to keep them balanced and streamlined in the water.

Lochte’s core exercises take up to 45 minutes of his workout, but 20 minutes for a recreational swimmer is enough to add power to your performance.

To warm up, Lochte likes to use a medicine ball, then it’s multiple sets of push-ups, followed by 500 abdominal crunches.

Nutrition

No training diet is complete without proper high performance nutrition. For athletes getting enough calories and protein is often a problem. During the peak of his competition, Michael Phelps consumed 12,000 calories a day. Supplementing your diet with protein powders and supplements is the best way to make sure your body gets the proper nutrients it needs. Whey protein isolate and creatine are fast-absorbing and easy to digest and provide concentrated protein formulas that help to increase muscle size and strength.

Originally published @ FITLODE.COM