Dryland Conditioning to Supplement Swimming Programme

AquaticQuests

Hi People,
I've recently gone back to the gym as I continue with my swims, and I'm actively looking to try to set up a specific programme for my dryland gym activities!
Any tips or proposals for inclusion or suggestions or helpful links? Please post them here!
Thanks

Kida_Adeylne

I can only tell you what I do - I'm a novice at this.

I started bodyweight training - I hate strength training, but knew I needed to include it in some form. Swimming apparently doesn't help improve/maintain bone density, so strength training helps with that (as well as hopefully strengthening my arms and legs so I can do butterfly eventually). I do the circuit from http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2009/12/09/beginner-body-weight-workout-burn-fat-build-muscle/ (I should actually be doing it right now, not playing on the computer...)

I also started running again (two more weeks of C25K), and I do lots of walking. I don't know if it helps my swimming, but I know swimming helps my running - I have a weak right knee, but swimming improved my leg strength so that I don't need to use my knee brace for runs, or longer walks. I'm hoping running will provide extra cardio conditioning to improve endurance in the pool, as well as something I can do when forced away from the water to keep fitness up.

AquaticQuests

Here's one I came across on the USA swimming site:

BY MIKE MEJIA, M.S, C.S.C.S
Question: When I do my dryland training, is it better to separate my upper body, lower body and core? Or should I try to do more total body workouts?
 
- Matt, age 16. Long Island, New York.
 
Answer: For athletes in general, and swimmers in particular, total body workouts are definitely the way to go. Our muscles were designed to work synchronistically, in order to produce movement- not to be divided up and targeted with specific exercises. Unfortunately, thanks to the bodybuilding mentality that remains prevalent in most gyms, this is the way many athletes continue to train. Besides not promoting the kind of intramuscular coordination necessary for athletic movement, dividing the body into segments that are trained on separate days often invites imbalanced development that can lead to serious dysfunction. This is best illustrated by gym-based upper body workouts that are typically heavy on pectoral (bench presses and flyes), lat (Pull-ups, pulldowns) and shoulder work (overhead presses and lateral raises). In other words, the exact same muscle groups you're already overworking in the pool on a daily basis. The same holds true for the majority of lower body exercises which often either place too much emphasis on the quads and hip flexors (squats, leg presses, forward lunges etc.), or are too isolated in nature (leg extensions, leg curls, as well as abduction and adduction exercises). Instead, more focus needs to be directed not only to the muscles that oppose these overused actions (i.e. scapular stabilizers of the upper back, glutes, hamstrings etc.), but it needs to be done in such a way that allows for more synergistic muscle involvement.
 
The following workout offers an example of exactly what I'm talking about. It involves virtually every muscle group, and as a result, will have a tremendous amount of transfer to your efforts in the water. Not to mention the fact that since it works your entire body, you'll only need to do it 2-3 times per week- leaving you with more time to focus on improving flexibility and giving your body the recovery time it needs to help avoid injury. Give it a try. It may not help you look like Arnold, but at least it will keep you from swimming like him!
 
The following workout is to be done as a circuit- where you perform one exercise after the other with little to no rest, then break for 60-90 seconds before going around again. Aim to complete 2-3 circuits.
Reverse Lunge and Press x 6-8 per side
Renegade Rows x 6-8 per side
Russian Twists x 6-8 per side
Unilateral Romanian Deadlift x 8-10 per side
Cable Punches (Upper/ Core) x 8-10 per side
Back Extension/ Reverse Flys x 12-15
Side Bridge with reach under x 6-8 per side.
Stability Ball Leg Curls x 10-12
Direct your questions about dryland training to coach Mike Mejia at Mike@basesportsconditioning.com. Check out more great strength and conditioning information from Mike Mejia at his website,basesportsconditioning.com.

Macstraw

Thanks for starting this, AQ, I think it's something we'll all benefit from.....

Kida - keep in mind butterfly is as much (or more) about core than arms & legs.....

Kida_Adeylne

Macstraw wrote: »

Kida - keep in mind butterfly is as much (or more) about core than arms & legs.....

Oh yes, definitely. Beyond planks, I'm a little lost on specific exercises to help that, except maybe 'engaging' my core during push-ups/squats/lunges. I practice dolphin kick/undulation in the pool, and that definitely works the core.

Macstraw

Freestyle will also engage the core.....

AquaticQuests

Here's another article: http://www.training-conditioning.com/2009/11/28/strokes_of_genius/index.php

It's a long interesting article, which I won't reproduce here, but will just copy paste the last bit of it!

Every week, the swimmers have two dry-land sessions that last approximately 105 minutes each. Given our heavy training load in the water--up to eight additional sessions weekly, depending on the time of year--we believe this dry-land workload is more than adequate for addressing our strength and power needs, while not putting the athletes at risk for overuse injury. It's essential for swimming programs to consider training demands both in and out of the pool to prevent overtraining, which can hamper development and pose serious health risks.

In addition to increasing our athletes' horsepower, core strength, and balance, our dry-land program is designed to improve overall joint stability and strength. We target both primary-mover muscle groups and stabilizer groups around key joint areas.

For swimming, primary movers in the upper body include the triceps, biceps, deltoids, pectoralis major and minor, and latissimus dorsi. The key stabilizers include the levator scapulae, rhomboids, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres major, and teres minor. Strengthening these smaller stabilizers not only builds a stronger joint and foundation from which to develop power, but also reduces the risk of injury.

The shoulders in particular withstand a great deal of stress throughout a swimmer's career, making them especially susceptible to overload and injury. The nature of swimming places the most intense stresses on the ventral side of the body, resulting in overdeveloped frontal musculature. To offset these strength imbalances and help protect our swimmers from injury, our strength regimen targets the dorsal stabilizers.

These same stress and imbalance issues do not apply equally to the lower body. While the hip and knee joints are important in swimming, they are subject to less stress than the shoulders overall. However, maintaining the health of these joints is still important, so our strength program targets hip adductors, abductors, and rotators, including the sartorius, pectineus, gracilis, gluteal muscles, and tensor fasciae latae.


Sidebar: DRY-LAND SESSION
This breakdown shows the exercises used in a typical dry-land training workout for the swimmers at Denison University.

15 minutes: Dynamic warmup
Activities include:
Jogging
Arm swings
Side steps
Lunges
Trunk rotations

30 minutes: Ring training
Activities include:
Dips
Trunk rotations
Pull-ups
Body rows
Hand stands

30 minutes: Weightroom work
Activities include:
Bench presses
Power cleans
Overhead presses
Lat pulls
Leg adduction
Cable cross punches and pulls

20 minutes: Plyometrics and abdominals
Activities include:
Vertimax exercises
Step training

10 minutes: Static stretching and cooldown
Activities include:
Easy walking with arm swings
Shoulder stretches
Abdominal/lower back stretches
Triceps stretches
Hamstring/groin stretches
Forearm/wrist stretches

Robertus

This is a really cool thread!

NoelFigart1

My swim coach wants me to start lifting weights and doing some core work. I've been dilly-dallying about it, but I think I've procrastinated long enough and really need to do a couple of full body workouts a couple of times a week.

I LIKE weights, mind, but I hadn't expected my swimming hobby to be quite as time-consuming as it has become.

On the other hand, I can finally do flip turns and this makes me happy.