By Brad Culp
May 4, 2007 -- Plenty of triathletes are willing to do whatever to takes to become faster and more efficient in the water. They join the local masters team, they do all the right drills and they listen intently to their coach’s every instruction. Even with that kind of focus, these triathletes still struggle with the opening leg.
The truth is, unless you’ve been in the pool since you were in grade school, you need more than just time in the pool to drop those swim splits. You need to develop swim-specific strength to make you slice through the water like Michael Phelps – or at least like you belong in the local triathlon.
Strengthening these very specific muscle movements often means getting out of the pool, as well as altering the sets you do in the water. Listed below are some of my favorite workouts to build these muscle groups and improve swim efficiency.
1. Pull-ups. You already know how to do them and chances are you hate them. As with everything else in sport, they get easier with time. Start by doing five sets until failure with your legs directly underneath your torso. After a few weeks, try lifting your knees up so that they’re even with your midsection. This will help you strengthen your core muscles, as well as your upper back and arms. You can alter your grip between palms-facing and palms-away for a slight variation.
2. Reverse push-ups. This is a slightly more complicated exercise. Place a barbell on a squat-rack about two-feet off the ground. Slide you body under the bar and reach up so that you’re suspended and looking up toward the ceiling. You can place your feet on the ground, or to make it harder, place your legs on a bench. Pull your midsection all the way up to the bar and then slowly lower yourself until you almost reach the ground. It should look like an upside-down push-up. Try five sets of 8-12 reps.
3. Dry-land swim simulators. These devices help you mimic a swim stroke while out of the water to build upper-back, shoulder and tricep strength. You can use a basic swim simulator, such as Stretch Cordz (www.nzmfg.com), or a more complex system, such as a Vasa Ergometer (www.vasatrainer.com), or the Halo Swim Bench (www.haloswimtraining.com). These tools allow athletes train with far greater resistance than they could in the pool. Twenty minutes with any of these tools will feel like a 4,000-meter swim workout.
4. Rowing machines (www.concept2.com). These are those strange looking machines that are tucked away in some dark corner of your local gym. It’s a shame, because one or two workouts per week on one of these and you can be one of the first athletes in T1. Start off by doing 15-20 minutes with the resistance on an easy level. Keep your spine straight, begin the motion with your legs and follow through by pulling the handle directly toward your lower-chest.
5. Swim butterfly. This is probably the last thing you wanted to hear. There’s a reason it’s so difficult – it works your body harder than any other stroke! At the end of your pool sessions, finish up with about ten 25-yard butterfly repeats. The idea is to pull as hard as possible and don’t be afraid or getting into that anaerobic zone. After a few months, your shoulders will be stronger than ever and swimming 1500-meters of freestyle will be a walk-in-the-park.
Start of this season right by ramping up your swim fitness. Utilizing just a few of the above-listed exercises can move you to the “fast lane” at your masters practice by the end of the year.
Triathlete Associate Interactive Editor Brad Culp has been a competitive swimmer for 16 years. He has an Olympic-distance swim PR of 17:50, which is way faster than his 5K run. If you have any swim-related questions, feel free to email him (brad@triathletemag.com).