Category: Weightlifting

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Mexican National Record Setter Joins Forces with Faster Swimming Coach for Custom Daily Workout Plan

COLUMBUS, Ohio (October 30, 2019) — A 14-year-old swimmer from Mexico City has her eyes on Olympic gold after setting a Mexican national record time in the 50-meter butterfly using the innovative Faster Swimming 19-week training plan.

Athena Meneses-Kovacs, coached by her father Andres Meneses, set the record at the 2019 FINA Junior World Swimming Championship Aug. 23 in Budapest, Hungary, completing the 50-meter butterfly in :26.74, breaking the record she set the day before when she finished in :26.78. The previous Mexican national record was :26.97, which was set in 2016.

To achieve her Olympic dreams in Tokyo in 2020, Athena, along with Coach Meneses, will use a daily training plan custom designed by Faster Swimming co-founder and veteran swim coach Brad Burget.

The Faster Swimming training products, which Athena started using in November 2018, have been integral to Athena’s success, says Coach Meneses.

“From the moment I started training her, I started studying everything I could: books, videos, reports, other coaches’ training methods,” Coach Meneses said. “I started studying daily and then I found the Faster Swimming 19-Week Sprint Training Program.”

“I was excited to learn of Athena’s record-setting performance using the Faster Swimming training program,” Burget said. “When she and her father asked me to design a personal program to help get her to Tokyo in 2020, it was an honor. I’m so proud that Faster Swimming will be a part of this young woman’s Olympic training regimen.”

Athena has been competing in the Junior World Swimming Championship since she was 10, but it has only been in the past year when she started training with Faster Swimming’s 19-week program, that her career has taken off, earning five gold and three bronze medals in competition.

For more information on Faster Swimming’s 19-Week Sprint Training Program contact Burget at info@fasterswimming.com, or visit fasterswimming.com to check out the entire library of Faster Swimming training products.

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Faster Swimming was founded by Brad Burget as a source for innovative training programs for swimmers at all levels. Brad brings more than 35 years as a swim coach at high school, age group, masters and collegiate levels. John Coffman, who contributes to the strength training in the line of materials from Faster Swiming, is a coach of three separate sports (swimming and diving, track and field, and cross-country) at the high school level, and is also a certified personal trainer. Together they bring their bank of knowledge to the Faster Swimming line of training aides to make every swimmer the best athlete they can be.

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23 Week Program and Weightlifting, Dryland & Yoga

Lifting aerobically for swimmers isn’t needed. You already get your aerobic needs from the pool and or running. Cross training is great and do just that – Cross train!

Lifting is for speed and power as described in the FasterSwimming eBook. When you weight lift you are elevating your heart rate and are actually achieving a small base of aerobic conditioning.

If you have had a long break and need to ease into work-outs then please ease into it. Give yourself goals, with the best goal being longevity for exercise. If you attack it – it’ll be harder to maintain motivation.

I am going to elaborate on the 23 week program in FasterSwimming and your incorporation of weightlifting, dryland and yoga. If you follow the program you’ll lift twice a week, do dryland twice a week and yoga once. You need to add yoga at least during the taper phase for whole body strength and flexibility. It is also great for pre-season training. Start off with doing yoga as part of your dryland regime or begin with yoga as your dryland regime. When you have flexibility and feel stronger add more intense dryland and then start weightlifting. When you begin planning your weightlifting, dryland and yoga exercises you need to start with an emphasis on legs as they take the longest to get into shape and need more rest at the end of the season. Legs are neglected by all and drive speed. You must fight your desire not to work the legs. Legs will set you apart, drive the speed in swimming, give you a faster start and turn, better fly kick off the walls and create and maintain momentum.

When choosing your weightlifting daily program choose accordingly as outlined. You can mix it up between Whole body, Upper body and Lower body exercises either by set or alternate within sets. That is consistent with your swimming workouts. If you emphasize legs during weightlifting then have a recovery kick set during your swim work-out and the same pattern for Upper and Lower body exercises. Choose accordingly to coordinate all your workouts as you don’t want too much of one thing during the day. You need to alternate either by set or within each set as this is one of the essential guidelines to faster swimming. You alternate Upper and Lower body parts always to force recovery of the opposite body part emphasis as well as increase quality of the body part being worked.

When lifting and trying to maintain speed remember safety and the mechanics of each lift. Don’t just throw the weight in the air to ensure speed. You wouldn’t spin your arms in the water without controlled speed and efficiency through the water. Just remember this concept. Your controlled speed will develop over time just keep focus.

Dryland emphasis is mainly whole body working your core always with upper and lower body support muscles. Develop in conjunction with weightlifting, yoga and especially your swimming.

When you begin the 7 week taper your weightlifting, dryland, yoga, and swimming are all focused on developing speed and power while maintaining your aerobic base. Week three you’ll notice changes in your training requirements with the slow resting of your legs. (The weightlifting taper workouts are outlined on pages 78-81 and the dryland taper workouts are outlined on pages 113-117 of the FasterSwimming eBook.) Remember to specify to your yoga instructor to hold the leg poses for less time, possibly do them at the beginning of the work-out and do recovery stretching. The taper outline explains when you should focus on speed work. THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD STOP TRYING TO GET STRONGER! Strength helps produce speed. Do a few warm-up sets of your desired exercise then try a set or two of one repetition maximizing your weight, then stretch or do a recovery swim if you can. Get a massage or sit in the hot tub maybe on weeks 5 or 6. A full body massage if done correctly will take a few days to recover from so don’t do it the day before your big swim. Hot tubs will sap your energy so hydrate and use the hot tub for recovery well in advance of your big swim.

You should also limit your weightlifting and dryland exercises to about 30 minutes while increasing your yoga and stretching to 60 minutes. Maintain 45 minute sessions of each during the season. Recovery swimming after each would be great if you have the facility and the time. If you decide to do dryland during week 7 then add a +/- 20 minute session to maintain core strength before yoga or swimming. This is a great way to help the fast twitch muscles recover especially if you have just finished one of your championship meets.

If you have noticed from reading this article, recovery is essential to your faster swimming.

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Weight Lifting / Training Guidlines

WEIGHT LIFTING / TRAINING GUIDELINES
FOR SWIMMERS

1. When the core of your training is aerobic you don’t need to lift aerobically. You are lifting for speed and strength.
2. Flexibility is key especially after lifting. Stretching after any lifting to increase blood flow which aids in recovery. You must remain flexible in swimming and maintain your full range of motion.
3. Always lift your larger muscle groups first when organizing your work-out routine. Basic Guideline: Day 1 Back with bi-ceps and one leg exercise and 15 minutes of ab work. Day 2 Chest with tri-ceps, finish legs. Take one or two days off or do Legs and Abs on a third day and not with day 1 or 2.
4. You don’t have to be sore to increase your power and that definitely hinders speed. Example of how to work thru set( chest exercise):
Let’s say your begin doing flat bench warm-up with 135lbs. Begin with 2-3 sets warm-up with this weight doing +/- 8 reps, now lets begin. As you increase your weight you must maintain the speed of each lift, for example if you increase your weight to 155lbs and did 5 reps total and 4 of them maintained speed and you struggled with the 5th rep you should have stopped at 4 reps. Now increase the weight and try for 2-3 reps maintaining your speed. Remember that we are training you for power and speed, working your fast twitch muscles. If you are more of a distance swimmer this will only help your training.
5. Lifting is cross training and is essential for full body strength, power and speed. It is old school to lift aerobically if you train 2-6 hours a day aerobically in the pool. You eventually reach an aerobic threshold and then the rest of your training is useless. An example of aerobic lifting would be 3-5 sets with 10-15 reps or circuit training where you spend 30 seconds or more at stations, sound familiar ? That type of training has a purpose but not when you are getting your aerobic training from swimming, maybe pre-season for starts.
6. Cross-training sports is good for some athletes. The only time to really worry about cross training will be when you are resting for a meet or in the taper phase or your season for the season end championships. Example, don’t start running during a taper especially if you are in conditioning phase of another sport or throwing if you are in softball or baseball. Things to consider as they will impact your swimming performance greatly. Start your other sports after championships!!!!!
7. Distance swimmers gain from lifting for speed and power. You are training for the mile and your coach is preparing you in the pool. Lifting as prescribed is a great form of cross training that will not only help your power and speed but help in recovery from all your slow twitch muscle work.
8. There is a local team that over-trains swimmers and forces bad weight lifting mechanics upon its swimmers. I was asking them about their weight lifting program and he told me that they push multiple reps to ultimate failure. Does any coach even old school do that ? NO ! They give hard sets but you are always able to finish to the wall and complete the set. Do you ever pass out or sink to the bottom ? Then why would you train that way in the weight room. The problem is that most coaches don’t understand how weight lifting, body strength, speed and power work to help swimmers.
9. Weight lifting is one dryland component of training as is swimming. Pilates, Yoga and any exercise regime that increases full body strength needs to be included in your dryland routine.
10. Each person has a certain muscle make-up that helps pre-determine success for particular events and if a coach doesn’t try to recognize individual differences then true success or full potential will never be known. In short there are fast twitch and slow twitch muscles in everyone and each person has a different percentage of each. The hard part on coaching is trying to recognize the tendencies. Long distance training or over yardage will reinforce the slow twitch muscles and slow down the fast twitch fibers of that swimmer and the swimmer that is predisposed slow twitch will reach his or her full potential. Weight training correctly will help maintain the fast twitch fibers thru-out this type of program. Remember there is no need to lift aerobically as you are getting all you need and more in practice. There is an aerobic threshold for each swimmer and program that each coach needs to recognize for each training group. What is that yardage number is yet to be determined and hasn’t been studied enough yet. Once this yardage figure is reached the remainder of practice aerobically is useless. I would place the figure to be around 7,500 +/- yards per work-out. Once a swimmer is in aerobic shape and this can be determined by max heart rate sets based on time after set is complete for full recovery. The faster the recovery to resting heart rate the better shape the swimmer is in aerobically. The heart rate set must be completed using a set that is a slow build in speed that utilizes slow twitch fibers as they recover faster due to their size and energy demands on the body. Now if a swimmer is predisposed to fast twitch you may begin his or her training. I have developed a 9 week weight lifting program that would start during the finish phase of getting swimmers in shape aerobically and continue thru the print phase of training or as some prefer to say the beginning of taper and finish with a 4 week speed work taper that all finishes with the championship meet. You must have some sort of speed work in every practice even if it for 10 minutes at the end of each practice or trailing warm-up. You can’t let the fast twitch of any swimmer to be detrained at any phase of your season.
11. Coaches must remember the key ingredient to this whole program is based on training swimmers for the exact event. Most coaches still believe that training swimmers for the mile will prepare you for the 500. I believe that training swimmers for the mile will prepare them for the mile and hurt the speed needed for the 500. I said speed for the 500 and speed and power are part of each event. Training for the 50, 100 and 200’s take more speed and power but it one of the important components of training after a swimmer is in shape aerobically. Please remember that while you are in the aerobic phase of training that speed work must always be worked in the work-out and the basis for your lifting program.
12. I have had a handful of swimmers that came from programs that over-trained and were in excellent aerobic shape but had no speed and power and never trained for specific events. It took about 6-8 months to get these swimmers to train with quality for each event and develop speed since their muscle memory needed to be changed while trying to figure out their muscle fiber make-up.
13. Kicking drives speed and needs to be a larger part of practice and slow controlled kicking works while using correct body position without using kickboards.

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Weight Lifting must continue during taper and athletic peaking

If you lift you must taper lifting also. Do not stop lifting or the benefits of your cross training will be lost.  You must work on speed while continuing to gain strength. The Faster Swimming coach’s guide shows an exact practice schedule for lifting during taper as well as detailed dryland workouts during this crucial phase. 

If you need help tailoring your program please email me @ brad@fasterswimming.com

Athletic Peaking

Athletic peaking, when you are in top shape, results in your best performances of the season. At this time fitness is at the highest level, while fatigue is at the lowest. This is the one time of the season that fatigue should in no way mask fitness. Your peak occurs when you are ready to perform at your best physically (fitness, skills, reactions…) and psychologically (strategy, focus, intent…). Peaking for sport is no accident, but rather the culmination of training, competitions, tactics and regeneration that has been planned for. 

A peaking period can be as long as several weeks or as short as several days, so defining your peaking period and planning accordingly is critical. No new stimuli of any significant intensity should be introduced at this time, and training methods (psychological, physical, and technical) must be specific to the demands of competition. Complete regeneration of all required physical capacities; such as speed, strength, and power; is paramount. These levels should all be at their highest during a peaking phase. While volume most often drops significantly and rest periods increase during a taper, some portion of training intensity MUST remain high to facilitate peak performances. To maintain an extended peak, appropriate intensity must remain in your training at some level throughout the peaking period. 

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Weight Lifting During Taper

Coaches – please remember when the core of your training is aerobic you don’t need to lift with an aerobic agenda. Your swimmers are raising their heart rate a lot more than you think while lifting so just lift for speed and strength. Make sure that your swimmers maintain flexibility after lifting. Stretching after any lifting will increase blood flow which aids in recovery. Your swimmers must remain flexible in swimming and maintain your full range of motion.

Always lift your larger muscle groups first when organizing your work-out routine. Basic Guideline: Day 1 Back with biceps and one leg exercise and 15 minutes of ab work. Day 2 Chest with triceps, finish with legs. Take one or two days off or do Legs and Abs on the third day and not with day 1 or 2. Remember that you don’t have to be sore to increase your power and that definitely hinders speed.

Example of how to work thru set (chest exercise):

Let’s say you begin doing flat bench warm-up with 135 lbs. Begin with 2-3 sets warm-up with this weight doing +/- 8 reps, now let’s begin. As you increase your weight you must maintain the speed of each lift, for example, if you increase your weight to 155 lbs and did 5 reps total and 4 of them maintained speed and you struggled with the 5th rep you should have stopped at 4 reps. Now increase the weight and try for 2-3 reps maintaining your speed. Remember that we are training you for power and speed, working your fast twitch muscles. If you are more of a distance swimmer this will only help your training.

Lifting is cross training and is essential for full body strength, power, and speed. It is old school to lift aerobically if you train 2-6 hours a day aerobically in the pool. You eventually reach an aerobic threshold and then the rest of your training is useless. An example of aerobic lifting would be 3-5 sets with 10-15 reps or circuit training where you spend 30 seconds or more at stations, sound familiar? That type of training has a purpose but not when you are getting your aerobic training from swimming, maybe pre-season for starts.

Make sure your athletes aren’t starting preseason training for another sport when you are trying to taper them for Championships. The only time to really worry about cross training will be when you are resting for a meet or in the taper phase or your season for the season end championships. Example, don’t start running during a taper especially if you are in conditioning phase of another sport or throwing if you are in softball or baseball. Things to consider as they will impact your swimming performance greatly. Start other sports after championships.

Understanding how to rest legs through weight training and kicking is key to performance!

Distance swimmers gain from lifting for speed and power. When training for the mile your coach is preparing you in the pool. Lifting as prescribed is a great form of cross-training that will not only help power and speed but help in recovery from all the slow twitch muscle work.

There is a local team that over-trains swimmers and forces bad weightlifting mechanics upon its swimmers. I was asking them about their weight lifting program and he told me that they push multiple reps to ultimate failure. Does any coach even old school, train that way? HOPE NOT! Do coaches ever give hard swim sets where swimmers don’t finish to the wall and complete the set? Do your swimmers ever pass out or sink to the bottom? Then why would you train that way in the weight room?

Each person has a certain muscle make-up that helps pre-determine success for particular events and if a coach doesn’t try to recognize individual differences then true success or full potential will never be known. In short, there are fast twitch and slow twitch muscles in everyone and each person has a different percentage of each. The hard part on coaching is trying to recognize the tendencies. Long distance training or over yardage will reinforce the slow twitch muscles and slow down the fast twitch fibers of that swimmer and the swimmer that is predisposed slow twitch will reach his or her full potential. Weight training correctly will help maintain the fast twitch fibers thru-out this type of program. Remember there is no need to lift aerobically as you are getting all you need and more in practice. There is an aerobic threshold for each swimmer and program that each coach needs to recognize for each training group. What is that yardage number is yet to be determined and hasn’t been studied enough yet? Once this yardage figure is reached the remainder of practice aerobically is useless. I would place the figure to be around 7,500 +/- yards per work-out. Once a swimmer is in aerobic shape and this can be determined by max heart rate sets based on time after the set is complete for a full recovery. The faster the recovery to resting heart rate the better shape the swimmer is in aerobically. The heart rate set must be completed using a set that is a slow build in speed that utilizes slow twitch fibers as they recover faster due to their size and energy demands on the body. Now if a swimmer is predisposed to fast twitch you may begin his or her training. I have developed a 9-week weightlifting program that would start during the finish phase of getting swimmers in shape aerobically and continue thru the sprint phase of training or as some prefer to say the beginning of taper and finish with a 4-week speed work taper that all finishes with the championship meet. You must have some sort of speed work in every practice even if it for 10 minutes at the end of each practice or trailing warm-up. You can’t let the fast twitch of any swimmer to be detrained at any phase of your season.

Coaches please remember the key ingredient to this whole program is based on training swimmers for the exact event. Most coaches still believe that training swimmers for the mile will prepare you for the 500. I believe that training swimmers for the mile will prepare them for the mile and hurt the speed needed for the 500. I said speed for the 500 and speed and power are part of each event. Training for the 50, 100 and 200’s take more speed and power but it one of the important components of training after a swimmer is in shape aerobically. Please remember that while you are in the aerobic phase of training that speed work must always be worked in the work-out and the basis for your lifting program.

The Faster Swimming Strength program and support videos will help you taper lifting with your swimming for Championships!

 

Good Luck at Champs!

Brad

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Peaking Pointers for Coaches

As we approach peaking season for our swimmers we want to keep the focus on process, not outcome, just as we should for the majority of the season.  Below are some basic points of reference for coaches to keep in mind no matter what the level of our swimmers.  Swimmers, just like any other athletes, can get a little skittish as we near the big meets of the season, and we can help them be confident in our programming by being able to explain our programming.

We should be training race speed, maintaining conditioning

We judge swimming competition by who touches the wall first, not who has the prettiest technique.  That is not to say that we want to toss technique by the wayside, but to say that we want to practice our technique as best we can at race speeds.  This goes for stroke technique, starts, underwaters, breakouts – everything.  Full speed training also requires a rest period that is long enough to hold speed for whatever repeats you are doing for a given set.  As we get closer and closer to big meets these rest periods should increase between hard efforts so that all of our swimmers can have their true fitness levels fully unmasked from their fatigue levels.

Our upper-level groups generally go by a Hi/Lo system per training week as we roll through our peaking phase.  Hi intensity days have us training goal race pace (100 or 200) for short intervals (ex 6×50 @ 200 goal rp on 1:00).  We focus on time, pace and tempo more than anything on these days.  Lo intensity days have us maintaining our aerobic base and working on skills at speed for short distances and plenty of rest.  We tend to then alternate Hi/Lo workouts, and if it looks like anyone needs more recovery, we give it to them!  For instance, this week we had Sunday as a Hi intensity effort day, Monday as a Lo aerobic and skills day, Tuesday as a Hi intensity sprint/distance day, Wed as a Lo aerobic and skills day, Thursday will be a Hi intensity sprint day (with lots of rest), Friday will be Lo aerobic and skills day for pre-meet and then we have HS tournament swim competitions on Saturday.

Sharpening skills, not just doing drills 

Drills have their place in training, largely early on in the season and then as a reminder of technique as we move through the season.  At the end of the season we should all be helping our swimmers sharpen their skill sets so that they can perform on race day.  This often requires more work at short distances, at full speed or close to it.  Always remember that drills are a conduit to skills and only serve the purpose of fulfilling a need, and that the end of the season is the time to sharpen our current skill sets most importantly.

Physically strong, mentally tough

Maximal strength is the base of all other types of physical strength, and as we near our peaking phase we want to maintain maximal strength and train speed-strength.  We want to maintain our strength so that we can continue to pull as much water as possible, to remain as durable (and injury-free) as possible, and to be at our strongest ever on race day.  As we enter our peaking phase we also want to reinforce and train speed-strength, which we do by using fast lifts, quick dryland movements, and some reactive med ball work.  Maintaining our general strength abilities while training our nervous system to become more reactive for our biggest meets is something that most teams do not do, but imo all teams should do.

Along with physical strength we must also reinforce mental strength & toughness for our swimmers.  Coaches are a conduit for our swimmers mental strategies by giving solid & direct race plans, by being encouraging in regard to competition and racing, and by helping swimmers hone their skill sets, tempo and pacing so that their biggest races can come together more easily at the biggest meets.  We want our swimmers to go after their races with determination(!) and to respect but never fear their competitors.  Swimmers should again focus on the process (competing) rather than the outcome (times), and if a swimmer is ready and geared up for a tough race, their best times will come.  Top competitors also do all that is required in regard to warm up and cool down consistently to achieve a consistently high performance level, and this is a typical habit of the mentally tough.

Pay attention to what the swimmers are telling you!

I don’t only mean what the swimmers are actually saying, but what their bodies are telling you perhaps more than their words.  As mentioned above, some swimmers will need a little more rest than others and that should be accounted for at practices leading into big meets.  If a swimmer’s stroke looks sluggish, maybe give them a tempo trainer, and if that does not help maybe let them do every-other rep of whatever the set may be.  If their kick is looking slow and their legs are tired let them pull some or all of a set.  Be willing to make individual adjustments at the end of the season to help each of our swimmers consolidate the gains from all of their hard work this season.  Sometimes just a little added rest at the end of a long season of hard training can make a difference.  An old saying that I have always liked is “The hay is in the barn,” which for swimming means the majority of hard efforts are through, and now it is time to hone our speed and skills so that we can compete at our highest possible level at our biggest meet(s) of the season.

We want all of our swimmers to reap the rewards from what they have earned by way of their hard, consistent efforts this season.  The real magic ending to any season comes by way of these season-long, hard, consistent efforts – and it is up to us as coaches to enable this magic to happen as much as we are able to at the end of each season.  Please keep the above ideas in mind as you structure your practices and speak to your swimmers, be positive at meets no matter what the outcome, and, especially at end of the season meets – just as we want our swimmers to do – please Have Fun, Learn, and Compete (well, at least be in a competitive mindset : )

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Complexes Strength AND Conditioning with weights

Complexes are several exercises performed in a row, with no break in between. Complexes are really just extended super-sets where you don’t put down the bar or DB’s until you are through. A short example would be a row – clean – press – squat… 2 x 8, where you’d do 8 reps of rows, then 8 reps of cleans, then 8 reps of presses, then 8 reps of squats. Take a short break (1-3 min.+/-), and then repeat for set #2.

Barbell (BB) or Dumbbell (DB) complexes can be used to increase work capacity, improve total-body and core strength, and blast fat off of your entire body. Complexes might also make you feel like you’ll puke, and they for SURE will improve your athleticism. You don’t need a ton of weight to get a good effect, and you can use just about anything to do a complex with. General guidelines for weights to use would be 35 – 75 lbs. for ladies and 65- 105 lbs. for guys, and you can obviously adjust this up or down as needed. You can do complexes with a BB or DB’s, with a med ball, with a 45 lb. plate, or even with a suitcase or a cinder block! Whatever is available can work.

One of the keys to complexes, as with any resistance work, is to continually progress… so add weight, add reps, decrease rest between sets, and/or move faster through the complex in order to continually progress! Complexes are meant to be a hard effort, so if it feels easy, add progression(s)!!

At the end of a workout 1 or 2 complexes are plenty, and if complexes are your main workout, 4 to 6 total sets are the norm. Doing 6 or more complexes in a single workout is hard. Some example sets are listed below, and by all means, be creative and make up some of your own sets. And remember, you won’t be putting the bar down if you do these correctly, so a little chalk might be a good idea.

Good Luck!

UFC Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Bent Rows
High Pulls
Standing Press
Ski Squat
Lunge
Squat & Press
Stiff-leg Deadlift

WWF Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Snatch
Front Squat
Power Clean
Back Squat
Push Press
Stiff-leg Deadlift
Hang Clean & Jerk

Swim Complex – 8 to 10 reps each

Bent Row
Hang Clean
Front Squat & Push Press
Good Morning
Ski Squat

Track Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Stiff-leg Deadlift
Hang Clean & Front Squat & Push Press
Step-back Lunge
Bent Row
Un-weighted Jumps

Jumpers Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Stiff-leg Deadlift
High Pull
Clean & Squat
Standing Press
Un-weighted Jump Lunge
Un-weighted Jumps

Legs & Shoulders Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Un-weighted Jumps
Squat
Squat with :10 pause at the bottom (ouch!)
Standing Press
Push Press
Front Squat & Press

Pull Better Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Stiff-leg Deadlift
Deadlift
Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Good Morning

Speed Complex – 6 to 8 reps each

Snatch-grip Deadlift
Snatch-grip High Pull
Clean
Step-back Lunge
Push Jerk (split)
Un-weighted Jumps
Now be creative and make up some of your own below.

 

Name it:_______________________

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

etc..

Name it:_______________________

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
  • by John Coffman, FasterSwimming.com Contributing Writer 
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How Strong is Strong Enough?

There are many types of measurable strength – maximal strength, speed-strength, strength endurance, relative strength, starting strength, etc, etc. – that can factor into your sport performance abilities. Training with weights or heavy objects is not the end-goal of too many sports; Power lifting, Olympic lifting, and Strongman being the main exceptions. Training with weights CAN, however, provide protection from injury, allow a greater display of force and/or speed in your sport performance, and improve your general conditioning (GPP) and work capacity. All of these factors lead to improved sport results, and can be improved upon through weight training.

So how do you best fit this into your sport training? Well, we’ve written a book on this and it’s included in the Faster Swimming Manual, so the following description is basic…Our Training recommendations involve lifting heavy weights, lifting moderate weights explosively, and lifting moderate weights for higher repetitions. Heavy lifting increases maximal and starting strength; explosive lifting increases speed-strength and force production; repletion lifting increases strength endurance and work capacity. Relative strength is your strength level in relation to your own body and is addressed in our program in the weight room (pull-ups, dips, hanging leg raise, etc) and in the dryland program – which also focuses on strength endurance, core strength, and to an even greater degree on work capacity and active range of movement. All of these methods will lead to some degree of muscle gain (hypertrophy) which further increases your capacity to produce useable force in your sport. One of the basic principles at work within all of this is that of progressive overload; you must continually and progressively increase loads (poundage and/or speed) to adapt to a higher level.

Injury prevention can also be addressed with weight training. Training with weights in a balanced program will lead to greater overall body-strength and control, which leads to more efficient and coordinated movement which leads to fewer injuries. Specific injury-prone areas for a given sport can also be addressed and strengthened as needed. Using swimming as an example, the shoulders are a frequent site of injury. Injury prevention can be addressed through specific exercises (Cuban press, faces pull, pull-ups, rack pull-ups, pullovers, etc) and through repetition and movement work with bands (internal/external rotation, distraction, etc.).

All of this can be fit into brief (around 1 hour) workouts, done 2-4x per week, to increase your durability and sport performance – which you can learn more about here (link).

So, back to the original question – How strong is “strong enough”? As long as weight training is not interfering with sport practice and/or competition, it is our view that you can always improve performance by getting stronger. Again – the end-goal is increased performance in your sport, and being able to display more force and speed while lessening your chance of injury will lead to this. Combine this type of weight training with appropriate and balanced sport training and you are on your way to improved performance!!

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Athletic Peaking

Athletic peaking, when you are in top shape, results in your best performances of the season. At this time fitness is at the highest level, while fatigue is at the lowest. This is the one time of the season that fatigue should in no way mask fitness. Your peak occurs when you are ready to perform at your best physically (fitness, skills, reactions…) and psychologically (strategy, focus, intent…). Peaking for sport is no accident, but rather the culmination of training, competitions, tactics and regeneration that has been planned for.

A peaking period can be as long as several weeks or as short as several days, so defining your peaking period and planning accordingly is critical. No new stimuli of any significant intensity should be introduced at this time, and training methods (psychological, physical, and technical) must be specific to the demands of competition. Complete regeneration of all required physical capacities; such as speed, strength, and power; is paramount. These levels should all be at their highest during a peaking phase. While volume most often drops significantly and rest periods increase during a taper, some portion of training intensity MUST remain high to facilitate peak performances. To maintain an extended peak, appropriate intensity must remain in your training at some level throughout the peaking period.

  • by John Coffman, FasterSwimming.com Contributing Writer
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Weightlifting Guidelines for Swimmers

These guidelines are taken from Section 8 of Faster Swimming. You can also purchase the Cross Training section from Faster Swimming here:

1. When the core of your training is aerobic you don’t need to lift aerobically. Lift for speed and strength.

2. Flexibility work is key especially after lifting. Stretching after lifting increases blood flow which aids in recovery. You must maintain your flexibility for swimming and retain full range of motion.

3. Large, compound, multi-joint exercises (i.e. the deadlift) should go first in a weight training program designed to improve athletic performance

4. Lift for improved performance, not to induce soreness. Unnecessary soreness will not only hinder general recovery but reduce power and speed in the water.

5. Maintain bar speed throughout your lifting.

6. Lifting is for total body strength, improved nervous system function and increased power and speed. Lifting must compliment your swim training and will improve your swimming performance.

7. Do not lift to muscular failure. It is old school to lift aerobically if you train 2-6 hours a day aerobically in the pool. You eventually reach an aerobic threshold and then the rest of your training is useless.

8.  Distance swimmers will gain speed and power from lifting. Lifting as prescribed here is a great form of cross training that will not only help your power and speed but help in recovery from all your slow twitch swim work.

9. You must remember the key ingredient to this whole program is based on training for the exact event. Lifting for speed and strength should be the basis of any lifting program. Most coaches don’t understand how weight lifting, body strength, speed and power work to help swimmers.

10. Weight lifting is one dryland component of swim training. Deck-based dryland, active stretching, yoga or any exercise regime that increases whole-body strength can be included in your complete training program.

11. Each person has a certain muscle make-up that helps pre-determine success for particular events and if a coach doesn’t try to recognize individual differences then true success or full potential will never be known. In short there are fast twitch and slow twitch muscles in everyone and each person has a different percentage.

12.  I have had a handful of swimmers that came from programs that over-trained and were in excellent aerobic shape but had no speed and power or ever trained for specific events. It took about 6-8 months to get these swimmers to train with speed and power (quality for each event). This can be accomplished through weightlifting.

13. Kicking drives speed and power comes from dryland. This needs to be a larger part of practice. Add slow controlled kicking while using correct body position without kickboards as an alternate way to kick in practice.