Best dryland workout for swimmers? any tips to improve?

Question

I'm a 14 year old and i do swimming competitively. My times havent been improving as much and i would like tips that can help me. My friend does dryland workouts but idk wat the best dryland workouts are. And if possiable a good workout set for the pool. Short course season starts in a week and i want to make sure im in the best shape i am. Please people who swim competitively (usa swimming organization) or coaches answers only

Answer 1

i am exactly the same,except i do dryland. it really helps,cross training works differnt muscles,we do running,strecth cords and sometiems weight lift but just a little not to much to stunt growht or ruin muscles just improve them a bit. it definetly helps, do alot of abs like we do 40,40,40,40 crunchs but your legs straight on the ground likeyour just laying there and do crunches then move you legs to normal crunch postion, and then bring them up to table top and finally straight in the air,and then we do leg lifts wich help the lower abs hold on to your partner whose standing or a gate or something sturdy and bring your legs to them or the bar useing your abs. we also do bicycling which works the calves. theres lots of things to do that will help. oh and a really good set to do for im is...

400 im

4x100 free

300im

3x100 free

200im

2x100 free

it work all the strokes and helps with endurance

hope i helped enjoy swimming have fun

Answer 2

Do lots of running and push ups.

The Surfboard Man

http://www.thesurfboardman.com/

Answer 3

Yo, I'm a 14 yo competetive swimmer also.

From my years of experience, your core is really important to swimming (you know.. your abbs) But it's just as important for you to incorperate a variety of exercises.

For a DRYLAND workout, i suggesst doing the following.

1 full minute of Russian Twisters (abbs)

rest - 5 seconds

15 Catepillars (arms)

rest - 5 seconds

10 streamline jumps (legs)

rest - 10 seconds

50 cunches

rest - 10 seconds

15 push ups

rest - 15 seconds

1 minute of jumping jacs

rest - 10 seconds

repeat this set 3 times

If you choose to weight lift, do NOT go for heavy weights. Swimmers need muscle STRENGTH, not mass. To aquire this, do many reps with a smaller amount of weight (I'd say not going over 15 pounds. A good weight would be round 5 - 10 pounds)

try using bungies for your upper arms

For POOL, i'd recommend

8 50's breathing 4, 3, 2, 1

100 sprint 200 easy/moderate

(repeat 3 times)

200 IM (50 fly, 50 back, 50 breast, 50 free) 1:30

150 IM (50 fly, 50 back, 50 breast)  1:20

100 free on 1: 15

(all as one set)

100 (1:10)

200 (1: 25)

300 (1:45)

200 (1:30)

100 (1:08)

(all as one set... i don't know how fast you swim but maybe leaving 2 - 5 seconds after each 100, 200, 300.)

5 100's on 1:15 breathing every 3 stroke and NOT breathing from when between the wall and flags.

50 fly (easy)

100 fly (moderate)

50 fly (sprint)

(all as one set)

1/2 pool legnth underwater with fly undulation

25 fly moderate

1/2 pool legnth underwater with fly undulation

(all together would = 50 yrds or meters depending on your pool)

10 50's kicking REALLY REALLY HARD so there's a lot of white water on a time of 0:45 (45 seconds) per 50.

if you are practicing in a regular leisure swimming pool, so one lap without breathing and another lap breathing every 3 strokes for 20 laps

2 laps sprint, 1 lap easy (for 15 laps)

4 laps in IM order.

keep in mind workouts alone won't totally help. Effecieny and technique are important.

Some tips:

go strong into wall

breathe every 3 breathes, even if you don't have to.

keep a high elbow

don't curve your hands with scooping the water (or catch). Your hands have a natural bend to them. Use that natural bend.

Have a tight streamline from the way to travel easily through all of the turbulance from the water you made going into the wall

stretch and make yourself tall in the water on your catch (or when scopping the water) Sucking your stomach in on that wouldn't hurt either.

When startign off the blocks, keep your head down. Don't fling your arms around from your sides, either. Just shoot them up into a streamline.

kick 5 - 6 kicks underwater before reaching surface when pushing off wall

when in a flipturn, do not turn over onto your stomach right away. Kick two times on your back, and then 2 times one your side.

rock n roll (move your hips from side to side on each stroke for it will push your arms forward for you instead of excerting energy to muscle your arms forward)

Answer 4

With 15 years swimming and 8 years coaching under my belt, I've gone through a lot of different dry land programs over the years. The most effective workouts I've found for swimming are circuit workouts with different "stations". Circuit workouts using light weights are great because not only do they work a lot of different muscles, like swimming, but they also keep your breathing and heartrate up, which will benefit your overall cardio fitness for when you get in the pool. It's also a good idea to continue to do these workouts once or twice a week during your season as well to help build strength, power, balance, and flexibility.

A great circuit that I used to do incorporated a number of different exercises, most using light-medium weights or bodyweight resistance. You can always mix and match to what works best for you, or due to equipment limitations. Remember, a good dryland workout usually starts with a 8-10 minute jog to get your heart rate up and blood pumping.

I like to set up a number of stations, and allow a certain amount of time (usually 1-2 minutes at each station) and then move quickly from one station to the next with just enough time to get set up to properly perform the exercise (10-15 seconds). For each excercise, you perform as many repetitions as you can in the given time frame.

For example, you might do, pushups (wide and/or close grip), crunches / situps, bodyweight squats, rocket jumps (you drop down into a squat, extend to pushup position, back to squat and then jump as high as possible in a tight streamline = brutal), the "plank" (iso ab exercise), front/lateral shoulder raises, jump rope, lunges, medicine ball crunches and throws, tricep kickbacks, lat rows. You would go through this whole circuit at least one full time, which would be a killer 30+ minute workout depending on the time at each station.

A good way to modify the workout to suit your own individual needs is to feel what muscles you work the most when you swim, and then add more exercises to specifically target these areas with dry land training.

Performing this type of a rapid-fire circuit in my opinion is much more beneficial to overall fitness and building lean muscle than any sort of heavy weight lifting. You can really hope to improve your times throughout the course of the season if you stick with a program like this.