CrossFit Endurance

That just sounds like swim specific drylands to me, not CrossFit. CrossFit doesn't have a monopoly on basic exercises like burpees or squats or jumps. You are right, they don't. I guess they are swimmer specific drylands, with a definite crossfit feel (or what I have come to imagine crossfit as being). We might do excercises more geared towards swimmers, but it will be quick circuit, do as many rounds as possible in X minutes or do X number of rounds of Y number of excercises going :45 on :15 off. Sledgehammer smashers, parallettes, weighted jump rope, these are all things I come to associate with crossfit, not any other dryland experience I ever had previously in swimming. The mix of exercises and style of circuit are crossfit(ish).

PS - I got an e-mail notification of a response from JazzHands that seems to have disappeared now. I hope you didn't think I would be offended or anything. I actually laughed heartily and agreed with you!! No I think I just misunderstood the thing you're talking about. I was thinking it was more of a general endurance program, but it's supposedly designed for swimming so, hey, at least they're trying... Still I don't trust Crossfitters or Triathletes or anyone else who thinks they are "fit" to tell me how to train.

So I watched one of the videos (Swim WOD). Probably the worst attempted swim training I've ever seen. You can tell just by looking at the guy that he is a bad swimmer. I looked closely to figure out why. Probably the bug-eye goggles and the baggy shorts. Terrible dive. Terrible 50. It was so slow the middle was excised from the video. Enough swimming, bro. Let's clean and press the world's lightest dumbbells, while wearing goggles. Rowing machine, while wearing goggles. Another terrible dive. End of video. I presume he drowned. Where's the video?:banana:

His lats look nice, anyway, especially in comparison to his tiny waist. If you want lats that look like his, maybe you should do whatever he does. OTOH, if you want lats that work like a swimmer's, you probably need to swim more (and more carefully) than he does.

So I watched one of the videos (Swim WOD). Probably the worst attempted swim training I've ever seen. You can tell just by looking at the guy that he is a bad swimmer. I looked closely to figure out why. Probably the bug-eye goggles and the baggy shorts. Terrible dive. Terrible 50. It was so slow the middle was excised from the video. Enough swimming, bro. Let's clean and press the world's lightest dumbbells, while wearing goggles. Rowing machine, while wearing goggles. Another terrible dive. End of video. I presume he drowned.

Yeah, the bucket drill I'm not really in to. I did that enough in HS to know I have no desire to do it now. It's mostly the training/programming/scheduling/workouts aspect of the program that I was hoping someone else had any experience with. As far as my goals go - It was my goal to get back in the pool, train as hard as I possibly could and just see what my times would be. Not as in 'wait and see what happens' but to see what my full potential would be if I made a full commitment (training, diet, sleep, mobility, all of it) for 3 months until the state meet. It turns out I qualified for nationals so that time frame turned into 4 months. But apparently my form isn't great and my 29 year old body isn't nearly as forgiving as my 18 year old one was. I've been out for a few weeks already with rib issues so my original plan is already pretty much out the window. I'm now considering staying in the water until summer nationals which would give me an extra 2 months. But I still don't know when I can get back in and what kind of success I would have on the CFE program in that time frame. It's a LOT more dryland work (CrossFit stuff) with some high-intensity lower-volume swimming. Which I'm not happy about at all. I'd rather be in the pool as much as I can. But that traditional style training isn't doing good things for me. The workout listed on the blogs is just the main set for each day. I would still do a ton of skill work and work on my form during warm-up/swim down and I'm sure a few other little sets I won't be able to help myself from throwing in. PS - I got an e-mail notification of a response from JazzHands that seems to have disappeared now. I hope you didn't think I would be offended or anything. I actually laughed heartily and agreed with you!!

Where's the video?:banana: Swim WOD? on Vimeo Enjoy?

My older brother has been an avid CrossFitter since 2006 or 2007. He first learned the program in the military, where it is quite popular as I understand it. I thought it could be interesting to try out, so in the spring of 2008 I took 10 personal sessions with a certified trainer to learn the ropes. At the time, I was also swimming heavily. My assessment: I find CrossFit workouts to be extremely challenging and exhausting. The constant rotation of muscle groups lends itself to the body never really adjusting to the workload. As a result, I had some horrendous practices the same days I did a WOD. I'm sure it would have gotten somewhat better/easier if I went longer than 3-4 weeks, but honestly I didn't want to pay the $100/mo fee. The trainer was nothing short of awesome and the environment was pretty cool, but I wasn't convinced it was going to help me. In fact, I think it is probably detrimental if you're a distance swimmer. I don't think I could recover properly between workouts and have good practices if I was doing CF every day. I like the fact that they have the library of videos on their site and occasionally I will incorporate their (using that loosely) exercises when I do moderate dryland work.

Almost anything that gets people active is better than sedentary.This one size fits all approach without recovery time is going to do a better job with aerobic fitness than with strength or power.The article quotes an adherent giving the extreme example of 4 min miler and power lifter.How about someone who does high intensity 3 days and longer slow stuff 2.They should get better results than trying to do it all at once.

In fact, I think it is probably detrimental if you're a distance swimmer. I don't think I could recover properly between workouts and have good practices if I was doing CF every day. I suspect you distance swimmers could tolerate it better than us sprinters! No way could I swim fast/AFAP efforts doing a WOD every day. And if you can't swim fast in practice because you're broken down ... Cross training is a tricky endeavor. Every time I cut something out (running, bikram, upper body lifting), I swim faster in practice and at meets. This is not to say I don't think drylands aren't important. I do, and I feel I have a good base of dryland strength after some years of it. It's simply difficult to assess what the perfect mix of swimming and dryland training is for you given your age, focus events and current level of fitness. Full time CrossFit, however, is unlikely to be the answer.