Gym exercises for shoulder and arms

You may want to consider this: www.bodybuilding.com/.../jasonlezak1.htm This is Jason Lezak's weight training program. The basic idea, and the one which is so different from "normal" weight programs is that it is time based. It is also a very intense program, so if you haven't been lifting a lot you should ease into it or you'll hurt yourself. You want to train your body (and muscles) to produce power for a given amount of time. If your race lasts for 60 seconds, do the exercises for a minute each. You should be completely exhausted at the end of the set, but that is the idea -- you're getting used to the exhaustion brought on by high output. You get used to that, you can bump up the weight. I noticed that in my 100 back I crap out doing dolphins off the last turn. I'm completely exhausted. In the weight room, I tried doing leg curls for 45 seconds and I was hurting after 30 or so -- pretty much corresponding to the second turn instead of the third. So I worked on that and I was able to carry my speed a lot better on the third wall in this last meet. I dropped just over a second from last year on my 100 back. I'm going to keep working on this, because it seemed to be effective for me. Best of luck...

I noticed that in my 100 back I crap out doing dolphins off the last turn. I'm completely exhausted. In the weight room, I tried doing leg curls for 45 seconds and I was hurting after 30 or so -- pretty much corresponding to the second turn instead of the third. So I worked on that and I was able to carry my speed a lot better on the third wall in this last meet. I dropped just over a second from last year on my 100 back. I'm going to keep working on this, because it seemed to be effective for me. A bit of a hijack, and this is just my opinion...but I think the best thing for working on the kicks off the last turn is to do race-pace intensity swimming/kicking in practice. A lot of people do fast 25s & 50s underwater kicking, far fewer do 75s and 100s at the same intensity, with 12+ kicks off each wall. (And for good reason: they are pretty painful.) Also: do you really find there is a strong correlation between leg curls and underwater dolphin? Leg extensions and squats seem to work better for me.

A bit of a hijack, and this is just my opinion...but I think the best thing for working on the kicks off the last turn is to do race-pace intensity swimming/kicking in practice. A lot of people do fast 25s & 50s underwater kicking, far fewer do 75s and 100s at the same intensity, with 12+ kicks off each wall. (And for good reason: they are pretty painful.) Also: do you really find there is a strong correlation between leg curls and underwater dolphin? Leg extensions and squats seem to work better for me. Hey Chris, For weights I was doing quad extensions (what I referred to as leg curls) not hamstring curls. In the pool I started doing race-pace kicks for 75s, which also seemed to help, so this is not really a good, controlled experiment. You're right, those kickouts are pretty painful, but I thought if I want to get better on the turns, I've got to practice them. I still have a lot of work to do! What really surprised me in the weight room was when I attempted to keep lifting with intensity for 45 seconds. I really bombed out after about 25 to 30 seconds, and this correlated with my bombing out after the second turn. I like the idea behind Lezak's weight program, that you're training yourself to produce power for x time, me being a drop dead sprinter and all. Over 30 seconds is distance work... But it did correlate with me. YMMV, and all. Best of luck at nationals, by the way. I won't make it this time, but maybe next year.

Best of luck at nationals, by the way. I won't make it this time, but maybe next year. Sorry you won't be there. Hopefully I'll make it up to Boston next December for the SCM meet, but we'll see.