what do you think would be a good exercise for improving turns (other than doing lots of turns)? Leg press, calf raises, etc?
I think it's a bad idea to look at strength training that way. Strength training for swimming should be three things, in my experience:
1. Long-term and consistent
2. Total body
3. Aimed at increasing muscle mass
Like you said, doing lots of turns is the best way to improve turns. Anything that is very similar to a turn (fast flips in the water, push offs) will help, as well. Going to dry land to work on a water skill seems really pointless to me. My strength development took a long time to transfer to swimming speed, and it took a lot of added muscle mass.
Thinking along the lines of, "I want to improve my explosiveness on turns, so I will do explosive squats this week," will get you pretty much nowhere. Get some big quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves. Incorporate that goal into a total body strength program over a very long period of time, and eat enough food to gain muscle. It seems obvious, but people forget it all the time: all other things being equal, bigger muscles are stronger and more powerful in all activities.
Oh, I forgot to mention.
JMiller, thanks for the info on ankle flexibility. My kick is pretty bad, but whenever I try to develop more flexibility, I get chronic pain at the back of my ankles. One season I had this problem just from doing too much flutter kicking. I know one way to deal with this is to ease into the flexibility training. What else can you suggest?
One more question for you, do you pay any attention to agonist vs antagonist (I think those are the terms) muscle groups used in swimming while weight training? I've seen some references that it's good to concentrate on muscle groups opposite those that are heavily worked in swimming (I don't think they mean to the complete exclusion though)
Swim 100 free SCM under 1:00.
Situation:
I'm back in pool after nearly 24 years off, I'm swimming with others guys and a coach, but for now he's of little help, 2 x 45min at Week.
I'm going at the gym 3-4 x week working on the core body, stretching, legs.
At the end of workouts, I've just the time for a "fast" 25 meters...
At this time my kick is null and "disconnected" from the rest of body when I go for all out, I'm focused only on the pull.
it's 21-22 secs push off the wall, At the end with only 15 hours of swimming so far, it's not that bad I think
The Plan:
Reading this forum looking for advices, hints, experiences, and so on.
Add 1 more workout 75-90mins long, working alone, starting from January.
Add 1 more workout, working alone starting from April.
Going for 5 x week alone, in july and go for It at the end of month.
Working on vastly improve my stoke all around (kicking timining, elbow, catch, and so on)
Working hard on kicking set.
The Key :
Getting my kicking times in 19-20ish from a push consistently, I stand a chance to get it.
One more question for you, do you pay any attention to agonist vs antagonist (I think those are the terms) muscle groups used in swimming while weight training? I've seen some references that it's good to concentrate on muscle groups opposite those that are heavily worked in swimming (I don't think they mean to the complete exclusion though)
Yeah, definitely. And you're right, it's not to exclusion. Antagonists provide stability. Developing them along with the agonists of swimming is important. Some examples for swimming are the muscles that retract the scapula and externally rotate the humerus. Bent-over rows with a wide grip and deadlifts are great for these muscles.
Of course, building up the agonists for swimming is just as important. Weighted dips are an awesome exercise for this purpose. Pulling movements like chin-ups and rows are great for swimming because they build both primary movers and stabilizing muscles.
If you're serious about weight training for swimming, send me a private message and I'll be glad to help you figure out the details.
This won't seem very impressive compared to some of the other goals that have been posted, but I'd like to do 2500m in less than an hour. Both in the pool, for a charity fundraising swim that I do every April, and in the one and only open water swim race that is ever held in our province, in July.
