The Jazz Hands training log, an alternative swimming experience
Former Member
Whenever I mention something about how I train, somebody flips out and asks for clarification. "Jazz Hands," they say, "do you really bathe in ox blood before workouts?" Or, "Jazz Hands, how many grams of testosterone do you inject weekly?" I hope to answer these questions and many more in my training log. I'll be covering water workouts and weight workouts, and I'll answer questions about both, as well as questions about my nutrition and supplementation.
I hope my alternative swimming experience will give other swimmers ideas for their own training, and expand everyone's idea of just what kind of preparation a swimmer needs to go fast.
I typically list weights this way: weight x reps. I list swimming sets this way: reps x distance. They are kind of the reverse of one another, but each one is the standard for each particular activity.
I'll start with some recent workouts.
Evening weights
Saturday December 8, 2007
School mostly finished for me on Friday, so I decided to celebrate with some sumo deadlifts.
Warmed up with 135, 205, 275, 345.
Attempted 415, felt good and fast but something went wrong. I lost control of the bar and it swung and hit me in the right shin, leaving a big red rectangle.
Finished up deadlifts with a bunch of singles at 345, and a few more at 365.
Did a set of alternating negatives on the calf machine with 140.
Evening weights
Sunday December 9, 2007
Started with 90x4 on dips. I try to do dips as deep as possible.
Did several sets of 185 on bent-over barbell rows. Didn't count reps. I mostly focused on form: back flat and parallel to the ground, no jerking and swaying. My form improved with each set.
Finished with 90x5 on dips, a new personal best. My brother watched and said I went really deep on all of the reps.
Morning swim
Monday December 10, 2007
Started with 4x25 sprint flutter kick on my back, with several minutes rest. Went 19, 18, 16, 16.
Did a couple 25s sprint free, my mind was wandering though. I was thinking about how Paul Smith says I can't do a good 100. Why not start it today? Back in the day, I used to do a 100 fly from a push every week or so just to see if I could keep up my endurance while I was swimming mostly 25s. If I remember correctly, I did about a 57 at my best. Pretty cool considering my best time in competition (high school) was a 58.
So, 100 fly! I breathed every stroke, and finished in 59. The first 50 felt really good, but I died just about as bad as I ever had on the last 25. It felt like I was actually going backwards. My friend in the other lane watched me and said I split 26 at halfway. Twenty-six to 33 is not good, and I felt like I was going to throw up for the next half hour. I hope to improve on that a lot in the coming weeks.
Parents
Former Member
By the way...I didn't say you would never be abl to swim a fast 100...I said given your current training program your speed in that distance was what i expected...and you proved it in your 50/100 fly swims as well...no aerobic base, and I'm guessing very limited flexibiity = 9 second differntial in your two 50's.
You said that I couldn't do it with a focus on weight training. I say that weight training is always going to be a major part of my life, and I'm going to do a fast 100. Not today, but after training for it.
You're wrong to say that anything has been proved yet. I'm quite encouraged that my time was under a minute. I've been swimming fast every day recently, and I think my speed and endurance are both better than they have been before. But I haven't been doing 100s, and I think I will have to practice at that distance to really get good at it.
Meanwhile, you will need to practice your subtraction skills. The difference between 50s was seven seconds, not nine.
Tanaka, et al. (1993) studied 24 experienced swimmers during 14 weeks of their competitive season. The swimmers were divided into two groups of 12 swimmers and matched for stroke specialities and performance. The two groups performed all swim training sessions together for the duration of the season, but in addition to the pool training, one group performed resistance training three days a week, on alternate days for eight weeks. The resistance training program was intended to simulate the muscles employed in front crawl swimming and utilized weight lifting machines as well as free weights. Swimmers performed three sets of 8-12 repetitions of the following exercises: lat pull downs, elbow extensions, bent arm flys, dips and chin ups. In order to maximize the resistance training effect, weights were progressively increased over the duration of the training period. Then both groups tapered for approximately two weeks prior to their major competition. The most important finding: resistance training did not improve sprint swim performance, despite the fact that those swimmers who combined resistance and swim training increased their strength by 25-35%. The extra strength gained from the resistance training program did not result in improved stroke mechanics. Their conclusion: "the lack of positive transfer between dry-land strength gains and swimming propulsive force may be due to the specificity of training."
Source: www.sportsci.org/.../resistance.html
I think this is a cool study because it supports something I've been saying. Weight training is not a short-term solution for swimming speed. You can't just lift weights for 14 weeks and expect strength to carryover to swimming, especially with a heavy swimming schedule on top of it. The added strength those swimmers got in the weight room was mostly due to skill adaptation. They got better at doing their weight exercises, but they didn't increase muscle size enough to see a true strength transfer to swimming.
By the way...I didn't say you would never be abl to swim a fast 100...I said given your current training program your speed in that distance was what i expected...and you proved it in your 50/100 fly swims as well...no aerobic base, and I'm guessing very limited flexibiity = 9 second differntial in your two 50's.
You said that I couldn't do it with a focus on weight training. I say that weight training is always going to be a major part of my life, and I'm going to do a fast 100. Not today, but after training for it.
You're wrong to say that anything has been proved yet. I'm quite encouraged that my time was under a minute. I've been swimming fast every day recently, and I think my speed and endurance are both better than they have been before. But I haven't been doing 100s, and I think I will have to practice at that distance to really get good at it.
Meanwhile, you will need to practice your subtraction skills. The difference between 50s was seven seconds, not nine.
Tanaka, et al. (1993) studied 24 experienced swimmers during 14 weeks of their competitive season. The swimmers were divided into two groups of 12 swimmers and matched for stroke specialities and performance. The two groups performed all swim training sessions together for the duration of the season, but in addition to the pool training, one group performed resistance training three days a week, on alternate days for eight weeks. The resistance training program was intended to simulate the muscles employed in front crawl swimming and utilized weight lifting machines as well as free weights. Swimmers performed three sets of 8-12 repetitions of the following exercises: lat pull downs, elbow extensions, bent arm flys, dips and chin ups. In order to maximize the resistance training effect, weights were progressively increased over the duration of the training period. Then both groups tapered for approximately two weeks prior to their major competition. The most important finding: resistance training did not improve sprint swim performance, despite the fact that those swimmers who combined resistance and swim training increased their strength by 25-35%. The extra strength gained from the resistance training program did not result in improved stroke mechanics. Their conclusion: "the lack of positive transfer between dry-land strength gains and swimming propulsive force may be due to the specificity of training."
Source: www.sportsci.org/.../resistance.html
I think this is a cool study because it supports something I've been saying. Weight training is not a short-term solution for swimming speed. You can't just lift weights for 14 weeks and expect strength to carryover to swimming, especially with a heavy swimming schedule on top of it. The added strength those swimmers got in the weight room was mostly due to skill adaptation. They got better at doing their weight exercises, but they didn't increase muscle size enough to see a true strength transfer to swimming.
