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.
Former Member
All of this seems so contrary to what I think of when swimming comes to mind but I am interested in seeing just what progress is made.
It's going to be legendary.
What's cool about this is that I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen, either. Back in May there was some controversy about my method of training for the 50. I prepared for nationals by doing workouts of 1x50 all out. Seriously. That's how I went 21.5. Personal best time, remember. Could the same approach work for 100 yards, or will I need more extensive aerobic system training? I plan on swimming in a meet in January, which will help me gauge my progress and make the necessary adjustments to my training.
I have no doubts that training all out (race pace if you will) will give you more of a return on your investment than swimming thousands of yards at aerobic pace several times a week. Having said that, a set of 1 x 50 does not sound couducive to improving one's swimming by any stretch of the imagination. Well, as I said, it will be interesting to see what happens. It looks as if there will be some sparks flying in this thread so that should keep things interesting as the weeks go by.
This is neither a workout, a warmup or an extended bath, for that matter. Heck, it takes Smith a 700 just to remember his name and unfreeze his aging crickety crackety bones.
Please stop insulting me in my thread. You're not the intended audience.
Having said that, a set of 1 x 50 does not sound couducive to improving ones swimming by any stretch of the imagination.
But it did! I had to lift weights, too. But that was a big time drop for me. Cool, huh? The next logical question is what about the 100?
Perhaps the key is to push yourself to the brink of nausea at every practice. Just jump in, and swim as hard as you can for as long as you can without vomiting in the pool. Seriously.
Perhaps the key is to push yourself to the brink of nausea at every practice. Just jump in, and swim as hard as you can for as long as you can without vomiting in the pool. Seriously.
How about you try that?
How about you try that?
:lmao: I don't think so. You are looking to swim as fast as possible with the least amount of time in the water...that is my suggestion.
And this quote from Phelps: "I do a lot of legs, pull-downs, push-ups, pull-ups, box squats. My weight coach pretty much destroys me every time I see her."
Mr. Jazz Hands,
You mentioned sumo style deadlifts (which, if one can do them, I think is a great full-body exercise). Do you do box squats? If you don't, you should think about them, just don't "bounce" off the box like I see many kids do. The goal is to take the "pre-loading stretch" out of the movement. So you squat down, count to 3, then drive up. Do them with a wide stance and you'll see your sumo deadlift weight rise dramatically.
Also, if you're into barfing, load the bar with just 225, do 15 reps, rest 1 minute, do another 15, rest 1 minute, and so on. Not for the faint of heart.
You might also try overhead squats, where the bar is held above your head and you do full squats. Supposedly if you can do your bodyweight for 3 sets of 10, you've arrived. Good luck with the unorthodox training and keep us posted.
:agree::applaud::groovy::agree::applaud::groovy::agree::applaud::groovy:
To be fair, a warmup is a very individual thing. If somebody feels comfortable and can remain injury free with little to no warmup, then so shall it be.
