The Jazz Hands training log, an alternative swimming experience

Former Member
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
    Former Member
    Or take your best times at an equal age and handicap yourselves the difference to date...then go swim... HAHA
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Wednesday, January 9, 2008 Swimming 600 easy free 200 free (2:06, about even split) 4x50 easy free 4x50 free @ 2:00 (28, 27, 27, 27) 2x200 easy free 2x100 free @ 2:00 (57, 58) Hey Brian, If you're posting a blog for everyone to see, you should at least indicate what pool you're using... I'm assuming these times were done in a Short course yards pool... so that's about what, 1:03.5 for the 100m?
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Yes, I swim short course yards.
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Friday, January 11, 2008 Weights Dumbbell bench press: 80x12 Chin-ups: 9 Dumbbell bench press: 90x10 Chin-ups: 12 Yates rows: 205x8, 225x5
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Saturday, January 12, 2008 Swimming 200 easy free 100 free bes (56) 3x25 free bes (13, 12, 13) 2x50 free nb w/fins (22, 22) Some days when my times are slow I'm just relaxing. Other days I'm trying as hard as I can and I'm extremely pissed off. I'll leave it to you to figure out what this was.
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    I was taking notes on my workouts since I got back from Missouri, and it seems like I have a little pattern going: friday - swim 200 pace saturday - off sunday - upper body weights monday - swim sprint tuesday - lower body weights wednesday - swim 200 pace thursday - off friday - upper body weights saturday - swim sprint That's a five day cycle of alternating swim days with weight days, with one day of rest. Within the four workout days, upper body lifting alternates with lower body, and 200 pace swimming alternates with sprint swimming. Just something interesting to take note of. I wasn't trying too hard to schedule my workouts, and this pattern just happened. It shows that you don't have to fit your workout schedule into a seven day week if something else makes more sense.
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Sunday, January 13, 2008 Weights Cable pull-throughs 100x16 110x12 120x12 130x12 140x14 Leg press alternating negatives 160x9 175x9 190x9 205x9 Wide box squats 225x10 245x8 275x4 285x1 Calf press alternating negatives 170x12
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Monday, January 14, 2008 Swimming 600 free 200 free (2:00) 6x25 easy back flutter 50 free nb (24) 4x25 easy back flutter 100 free bes (53)
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Curious question: How and when do you adjust your weightlifting prior to meets if at all? BR Per
  • Former Member
    Former Member
    Curious question: How and when do you adjust your weightlifting prior to meets if at all? BR Per For Nationals, I want to stop lifting probably around two weeks out. For a smaller meet like the one this Saturday, I'll just change my schedule to give myself a little extra rest. I lifted lower body on Sunday. I might do upper body tonight and then no lifting until the meet. That way, my lifting schedule doesn't really get interrupted, but I also get enough rest so that I'm not sore on meet day.