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
I just received my new Outside magazine. The cover story is about Michael Phelps. Here are a couple of excerpts about his strength training:
(...after Athens, he) may have collected eight medals, but his performance in the "walls," or transitions, was positively ordinary. Phelps couldn't push off and take more than four or five of the critical but grueling "dolphin kicks" in an entire race. So the pair decided to improve them, not unlike Tiger Woods's deciding to retool his swing despite being the best golfer on the planet.
They started in the gym. Bowman added a 3-times-a-week, one-to-two-hour regimen of strength training to Phelps's routine. The swimmer has put on 14 pounds of muscle and zero fat. For dry-land training, they worked on plyometrics and the stationary bike. (Bowman long ago banned running - too much of a hazard for the klutz.) And they worked nonstop on his dolphin kicks. Three years later, Phelps had become one of the best transition swimmers in the world, able to surge underwater to the 15-meter limit on nearly every turn.
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."
Hey Jazz,
What do you do for work...?
Does it pay enough, and will your job enable you to train for the next few years?
Stay open-minded about your options....
Going 22 seconds for 50 free, when you're 50, that would be impressive.
You might want to make the most of your youth by trying to understand your elders.
I challenge you to do this program for the next two years.
forums.usms.org/showpost.php
INCLUDING THE WATER WORK-OUTS IN THE THREAD.
Also, try the ankle stretches, and core routine...
You will smash your life-time best through this program...
I don't really know what you're talking about here. I was quite well warmed up by that point. I'm just not a person who needs a lot of warm-up yardage.
Tommy Hannan told me when he swims on his own he only does a 100 warmup, so you're not the only one.
Honestly, I think it's time to quit busting Jazz Hands' chops and let him write his log. I'm sure the vast majority of us here believe this kind of training plan isn't ideal, but why not let him go for it? It will certainly be interesting to see what happens.
in college we had a diver who could swim a 50 in low 23, with ZERO swimming time in the pool. he was former swimmer, who had good technique, and his athleticism from training for diving was be able to carry him for a 50.
Have you considered that there might be something wrong with this alleged revolutionary sprint training program that causes you to almost puke every time you do it?
I'm going on record as stating I believe this to be a hoax thread. It's too ridiculous to be characterized any other way. And, I will admit to being sucked in from my self imposed banishment.
Making assumptions like this are extremally naive...especially on this forum.
Its interesting to me that a renowned author and coach makes a post on your blog and you bascially blow off a chance to engage in a dialogue with him and possibly get some great advice....yet are drawn to more advice on weight lifting...
For the record, or CD, or Mp3…I agree. I've only got about 20yrs of lifting experience, and have not been involved in coaching or personal training. Pretty much all the weight training I've done has been inspired by people in the gym, various books, and several websites. Anything that I think might work is through personal trial and error.
Also, in contrast to JH, I've kinda done the opposite, I used to weigh between 195-200, and now am between 166-175. This is because I've increased the swimming, and am burning as many if not more calories that I'm consuming, like Paul mentioned earlier.
Also also in contrast to JH, I swam about 4-5 sec. faster in the 100fr and 100fly as a high schooler, weighing 145. I'm about 20-30 lbs heavier now, roughly the same body fat (5-7%) and am way stronger, but the speed is not quite there yet. I'm hoping I can get it back, but for me, I think the answer is in the pool.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I think his training program has less chance for injury--at least due to swimming--than a high yardage program. He's just not in the water long enough to injure himself. My feeling is most injuries in swimming are repetitive stress injuries, not traumatic injuries.
True, most swimming injuries seem to be repetitive stress injuries. But most swimmers don't lift weights from what I can tell. I wonder whether the % of traumatic injuries increases among those who do lift weights. My teammate just tore his rotator cuff while lifting. 40+ And he knew what he was doing.
Obviously, as Beth commented, this is not a program for swimmers with shoulder problems.
I only did 125 yards of hard sprinting today, but I'm tapering. :D
Hey, that extra 500+ yards wasn't "garbage yards." Easy recovery swimming between sprints is important.
I think you are a hoax person. No one could really be this mean spirited.
Listen, take it any way you want. You obviously have a swimming background and can even knock out a respectable 50 time for your age. However, you know that swimming 800 yards (most of it EZ) isn't doing anything for your overall swimming conditioning or training, especially if you had coaches push you to 5K before. 175 sprinting in a workout is nothing, most sprint sets are much longer than that.
You are a young buck, full of the goofenthall. This might work for you a while longer but it's not a bankable long term swimming plan.
Almost every swimmer on our team lifts, not crazy lifting but some weight work.
True, most swimming injuries seem to be repetitive stress injuries. But most swimmers don't lift weights from what I can tell. I wonder whether the % of traumatic injuries increases among those who do lift weights. My teammate just tore his rotator cuff while lifting. 40+ And he knew what he was doing.
Ok, I'm curious (and maybe a bit scared/paranoid). What specifically was your teammate doing when he tore his rotator cuff. I'm closing in on 40 very soon, and would like to keep swimming/lifting. I do warm up quite a bit because I can't lift big/swim big without warming up first.
:confused:
Ok, I'm curious (and maybe a bit scared/paranoid). What specifically was your teammate doing when he tore his rotator cuff. I'm closing in on 40 very soon, and would like to keep swimming/lifting. I do warm up quite a bit because I can't lift big/swim big without warming up first.
:confused:
Bench press, pretty heavy. Many months of painful rehab ahead. He was probably the best conditioned swimmer on the team too. Definitely the fastest.
