Breaststroke - Dry land weight training

Just to chip in my five 2 cents worth.. I'm not an expert in strength and conditioning but had to learn the essentials in my training as a sport psychologist. One thing that I've learned is that masters swimmers have to flex a lot and be prepared to find the most time-efficient forms of exercise as, for the most part, we live busy lives. That means that some of the best advice out there for non-masters is difficult to apply. For examples, we can work out highly detailed training plans with periodization but a bad week at work can blow it out of the water. With that in mind, a couple of years back I was introducted to the idea of 'complexes' for weight training and I love them. They are mini-circuits, done usually with a dumbell, and consist of 6 reps of 6 exercises, done 6 times. You get through a lot of work in a relatively short time, and get your heart rate up as well as building strength. As strength work goes, it isn't as 'pure' as doing max eight for small numbers of reps, but going by my principle of time efficiency, they are great for overall conditioning. I'm also not sure that we need, as masters to spend too much time working pure strength, and have more to gain from getting the heart rate up etc. That said, I only do 3 hours in the pool... Frankly my biggest issue is that anything over 50m is going to hurt, so I work on managing that! The first year I did these (at 36), with my 3 hours in the pool, I did PBs for 50 and 100 *** SCM, 19 years on! (it was my 2nd year back in swimming, and pretty much gave up at 18). My 200 was only a second or so off, which is remarkable as I used to swim 10-12 times a week (mind you, it really hurt!). In general, the principle is to work multiple muscle groups and you can make your own up, but here as a few examples. I have some that are full body, some upper body, and even my 'chest set of death'. None are complete workouts - but you do rotate them and this also helps to stop workouts becoming too routine and plateauing. Where the movement is alternating, do 12 reps (6 each arm/leg). I was advised to start with approx 3-5kg per dumbell until you know the sets then build. Example 1: bent over row jump lunges bicep curl step ups Arm raises with calf raise (lstart with bells at waist and lift above head height in front of body) Monkey squats to toes (which are squats where you curl the bells into your armpits at standing) Example 2 (chest set of death, all on bench) Straight arm flies Overhead raises (actually more lats) rotating chest press (emulates the recovery in brs) Outward press Inward press (both of these exercises are like a chest press, but the hands create a figure of 8, coming togetherin the middle, so in the outward you are pushing up in the middle of your chest and recovering on the outside and vice versa) Scissors press (straight arm flies but the arms cross over at the elbows) I also work in specific exercises that are generically good for swimming, such as lat pull down or pull ups, tri extensions or dips etc. I do a lot of core work now, both for performance and as I had a bad back injury last year. Once a week I do yoga, which I value and try to run a bit too.

Just to chip in my five 2 cents worth.. I'm not an expert in strength and conditioning but had to learn the essentials in my training as a sport psychologist. One thing that I've learned is that masters swimmers have to flex a lot and be prepared to find the most time-efficient forms of exercise as, for the most part, we live busy lives. That means that some of the best advice out there for non-masters is difficult to apply. For examples, we can work out highly detailed training plans with periodization but a bad week at work can blow it out of the water. With that in mind, a couple of years back I was introducted to the idea of 'complexes' for weight training and I love them. They are mini-circuits, done usually with a dumbell, and consist of 6 reps of 6 exercises, done 6 times. You get through a lot of work in a relatively short time, and get your heart rate up as well as building strength. As strength work goes, it isn't as 'pure' as doing max eight for small numbers of reps, but going by my principle of time efficiency, they are great for overall conditioning. I'm also not sure that we need, as masters to spend too much time working pure strength, and have more to gain from getting the heart rate up etc. That said, I only do 3 hours in the pool... Frankly my biggest issue is that anything over 50m is going to hurt, so I work on managing that! The first year I did these (at 36), with my 3 hours in the pool, I did PBs for 50 and 100 *** SCM, 19 years on! (it was my 2nd year back in swimming, and pretty much gave up at 18). My 200 was only a second or so off, which is remarkable as I used to swim 10-12 times a week (mind you, it really hurt!). In general, the principle is to work multiple muscle groups and you can make your own up, but here as a few examples. I have some that are full body, some upper body, and even my 'chest set of death'. None are complete workouts - but you do rotate them and this also helps to stop workouts becoming too routine and plateauing. Where the movement is alternating, do 12 reps (6 each arm/leg). I was advised to start with approx 3-5kg per dumbell until you know the sets then build. Example 1: bent over row jump lunges bicep curl step ups Arm raises with calf raise (lstart with bells at waist and lift above head height in front of body) Monkey squats to toes (which are squats where you curl the bells into your armpits at standing) Example 2 (chest set of death, all on bench) Straight arm flies Overhead raises (actually more lats) rotating chest press (emulates the recovery in brs) Outward press Inward press (both of these exercises are like a chest press, but the hands create a figure of 8, coming togetherin the middle, so in the outward you are pushing up in the middle of your chest and recovering on the outside and vice versa) Scissors press (straight arm flies but the arms cross over at the elbows) I also work in specific exercises that are generically good for swimming, such as lat pull down or pull ups, tri extensions or dips etc. I do a lot of core work now, both for performance and as I had a bad back injury last year. Once a week I do yoga, which I value and try to run a bit too.