I've been wanting to start this thread for a while-- we have one about flutter kicking, SDK, and speed. If I may be so bold, I'd like to see one on how to improve your capacity for hypoxic sets.
After getting back into swimming about 4 months ago, I have noticed a decrease in my ability to handle hypoxic sets, and in general, in my ability to stay underwater for any significant length of time. I find myself trying to get to the surface as soon as possible after turning at the wall so I can get some air. I know this is slowing me down significantly.
As for breathing while actually swimming, I seem to have no problems-- I am pretty much a bilateral breather (every three strokes). It's when I'm coming into the wall or leaving the wall where I have problems, as I can't seem to hold my breath and am always breaking the cardinal rule of not breathing while in the "red zone."
We do at least one hypoxic set per day, and not surprisingly, I usually have problems (although I do try to make it).
Any tips for how to improve, or does this just come with practice and increased aerobic capacity?
My thinking? There's very little thinking involved, actually. I found fairly recent and comprehensive review of hypoxic training studies, read the relevant section, and came to the same conclusion as the authors of the review: It doesn't do a damn thing.
Except unlike both you and the authors of whatever review you are talking about, I have personal experience on the matter. And I've observed many other swimmers attempt this: If you train to do two kicks per turn in practice, and then try to do 10 kicks on every turn in a meet, IT DOESN"T WORK very well and you die like a dog.
And please don't regale me with tales of how you used to do 3-5-7 hypoxic drills when you were young and got nothing from them (I don't do such drills either, BTW). You swim 50s; it isn't the same as training to take 8 kicks underwater on the 7th turn of a 200.
You can call it a psychological or a physiological adaptation: the effect is exactly the same. If you practice it, you are able to go further underwater in a race.
So I'm not going to wait for the science to catch up with what I know is true from my own personal experience, which is pretty extensive on this topic. And there are other reasons I like to do hypoxic training besides adaptation, which I won't repeat b/c I said them in the other thread.
My thinking? There's very little thinking involved, actually. I found fairly recent and comprehensive review of hypoxic training studies, read the relevant section, and came to the same conclusion as the authors of the review: It doesn't do a damn thing.
Except unlike both you and the authors of whatever review you are talking about, I have personal experience on the matter. And I've observed many other swimmers attempt this: If you train to do two kicks per turn in practice, and then try to do 10 kicks on every turn in a meet, IT DOESN"T WORK very well and you die like a dog.
And please don't regale me with tales of how you used to do 3-5-7 hypoxic drills when you were young and got nothing from them (I don't do such drills either, BTW). You swim 50s; it isn't the same as training to take 8 kicks underwater on the 7th turn of a 200.
You can call it a psychological or a physiological adaptation: the effect is exactly the same. If you practice it, you are able to go further underwater in a race.
So I'm not going to wait for the science to catch up with what I know is true from my own personal experience, which is pretty extensive on this topic. And there are other reasons I like to do hypoxic training besides adaptation, which I won't repeat b/c I said them in the other thread.
