"LAND HO!" Talking about Dryland... what do you guys do?
Former Member
What do you guys do out of the pool to help you go faster faster? I don't mean just the big things like stretch or lift weights or eat this or drink that... but also the LITTLE things that you are convinced do work. But at the same time, do tell about the big things you do too.
I have been swimming for a year and a half now. I have loved it so far. I've dropped my weight from 240 to 166 (oddly enough, I still think I need to lose just a bit more weight). My body fat percentage is 12%. January of '09, I went 1:19.92 in a 100 free. Now I can do 1:03... the really big milestone of going under 60 is soooo close. I would've done it at a walk-on meet last Sunday but I messed up my start (went vertical and had to break out of streamline) and my turns were embarrassingly sloppy as I just completely dropped out of form to make up ground. My first 50 free was a 34. On Sunday, I went 27.72. That was two seconds down from my previous PB. After being placed in distance events all season, it was nice to get back to the shorter stuff, though I've certainly forgotten how to swim them.
For a year and a half swimming, it's been all in the pool. All of this... 99% of it is due to my labors in the watery rectangle we all love. Yesterday, my coach had us do some dryland for the first time since last October or so. It was not fun and it got less fun today as the soreness caught up with me. I felt horrible in the water today and my speed was off. But I know all those lunges and squats and sit-ups are supposed to help me.
So, again, my question to all of you is... what do you do, out of pool, to help you become a faster swimmer? Of course, the biggest part of the equation comes from what we do in the pool at practice, but now I want to start putting some dryland functions in that arithmetic. Because I want to get faster faster. I've tried to start some kind of dryland routine at various points in the last year and a half, but I've only come to understand something now: sticking with a regular dryland routine will require as big a mental ritualization of "you're going to start this at so-and-so date and that's that" as my decision to start swimming back in Nov '08.
So what do you guys do? Specifics would be cool. Help me think up stuff. I'm gonna stitch together a routine and begin it pretty soon.
I weight trained for years and never really felt that it improved my swimming. Over the last couple of months I have become much more serious about stretching. I have really improved my ROM in the shoulders,hips,knees and ankles and as a result my swimming has improved. Especially things like the underwater fly.
Here is a good stretching routine, not swimming oriented, but I like watching it. Can't figure out why :D
YouTube- Fitness - Ultimate Stretching Routine
I weight trained for years and never really felt that it improved my swimming. Over the last couple of months I have become much more serious about stretching. I have really improved my ROM in the shoulders,hips,knees and ankles and as a result my swimming has improved. Especially things like the underwater fly.
Here is a good stretching routine, not swimming oriented, but I like watching it. Can't figure out why :D
YouTube- Fitness - Ultimate Stretching Routine