That's my pet name for anaerobic swimming..... Tonight we did a set where we swam a 400, breathing every 3rd on the first 25, every 5th on the 2nd, every 7th, then every 9th !!! on the last 25. Repeat X4 = 400 yds. My question for all the coaches and/or coach wannabees out there is : What's the benefit ? I can see some down-side to this idea, for example; as you start to yearn for that good ol' O2, you shorten up and hasten up each stroke. Not good. So what's the good side ? Cheers ! Bert
Remember also that when you're "out of air", you're really not "out of air". When your body feels the need to breathe, it's because your sensor for too much CO2 is going off, not because you don't have enough oxygen. Hypoxic sets help train your body's CO2 overload sensor deal with a little more CO2 in your body than it's regularly used to. You would never race a distance set breathing every 9... but if you do it in practice, then your body will feel like it has lots of extra oxygen when you race and breathe more often.
Breathing every 5,7,9, etc. also helps bring your heartrate down in many cases. Very rarely will a coach tell you to "work" a hypoxic set very hard... it's usually about long smooth swimming. As you reduce the number of breaths, your body can adjust the heartrate, etc., and get comfortable.
-Rick
Remember also that when you're "out of air", you're really not "out of air". When your body feels the need to breathe, it's because your sensor for too much CO2 is going off, not because you don't have enough oxygen. Hypoxic sets help train your body's CO2 overload sensor deal with a little more CO2 in your body than it's regularly used to. You would never race a distance set breathing every 9... but if you do it in practice, then your body will feel like it has lots of extra oxygen when you race and breathe more often.
Breathing every 5,7,9, etc. also helps bring your heartrate down in many cases. Very rarely will a coach tell you to "work" a hypoxic set very hard... it's usually about long smooth swimming. As you reduce the number of breaths, your body can adjust the heartrate, etc., and get comfortable.
-Rick
