I saw this in a post: I will swim 200 laps in a 25 meter pool. All free style. Non stop. This is done in 3 phases , !st 64 laps is moderate speed 2nd 64 laps is distance the balance is for endurance.
My first reaction was WHY ? If you swim like this you will never know how good a swimmer you could be !
Reasons why.
1.- Your range of motion becomes less as your muscles fatigue and tighten up. This leads to the long, smooth stroke that your first few lengths have, deteriorating into a short, choppy survival stroke.
2.- You can only train one energy system, Aerobic, the anaerobic & lactic systems are untouched.
3.- You cannot improve your technique unless you use drills in a progressive manner.
4.- Why not put in some drills to check your technique. For example 10 strokes of head-up free every few lengths to check you hand entry ?
5.- By only doing Freestyle you are setting yourself up for injured shoulders, with all kinds of impingement problems.
6.-Where are the Kick sets and fly kick sets to improve core body strength and awareness ?
7.-What about the joys' of fly, back and
*** ?
I put together this poll to see how people out there are training.
Former Member
Could be right. Most exercising goes throug cycles where it is a fad. I think people get bored with one exercise and move on to another because they still want to exercise. Heck, I can remember tennis, raquetball, running, biking, swimming, stair climbers and eliptical trainers all being the "popular" or "trendy" exercise at one time or another.
I've never heard about HGH being released because of interval training over another kind of training, but I do know this. The human body is designed to "adapt". When you work out, you put "eustress" on the body, which literally means "good stress". Your body doesn't like stress, so it changes its composition. That way, the next time it encouters that stress, it would be so challenging.
If you use intervals in your training, you are likely changing them up on some kind of program, or just for variety. It's similar to cross training - just when your body has learned to adapt, you change the type of stress you put on it. That promotes healthy change and adaptation.
When you think about long distance runners who always run long distances, think about how far they have to go each time BEFORE they start to put any eustress on their body. 10 miles? 20 miles? They're not forcing their body to adapt the way you would with intervals.
If you want to learn more about intervals, look for people who discuss "work to rest ratios." You'll find them in any physiological based program. Heck, technically, weight training is based on work to rest ratios - 10 reps curls, 30 seconds rest.
I do know that physiologists have had trouble selling their theories of training on many coaches, and many coaches have trouble getting physiologists to consider real world training issues in their research.
Heck, I took a graduate class on physiology for competitive athletes. All the physiologists wanted to develop four year training plans so that the college swimmers all peaked in their fourth year. That makes sense, right? you have four years to get them to be their best. Well, that doesn't work if you consider that it's important to try to win each year in a college environment. And, if a swimmer decides to leave the team before that fourth year, but you're training for the fourth year, you haven't gotten any output from him/her.
Wow, this was a long boring email that I doubt anyone will want to read.
Ryan@ICoachSwimming.com
www.ICoachSwimming.com
I have read all of your discussions, and I think the most important things you should consider is heart rate puls.Interval training should come later on, but generally it is very risky giving any advice because I havent see you swimming, your technic, mental andf psyhiological strenght...
Sorry for my english, but I hope ne1 understood.Bye
I've learned to do what you say from my coach. But why don't the lifeguards defend those of us trying to do a workout with swimming/resting intervals? when I'm at lap swim, the person who is resting gets all the newcomers, and they can be pretty rude. As if by taking a 10-20 SECOND break you're not using your lane enough! Just this weekend, while resting (to give the other person in my lane a 3/4 length lead) someone came into my lane, and just swam a 1/2 length, and then just stayed there, treading water. The lifeguard didn't care, because he thought I was resting! So, i don't know how to do one of these workouts without feeling the tension that someone is going to pounce on my lane at any moment!
Originally posted by ann
I've learned to do what you say from my coach. But why don't the lifeguards defend those of us trying to do a workout with swimming/resting intervals? when I'm at lap swim, the person who is resting gets all the newcomers, and they can be pretty rude. As if by taking a 10-20 SECOND break you're not using your lane enough! Just this weekend, while resting (to give the other person in my lane a 3/4 length lead) someone came into my lane, and just swam a 1/2 length, and then just stayed there, treading water. The lifeguard didn't care, because he thought I was resting! So, i don't know how to do one of these workouts without feeling the tension that someone is going to pounce on my lane at any moment!
Fortunately I don't have that problem because the time I workout at my pool seems to have a light enough demand that we don't have to circle.
But were I faced with your situation I would just swim down the lane, and brush past (not run directly into) the water-treader. Even if it took 2 or 3 such passes, s/he would get the hint soon enough.
Originally posted by butterflybeer
Wayne,
This is very interesting.
Do you know, or have a idea when exactly interval training becomes non-interval training or vice versa? For example is swimming 8x200 and getting 20 sec rest considered interval training? What if I were getting 15, or 10 seconds rest, would this be considered interval training? What if I were swimming a set of 400's and was getting 5 seconds rest? Would that be interval training?
I am not trying to be cute. I am genuinely interested in the exact definition you are using for interval training. Would you define interval training as starting a new repeat every x minutes/seconds? Or, might it have something to do with heart rate peaks and valleys?
That was a very interesting question that did not get answered.I was thinkig about the same thing.At what point does the interval training become a non-interval one?
Interval training is all about raising the heart rate, doing work etc.
So if you are doing a "8x200 and getting 20 sec rest" or 15, or 10 seconds rest or a set of 400's and was getting 5 seconds rest, it is all interval training as long as you are not keeping the heart steady.
It doesn't matter what shape you are in, if you swim a 200 and then measure your heart rate it will be lower after 20 seconds rest. Then when you start the next set, you are raising the heart rate up again.
Your body really only gets better when you vary things. So swimming long slow distances like some lap swimmers, you do not trick the body to produce hormones that help rebuild the body better.
