Improve Your Swimming on Land with the Vasa Trainer
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Pools and open-water around the world have been closed for many of us the last few months, and while some regions are beginning to reopen, availability is still going to be limited for the unforeseeable future. That, and many pool, open-water, and triathlon races are postponed or cancelled this season. There’s no better time to focus on alternative forms of training, and fill in some training gaps.
Smart strength training has always been a secret weapon in my own swim training, and that of my clients. And since high school the Vasa Trainer has been a center piece around my dryland training out of the water.
Vasa has been a pioneer in swim specific strength and conditioning for over 30 years. Their swim benches come in several forms, with various attachments for focusing on different adaptations, strokes, drills, and racing components. Those of your familiar with an indoor rower will quickly adjust to the smooth ride of the swim bench on the monorail. Like swimming, many of the exercises performed, are upper-body dominant, using straps or pulleys, with handles or paddles, scaled using bands, and inclines. Performed prone and supine, like swimming, its the most specific way to develop technique, swim-specific strength, and conditioning on land. I find it particularly beneficial for developing local muscular endurance during build cycles, and for isolating specific aspects of technique outside of the water.
Check out some of the Vasa Trainer programming Ive been working on, below, from my home gym the last few months.
Get 5% off on your own Vasa Trainer, and other products, at checkout, using code “bonus-dandaly”, here.
Interested in coaching and programming for your dryland and swimming goals? Contact me, here!
Swim-specific Strength and Conditioning
Double Arm High Elbow Catch - For improving the early vertical forearm (EVF) seen in the worlds best swimmers. Focus on pulling from the shoulder, fingers down, elbow high, using your entire lower arm as a paddle from your fingers to your elbow.
Double Arm Pull - Bilateral pulling strength, integrating the vertical forearm catch phase with the pull and finish. This is an appropriate starting point for freestyle swimmers, butterflies, and longer conditioning sets.
High Incline Pull Out - Build explosive power with speed work at higher inclines and resistances. Great for butterflies, and breaststroke under water pull outs.
Low Elbow Freestyle - A shoulder friendly freestyle pattern used for resting “swimmer shoulder”, or for longer conditioning sets.
Freestyle - Develop local muscular endurance, and event specific tempos with freestyle sets using the pulley attachment and hand paddles.
Single Arm Freestyle - isolate technique and improve symmetry one arm at a time with single arm strokes, and drills.
Single Arm Catch with Rotation - Improve rotation, timing, and recruitment with this single arm pull and reach using the wrist straps.
Core
Dragonflag - Better streamline, and core endurance with this eccentrically loaded core exercise.
Rollout - Improve overhead position driven from the core, with swim bench rollouts.
Upper Body Strength
Feet Elevated Vertical Push - Shoulder friendly overhead mobility and strength, improving serratus anterior recruitment, and scapular upward rotation.
Forearm Supported 3-Point Row - Bench supported loaded pulling patterns for additional externally loaded exercises to improve pulling strength.
Lower Body Power
Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat - Single leg strength
Streamline Squat Jumps - Walls and turns-specific lower body power. Using the lower body power platform, performing plyometric jumps in a streamline position at a high incline and resistance.
Single Leg Streamline Squat - Single leg, start-specific strength.
Single Leg Streamline Squat to Toe - Complexity progression off the toe
Single Leg Streamline Jump Squat - single leg power