The training involved for swimmers is a very interesting topic because they train much differently than many other sports we see within the youth communities. Obviously they train in the water, but they also get started early on with cross training outside of the water, also known as dryland training. This method of training is to help develop the swimmers in a way to be mobile within the water, but also to build strength to increase the power of their kicks and strokes.
The reason I am so fascinated with their training methods is because you don't typically see much cross training in youth sports until later stages. Dryland training is extremely beneficial to the swimmers, however it seems every single dryland coach trains in a different way.
When wanting to build endurance in different regions of the body, then you have to keep tension and activation going in those tissues. We see this a lot when it comes to our cardio endurance, when we spend a selective amount of time with any given activity. The same remains true in our muscle fibers as well, and in this workout we focus on the lower and upper part of the body. Hence the name, Lower-Upper workout.
In this workout, we start off by keeping the lower body muscles engaged for 3 sets of 4 exercises. This places a lot of demand on the muscles as the exercises are not timed, there is a specific rep count to reach.
The second half of the workout works more of your mid section to upper body. Same idea applies here, you have 3 sets of 4 exercises to complete. This entire workout might take some time to finish up, so listen to your body and take breaks as needed.
I'm sure by now you have heard the term "tabata". This might be in passing, or you have actually gone through the horror of a tabata class. Either way, it is a very efficient exercise method to increase metabolism and heart rate in a short period of time. How short? 4 minutes per exercise to be exact.
In a tabata workout, you take one exercise and perform it for 20 seconds followed by a 10 second rest. You do this for 8 rounds total. Then move on to the next exercise. Because these are higher intensity exercises, you don't have to do many exercises to initiate change to the body. Even 4 or 5 exercises can be plenty for quite a few people!
One way to increase the intensity of these exercises is to try and get the same amount of reps per set. For instance, if you do 12 squats in the first round, try to see if you can continue doing 12 squats for the other 7 rounds of that exercise!
I don't know about you, but after traveling for awhile my body gets really stiff. Especially if I have been on airplanes for multiple days in a row. This stiffness comes from multiple aspects of traveling: lack of movement, dehydration, and usually lack of proper nutrients. This is why I use a traveling workout to help work out the stiffness from my body.
With lack of movement comes built up toxins in the tissues and insufficient nutrient conversion within the cells. Movement helps to pump fluids and nutrients in and out of the cells, and without movement during traveling, then this pump action doesn't work as efficiently.
Take care not to push yourself to the point of injury. If you feel yourself losing form while doing these exercises, either back off on the weight or slow down your pace.
For this weeks workout, I am showing you a way to fit in a high intensity workout in a short amount of time. This workout can be done with or without weight. There will be a total time of 15 minutes of active work for the entire workout.
Take care not to push yourself to the point of injury. If you feel yourself losing form while doing these exercises, either back off on the weight or slow down your pace.
