Last week the World Swimming Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, came to an end. The German swimmers won 3 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals. Florian Wellbrock set records: he was the first swimmer ever at a major event such as the World Championships or the Olympic Games to swim gold in the open water and in the pool. The German Swimming Association declared some time ago that athletic training on land is essential for success in the water. Here you can find out which equipment a fitness room should be equipped with, especially for ambitious swimmers.
Targeted strength training on land for better performance in the water
The German Swimming Federation (DSV) recommends that swimmers use strength training to develop maximum strength. The second main focus of training is to keep the athlete healthy, and the DSV cites time economy as the third pillar.
By increasing maximum strength, three areas in particular are to be improved in swimming:
- Jump and push-off speed at start and turn.
- Maximum swimming speed
- Economization of movement (fatigue resistance)
Avoiding mistakes when training with dumbbells and weights
Equipment for training maximum strength
Maximum strength is crucial for maximum swimming speed, especially on short distances up to 400m. Classic, although excellent, strength endurance comes into play mainly on long distances. Even when swimming long distances, however, a high maximum strength is by no means a disadvantage.
Hypertrophy training is used to build up maximum strength; this involves increasing the size of the muscle by increasing the cell size. The number of cells in the muscle does not change here.
Suitable for maximum strength training of the arms, shoulders and back are above all complex dumbbell exercises, for which the establishment of a good free weight area in the fitness room for the swimming club is ideal.
With a good weight bench and a selection of weight plates for barbells and dumbbells, a variety of complex exercises can be performed to increase maximum strength. With enough space, different racks offer a greater variety of exercises and numerous ways to add new training stimuli and make strength training more exciting and motivating.
Bodyweight training has also proven to be very effective. Ideal training equipment here are pull-up bars and dip stations. To intensify bodyweight training, various additional weights such as weight vests or wrist and ankle cuffs or weight belts can be used.
Train jump and push-off speed: The right equipment
Especially for distances up to 200 m, the take-off speed at the start and the push-off speed at the turnaround are crucial. It is important to have high explosive power of the legs, excellent coordination and good agility in both events.
Coordination, jumping power and explosive power are excellently trained when training with plyoboxes, other valuable training aids are coordination ladders. When training with plyoboxes, athletes perform complex jumping sequences; in addition to coordination and explosive strength, body awareness, eye-foot coordination and agility are also increased here. In coordination ladders, highly complex step sequences are trained, in addition to coordination and speed, agility is also intensively trained here.
Fatigue resistance training through strength endurance training
A swimmer aims for a certain speed before the start of the competition, which is to be maintained over the distance. In order to achieve this speed, the swimmer does not have to exhaust the entire maximum strength potential after a maximum strength training session, thus leaving more strength reserves for later sections of the course. The drop in speed at the end of the section can thus be minimized. To achieve this goal, the athlete must of course have the appropriate endurance before additional strength training makes sense.
For strength endurance training, equipment-based strength training is a good choice. Here, the focus is not on building muscle, as in maximum strength training, but on training with many repetitions of an exercise at about 60 - 75% of the maximum weight. This does not result in any significant muscle growth, but it does increase the fatigue resistance of the muscles.
Suitable strength equipment for strength endurance training should allow a wide variety of exercises and the training of different muscle groups throughout the body. Complex cable pulleys, for example, are ideally suited here.
Strength endurance can also be ideally strengthened during functional training. Complex movement exercises, for example with the trampoline, boxing fitness with the punching bag or special boxing equipment, or training with fitness balls, are the ideal way to achieve a complex workout consisting of alternating maximum strength and strength endurance units.
Conclusion
For an ideal, accompanying athletic training to the swimming training, the maximum strength training is of crucial importance. By training explosive strength, speed and agility , massive successes can be achieved, especially for short distances. Effective strength endurance training increases the fatigue resistance of athletes. Ideal training effects can be achieved by combining maximum strength training with strength endurance training.
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Editorial fitnessmarkt.de (DG)
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Published on: 4 August 2019