Can you take us through a typical dryland/weight session to build swimming strength?

Question

Lalo Vera · Answer

So, I consider swimming to be more of a, let's say 70-30, meaning 70% of the work is upper body and then some transfer over the core and then 30% as far as like how much leg volume you're doing within the swimming. That's just my personal model for swimming athletes. So, I do 70% of the work in the gym would be more towards the upper body. Not only strength, but lactate clearance also and oxidative. So, the training model is not just one session, but it's according to the split, like how many days a week you're training. It's also according to where you are in your season. Are you in off-season? Are you in the beginning of a block, the end of a block? So, for competitive swimming, we would have to go biomechanically through the ranges of horizontal pushing, horizontal pulling, vertical pushing, vertical pulling, and in between horizontal and vertical, all the angles in between. And also unilateral, so not both hands at the same time, but one hand at a time or one angle at a time, including the rib cage. So, that would be typical for me as far as the model in general.

Dan Daly · Answer

Can you take us through a typical dryland weight session to build swimming strength? Generally speaking, without individual context, all of my sessions start with breathing. It's assessed monthly for function and capacity and used to improve mobility, position, and performance. Then some mobility work targeting the ankles, hips, and shoulders as needed with an emphasis on rotation. From there, we load those patterns with some stability work, particularly overhead shoulder positions. Next, let's prime the nervous system and get the body fired up for the session with some low volume speed, agility, and quickness exercises. Depending on the time of the year, the main workout has varying emphasis on power, strength, and volume. Power is used to improve elasticity, ground reaction time, explosiveness, and sustained pacing. Lower body strength for starts, turns, and kicking speed. And upper body pulling and pushing for distance per stroke, tempo, muscular balance, and injury reduction. Last, time permitting, some accessory work targeting the core, overhead positioning, and swim-specific patterns.

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"Can you take us through a typical dryland/weight session to build swimming strength?"