I'm vasa curious but have never tried one.

If people want to really toughen up the strength endurance then - I am blanking on the names but I am pretty sure it is Laidlaw. His dad coaches him. He says he just swims but has these weighted rocks that he holds, that would make your arms really strong. He says 5k sessions with his dad are like 8k sessions with other coaches. That would make your shoulders really tough and a weapon in a wetsuit.

For those who have used a vasa, how much pressure does it put on your core and the ab muscles up above your hips? I think those muscles are quite important for swimming too, or the coordination of activating them in some way.

Also - vasa would be awesome if you were training for board paddle racing in the surf life saving / life guard events.

So an update on this.

I purchased the vasa and I’ve been using it exclusively for three weeks. My last swim pool because of the pool being broken was May 8th. Because of the pool issues, I had only been in the water six times since April 1. I’ve Been doing about 3-4 30 to 40 minute intensive workouts on the vasa the last three weeks and this morning I got back in the pool and was very surprised at how I did.

As a lifelong swimmer and a swimming coach very quickly realized that my stroke was significantly better than it’s been in years. I did my old 10 100 test that I do quite often and my best results in almost 2 years. I was waiting Until my times would get slower the last four and they never did.

Most importantly I was waiting for the fish out of water feeling I always get when I don’t swim for a while. And that never happened.

I def see the limitations of never swimming pool and still doing well in a tri. I definitely lost and consciously had to think about my technique, especially by long that I typically have which is a little difficult to mimic on the vasa. Some of you had mentioned that it’s hard to get the heart rate up as high on the Vassa as in the pool and that is 100% correct. So there’s definitely some around as to how that would work in a race. But I definitely see that, the main advantage is not having to shlep to the pool as much. Even if I was 30 seconds slower in a swim in like a sprint, could totally make that up in extra session biking or running….or perhaps even more importantly recovery.

While this workout is n=1 I could totally see my offseason plan as hitting the pool once a week for a long swim/drills. Then during race season maybe a long swim and a shorter higher intensity pace workout.

This is definitely a purchase worth it IMO.

Interesting insights, thanks for sharing.

What kind of 30-40 min workouts did you do on Vasa?

Ergo or regular Vasa?

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Kiwami Racing Team

Ergo

I’ve been doing one long continuous swim. Start easy then go up a few watts every 3-4 mins.

I program it all into trainer day and follow just like it’s a bike erg workout.
Then the others I just mimic a real workout but by time instead of distance.
So warmup like 5-6 mins
Then like10x90sec intervals with 20 secs easy swimming between at the watts I’ve decided is “pushing”
Then 10x50 sec intervals with 10 secs easy swimming between.

I’ve also done some with no easy paddling between. Just resting and dripping sweat. I do like programming intervals in where in each one you go from like 40-45 watts. So building to mimic some fatigue.

Another one I did the other day was
6 min long easy swim then 6x60 sec hard swims with 20 easy between. Then right into a 5 min long easy swim right into 5x60 sec hard swims with 20 between. Then same thing with 4 min and 4x60. Great workout and 26 mins.

The erg does show an estimated distance, so can still do the same type of sets you would do in the pool, if you want.

For me it’s nowhere close to the pace or distance of the correct time. Could be different for other people dependent on stroke.

Most important is it’s consistent and repeatable. To track improvement.