I’m trying to put together a DIY workout bench that replicates the workout you get from a Vasa trainer, but without shelling out a similar budget (not to mention having the Vasa shipped to Canada). My swim is my weakness, and I find it hard to get to the pool more than 3x per week due to schedule, not to mention the negative effects of chlorine on my skin.
I’m thinking the following components:
-Any old workout bench
-Hand paddles
-A pack of stretchy bands
-Some sort of hook to connect it to the wall
The idea would be that I’d put on the lower resistance bands when I want to work on technique / simulate the pool, and then use the heavier bands when I want to work on strength
Anyone done anything similar? Any takeaways I should know in terms of setup (eg. am I missing anything)? Does it work?
The DIY enthusiast in me wants to figure out a way to rig a bench, paddles and (rigid) cords to a smart bike trainer (or maybe a rowing ergo) and hence get power readings out of it…
I actually have that bench. Found it used on eBay. I use it with a vasa erg I found on Craigslist also. I don’t have the Vasa bench so I have my own space saver erg. It wasn’t pretty much impossible to ship a full Vasa because of that long post but the business end isn’t too bad. It’s most empty and not too heavy, just big.
I tried a number of things like you have suggested and not one of them was close enough to a real swim feel for me to stick with it. The Vasa is not perfect, but for the time-constrained athlete or someone who just can’t get to a pool, it is a solution. Frankly, I don’t understand people’s hang-up on the price. Since I bought my ergometer I still have spent two or three times the price in other bike equipment. If you are riding a second-hand tri bike that cost $500, then maybe the Vasa is expensive, but it does not even hit the “entry-level” tri bike cost that is sold these days.
I suspect were a beginning triathlete to ebay a cheap bike and pay the full price for a Vasa, they would be a much better triathlete in one, two or five years.
Heck, since buying my Vasa, I have not done more than four or five pools swims in ten years. No cold water, no chlorine, no closed pools that you don’t find out about until you walk in, no wet workout gear.
More specifically to your question, the bands tend to jerk your arm back and don’t have a linear resistance. You can’t do a overhand recovery with the Vasa, but the feel is very smooth and simulates the recovery better. It just feels very much like swimming. I never noticed my arms getting tired on the recovery in races when I was doing 100 percent Vasa swimming. The swim is a weakness for a lot of people and the Vasa can address some percentage of the problem, i.e. swim fitness or lack thereof because of minimal frequency. If your form is horrible then it can’t help you there, though I think it may have improved some part of that for me because it is hard to use the Vasa without employing the early vertical forearm when you are training.
Edit: If forgot to add that if I was a little more mechanically inclined or was trying what you are trying, I would rig some sort of pulley system with weights, rather than use the stretchy bands. If you set up a 2x4 at bench level and used a couple of smooth pulleys with a bearing in them, you could probably duplicate the swim motion, it would be a more linear resistance, and it would not wear out like a stretch band elasticity. The Vasa is essentially ropes with paddles using a pulley attached to a large flywheel.
Is there any advantage to being in the prone position for swim erg training? Because it seems to also involve a number of downsides (due to not floating in water): lying on your chest, holding your head up, taking up lots of floor space, dangling your legs out, getting sweaty on a bench, etc.
Seems to me it would make more sense to sit or stand upright and pull downwards. Head is naturally positioned, torso can rotate, you could look in a mirror and see your form, etc.
Bonus credit: You could stand on one of these:
and get some kick training at the same time (either for kick strength or just rotation/balance/timing practice)
I really need my knee to recover so I can get away from the computer…
In my third year of Triathlon, and just shelled out for “the bike” this year.
So personally my objection to the Vasa price is that there are only so many items I can compress into my yearly budget, not to mention get approval from my wife
Nordic skiers have been using something called a “roller board” since way back before Bill Koch was skiing. I’m sure NordicSkier would be able to lend some details on how long the Norwegians, Swedes & Finns have been using them at their national team level. We had some at the University back when I skied in the early 90’s. You should be able to find instructions for a roller board online–free & make it out of leftover lumber.
I picked up an old NordicTrack XC ski trainer off Craigslist with the intention of making a DIY Vasa but never quite got around to it. The guts of the NordicTrack, a weights bench and some wood/steel, a bit of ingenuity and you’re there.
Dont get me wrong, I really want the Vasa. I tend to make one big purchase a year for Tri (wheels, wetsuit, trainer, etc) per year so this would be it - but its not me you have to convince.
Thanks for the feedback on the bands. If I had more floorspace, I’d rig up a pulley/weight system but now you’ve given me something to think about.
I just coincidentally found the same NordickTrack Ski machine on my local classifieds for next to nothing. I want to go take a look this weekend. I know you have not done the Vasa “conversion” but I was wondering if you know the answer to the following.
Do the hand/ski pull function independent of the shoe/leg piece?
It seems there’s a flywheel on the legs for resistance. Ideally I’d like to scrap completely the leg piece and simply use the rest of the machine to rig with as you said a bit of creativity.
Any hints as to what or how you were planning on doing the conversion?
The arm mechanism is entirely independent of the foot tracks, and is a simple friction system, which if memory serves me correctly, may be adjustable.
The foot tracks have a large flywheel which is driven from the tracks via rollers which have one-way bearings, so they spin the flywheel when moving backwards, but don’t when moving forwards. I was going to use a cord which looped over these same rollers to drive the flywheel. That should give a much more realistic feel in my opinion, as opposed to just the friction of the arm mechanism, although would be more complicated to rig up.
