I need to add to my already limited pool training, which is limited by kids and work schedule and severely limited pool hours at the few moments that I can actually get to a pool on the weekdays.
I’m contemplating buying the Vasa swim trainer outright, but I’d like to start with a less expensive option to see how it goes and would like to give stretch-cords type gear a try. I’ve seen some videos online on how it works and seems pretty straightforward.
I know this won’t substitute for real swimming, but if I can add it to my 2-3 weekly swim sessions, I figure that would be significantly better than nothing at all.
Anybody use these cords regularly and successfully, and have good results? If so, what’s your setup, workout, and any pointers?
When I added stretch cords to my routine, my swimming got slower. My unscience based guess is that it added fatigue to my arms while adding little to technique. For most triathletes strength and fitness are not the limiters in the swim. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is really a good substitute for time in the pool.
If you can pick a halo bench for used it might help, they include sheila taorminas book, which I can’t find on amazon, for free with it. The technique drills she suggests are probably better on that bench, or see if you can use a weight bench since they’re pretty much the same thing and make your own, and try her drills. This way your form won’t break down completely.
If you are going to use the cords, I would use them as a tool to build power rather than replacing actual swim time in a pool.
For example, dont go out and do 30 minutes of straight stretch cord work. You will probably blow your shoulder up and get bored out of your mind.
Also, switch it up. Go 2 arms at a time. 1 arm at a time. Lay on the ground and get some backstroke work in. IF used properly, cords can work well for swimming.
Got the cordz and needed them for too much time in hotels with no or limited size pools. I think you might have to really limit the tension to get more duration, it can also be boring, so maybe an ipod and/or interval timer. Mentally you are doing something swim related, but you could blow yourself out in minutes. This could be a good time to watch your hand/elbow angles on the catch and work on that. Still a fan of the Grant Hackett freestyle video on Youtube
The HALO templates promote technique in a few different ways. First, they promote “High elbow catch” with a flexible rim. Flex is important because when you begin to fatigue in the swim, either your technique breaks down or your tempo slows down. The flexible rim doesn’t prevent high-elbow-catch break-down, it just serves as an instant self-correcting reminder that your stroke failed on that pull and you need to do better on the next pull.
Second, the Halo templates are clear and printed with orientation lines so you can observe “hand pitch” while pulling your stroke. Hand-pitch is important because you need to make sure you push water in the right direction once you have achieved a good high-elbow catch. You would be surprised at how many swimmers push water in arcs rather than directly back past their toes.
Swimming isn’t strictly a power sport. Unlike being strapped to a bike pedal and all your applied power goes into the chain-drive, you can apply a lot of power to the water and go no where. Swimming is a balance of having the arm(lever) in a position to hold the water and applied power in the proper direction. All of it has to be in the equation.
IMO stretch cords can help build your strength. Just like any other workout session, you need to plan ahead when your will be doing this. I would not recommend you do this workout before you swim. You should have recovery time between each stretch cord workout. I like to do them as a second workout when I swim in the morning. So MWF evening. If I get broken down come Friday, I may skip it or move it to Saturday for the extra rest.
I can be boring and you should use lighter bands that have alot of stretch. You can simply move further away to increase the tension. To break up the workout, you can break the stroke down into three parts, the top catch (full extension to catch), middle pull (from catch to belly button) and tricep finish (belly button to hip) . This is one of the workouts I do. I have a clock i place where i can see the min. hand.
5 x 1 min easy full pulls focusing on high elbow catch with 20 seconds between each
5 min of stretching shoulders in all direction using wall or door. Very important to improve flexibility.
3 sets 1 min just the top 12" of the catch, 1 min middle pull, 1 min. stroke finish all easy but fast rate, after each set, i stand and hold the cords to tight to my chest at the shoulders and rotate right to left focusing on rotating from the hips. You can through in a little bicep work as well.
2 x 5 min full pull with 1 min between, ease up on intensity as you begin to tire to maintain cadence.
5 min of stretching to complete the workout, ankles, shoulders, legs etc.
.
Just thought I’d report on my last 2-3 weeks of stretch cord use. Keep in mind I’m a slow swimmer (1:50/100yds for 1500SCY) so don’t use me as an example for what a fast swimmer needs.
I now own two pairs of strech cords - they were cheap <$15 each. One was ‘regular’ and one was ‘light.’
My first week of doing swimlike arm pulls with a door attachment, I could barely even sustain the regular cord for 30 seconds - it felt impossible! And I got some big time soreness the following day. Ouch.
Got the light cord after that, and while that was still very hard at first, it improved quickly such that I could do sets of 2 minutes of swim motion before fatiguing. It improved even more the next week, got it up to 3-4 minutes and it felt much better. After that, I could actually go back to the regular cords and go for 1+ minute.
I still swam 2x/week (I wish I could go 5+ but infant and job and limited pool hours are limiting me) and did cords 3x on top. Have just started a ‘regimen’, but a 20-30 minute session of 2-4 minute intervals with 1 min rest is what I do. It’s tough.
It’s still to early for me to tell definitively if it’s making me faster, but I can tell that my lap times are about 1-2sec/100yds faster. It could be due to me just swimming better in the pool and have nothing to do with the cords, but I do feel that the soreness I experienced was in the swim muscles and can’t help but feel that the cords are helping. In particular, I feel like I have a ‘weak’ pull but was not strong enough to make good use of paddles, even smaller ones. The cords allow me to really focus on the strength part of the swimming, which I feel I’m particularly weak at as a nonswimmer background and no real history of doing hard swim intervals.
I’m going to keep at it for now, but am still contemplating going Vasa if I can keep up a dryland regimen on a regular basis.
I’ve been doing the swim cords 2x/week and have actually had time to swim 1x this week after a 2 week layoff and only 1 and 2 swims the weeks prior. So a lot of swim time off. (It’s intentional - doing a bike build.)
I was surprised in that my speed in the pool hasn’t dropped at all. It’s still slow as mud compared to most folks, but I can still cruise at 1:50/100y pace for 30 minutes without dying, which is pretty much as fast as I go. I did notice that after 30 minutes, I started to fatigue compared to when I’m swimming 3-5x/week, and then the paces dropped, but that was expected.
My band workouts have been getting better slowly - I’m still doing 3-4:00 sets with 1-2 mins rest in between. I’m trying to cut down the rest time, but it’s surprisingly tough, as the arm/shoulder set really gets toasted after 4 mins. I can actually watch a tv show while doing it (although I still sweat a storm and work pretty dang hard on the pulls.) I do about 30-40 mins worth and hope to do more. Have been doing this on Tue/Thu.
For sure, I can conclude that the swim cords will not alone replace my swimming, at least the way I’m doing them right now. My arms/back were a bit sore the day after this week’s 60 min swim, so there are muscles used that the swim cords just don’t hit enough (no surprise there.) However, I’m also pretty sure that my rate of swim decline was slowed by the cords.
I’m definitely intriguied by the VASA trainer, and if I had more time, I’d get it. But alas, I wouldn’t have time to crank it out on the VASA. One of the unexpected benefits of the swim cords is that you can wedge it in a door and still watch your toddler in a childproofed room - that alone makes it worth it to me, as it’s the only workout I can do while watching her. I throw in pushups and cord shoulder presses in the rest time between the sets, and it’s a pretty good functional strength workout as well (I’m under no illusion that the pushups will make me faster, but it’s good for general health/fitness.)