I received a new Vasa Ergometer last week. I have only been on it for a week now and my first initial impressions are
that it is awesome. The USA Olympic Triathlon Coach swears by it and I can not wait to see what it can do for me.
For someone that does not have the time to get in the water daily I feel like a Vasa Ergometer is a must.
-Saul
www.vasatrainer.com
Good to hear. I have been thinking of getting one, not to replace the time in the water, but to build up endurance. I’d still get in the pool 4 times a week, but I’d like to build up endurance with the days not in the pool and not have to worry about form.
I have been using one off and on for a couple of years. It was really helpful initially to build the strength necessary to swim with a proper catch. I now use it mainly to try to help improve my strength. After warming up, I adjust the damper setting to a 6 or 7 and do concentrate on long strokes with good form.
Saul, after trying out Scott’s I decided to get the Vasa Swim Trainer (not the ergometer) mainly because I am using it for strength and not aerobic work. Like you, it is tough for me to get to the pool for 8 months a year…for 4 months a year, I have outdoor pool and open water swimming 15 min ride from work/home. I am also looking forward to having better upper body conditioning going into next year’s XC ski season, which for me, has often been a limiter during explosive starts, sprints and steep uphills, where some anaerobic work actually comes into effect (unlike triathlon, which is purely aerobic aside for perhaps the first 50 m of the swim and final 100m of the run).
As some of you know, Vasa is named after the famed Vasaloppet, a 90K XC ski race in Sweden. The Vasa Swim trainer, was orginally developed as a device for off season Nordic skiing conditioning, so I get the best of both worlds with the trainer.
Dev
Not having had any experience with a Vasa (std, not the erg), what’s the difference between it and a Total Gym? You can picked up used but never really used 
TG’s in the classifieds for ~$50. As an incline board (for skiing) the TG should be every bit as good. What about for swimming?
Khai,
The big difference between the Vasa Trainer and a Total Gym is the size. (No jokes please).
The Vasa Trainer on the other, even at its lowest setting, I have enough arm and hand clearance for the free-style and butterfly strokes. As well as any strengthening movement from the prone (chest-down) position (I am 6 foot 3 with a 34 inch sleeve).
The Vasa Trainer is built extremely well, I have personally used it for the past 4 years; 3 times per week for my own strengthening and I have not had to replace a single part. Friends and Family, who have owned the home version of the Total Gym, have had it break down because the cables snap or the handles break. I have even seen the rails that the home Total Gym slides on begin to flex.
I own both the Vasa Trainer and Vasa Ergometer, I love them both. They each take up about as much space as a treadmill. The Trainer helps to keep me strong and lean throughout the year. In addition, the Ergometer has really helped to keep me on schedule with my swim workouts. I do not have to worry about making time to travel to the pool, gas, membership fees, etc. I can really focus on training at higher tempos and threshold paces with the Ergometer. Last season, I essentially did all of my swim training on the Ergometer and I set a PR.
Personally, I felt that it was a better investment for my performance to get a Vasa Trainer and Ergometer then for a Disc wheel.
All the best,
-Joe
Joe - do you have the stainless version of the trainer? I’m trying to figure out if the extra $ is worth it (I do live near the ocean, so air is salty, but not sure how big a difference that makes). Seems like quite a premium.
Fzzl,
I have the Vasa Trainer Pro. The front and rear legs (Stanchions) are black epoxy coated. The monorail is Stainless Steel. However, on the newer models the monorail is an extruded Aluminum. My Vasa Trainer is light when I need to move it. The new aluminum monorail makes it even lighter. I had a chance to see the new model at the 70.3 Ironman Championship in Clearwater. You should do well with the Pro, unless you are keeping it outside or if it sits on the pool deck.
-Joe
Thanks for your detailed response, Joe. I’ve not spent any time on a Total Gym either, just the slant board used by the provincial biathlon team (and I certainly wasn’t “swimming”). I’ve seen (used) TG’s selling for ~$50 whereas I don’t see used Vasa’s pretty much ever - and new they’re close to a grand, so I figured it might be worthwhile exploring. (I think Monty uses one as well?) Maybe it’s just because I’m really short, but I can’t imagine my hands hitting the ground from even a moderately low bench if I was pulling with a high elbow… The cables being short I can see might be an issue though, and I’m sure the build quality doesn’t match.
It sounds like you’ve got a pretty nice setup at home with both versions of the Vasa. Add a Computrainer and a Woodway treadmill into the mix and you’ve got the ultimate home setup!
Khai, I agree with Joe, the Vasa Trainer is really well built. I ended up buying mine second hand for $400 Canadian…I am sure if you search hard enough you will find it. I am really looking forward to how this helps my Nordic ski performance next year. WRT swimming, I am sure it will help the early vertical forearm catch. At the lowest setting I can go continuously for as long as I want and actually get an aerobic workout, but I will get bored before that. So I prefer to use it for strength work and incorporate “swimming sets” and “XC ski sets” as part of a weight circuit. That being said, I am only on week 1 with a new toy, so talk to me in 52 weeks when you can really make an evaluation on new toys…as we know with most toys, if you are using them 1 year later, that’s when you really know if there is something…kindof like dating a new girl…you really don’t know if there is upside for some time…everything is hot initially 
My current home gym setup: Vasa Trainer Pace Master Pro Plus Treadmill Insideride Rollers TACX Basic Power Trainer (predecessor to Flow) Elliptical Trainer Free weights and dumbells Weight machine
Just missing the Endless Pool, but that certainly has not been totally ruled out…I’m just too cheap to buy one a the moment Also my back yard is not long enough to do a Conrad Stoltz so the Endless Pool would have to be the only option
.
You need a bigger yard. You could have a 50m pool installed right next door to the 50m small bore range. You are right on trails, are you not? 
You know, one of the guys who aside from running a graphics business, coaches XC skiing and biathlon has a shooting range in his basement! My house is 1K from the trailhead. Use to be 100m away, till they flattened the forest to build more homes. I guess the upside is more new ashphalt to roller ski on in the fall. The good news is that they are supposed to be building a community centre with a new pool that is 50m from my work (also pretty close to home)…currently the closest year round pool is 10K away.
Anyway, I think you’d find the vasa trainer to be really nice. If you search hard enough you should find one second hand eventually.
Thanks for the post but can you explain the difference between aerobic and strength gains in the two machines. If the trainer is making you stronger would you not also pick up some aerobic benefit? I’m fairly new to swimming (3yrs) and still slow by ST standards but I would like to have something at home to add to my pool trips to help me mainly with form and strength.
I figure 20 strokes (10 on each hand) at the highest incline is “strength” as this is sub 30 seconds and is using fastwitch muscle fiber. 100 strokes on each arm on the lowest incline is getting into the aerobic range and using slowtwitch muscle fiber. This takes about 5 minutes. Not sure where the crossover point is, but even 200 strokes on the vasa trainer, time wise is in the range of a pool 400, but is much tougher from a resistance perspective. However, from a cardio perspective, I simply cannot get my heart rate up at all on the Vasa trainer. There just are not enough muscles recruited compared to real swimming (abs, lower back, legs are added in for real swimming, adding to the cardio load).
Dev
Joe,
Last night I watched one of the videos on the Vasa website and was surprised and disconcerted to hear how LOUD the flywheel sounded. I haven’t seen anybody comment on this aspect of the Vasa erg. It seemed noisy enough to me to interfere with listening to music while you use it and with the ability of anybody else in the room to watch TV or carry on a conversation. What is your experience with the noisiness issue?
Susan
Thanks Joe. The trainer will reside indoors, so the pro should do the trick.
Susan,
The fan noise is not a problem at all. If I have the TV (20 inch TV) running in the background or if I am following along with the Swimervals DVD, my TV volume is only about one quarter to one third of the way up. Honestly it is no louder than an Indoor fluid trainer.
All the best,
-Joe
Personally, I felt that it was a better investment for my performance to get a Vasa Trainer and Ergometer then for a Disc wheel.** **
Or just about any other piece of tri equipment. I bought the space saver and have trained on it six days a week for six months now. Never have I achieved remotely similar consistency when I had to rely on pool schedules. I think guys like Dev who can crank out easy pulling on the ergometer are by far in the minority. I expect that your average triathlete could benefit hugely from the consistency provided by the ergometer.
Chad
Joe,
Thanks for the reassuring report. I can live with fluid trainer level noise.
Here’s my next question: Where do you put the TV so you can see it while swimming on the erg?
Susan