Post says it all. What’s a quality band. No pools open and need to do something.
I haven’t used “proper” swim bands since the 90’s and these days I just use different thickness resistance bands…
Post says it all. What’s a quality band. No pools open and need to do something.
I’m using Swim Cordz green.
Blue Theraband tubing in bulk 25 ft for $15 on Amazon. Cut to length, tie handles at each end, and run it through an old bike tube to protect against wear.
SPRI red works well for swim strength workouts. Gets quite hard by 25m pulls. I still use these 1x.weekly for swim strength. Get on amazon
Post says it all. What’s a quality band. No pools open and need to do something.
StrechCordz with Paddles in the blue version. Currently swimoutlet.com has these on sale for $38.74. I’ve been using this same pair for about 17 yrs now and they are still going strong. (I have no financial interest or connection to StrechCordz or swimoutlet.com.)
Finis Dryland bands. I have medium and heavy (green and red). I can’t recommend enough.
I have bought a variety of elastic bands during the lockdown and these are the best. I have showed them to some friends when they have come by and they have bought them too.
The loop at the end allows you to attach it to a pole but the most important part is the knot at the end. That knot allows you to use it as door anchor (I wanted to attach a pic but whatever reason Finis doesn’t show it). Whatever you buy, make sure it has that knot. For example these
Exergenie with hand paddles I made from old swim paddles
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Same. Although I am going to order the green version also for a lighter resistance for a higher rep workout.
Also, to the OP, there are actually 3 bands I use in swim training. In order of how often they are used:
- ankle band, made from a section of an old tire tube
- dryland pull bands. StretchCordz and Finis make pretty much exactly the same product. I recommend getting ones with paddles rather than a round handle for best swim practice, although if you need to use them for other stuff the handle could be used with a foot/shoe. You might also want multiple resistance levels for different rep targets.
- swim resistance band. This one goes around your waist and an anchor outside of the pool. Very underrated tool, but also not accessible for everyone to use. Modern college programs use weights and pulleys for this instead. Sort of a ‘tether’ but you should just be able to make it ~25y/m (I wouldn’t recommend a 50m band)
I’ll piggy back on this thread, I already have the bands, but can you guys recommend workouts to do with the bands? Because just going at it for 30 mins is boring and hard. What are you guys actually doing?
the dryland cords are meant to be part of strength training. not 30 min straight. I do sets of 50-60 as part of a circuit routine like bands - leg exercise - push exercise - pull exercise - more legs - repeat.
the other use is muscle memory. Starting very slow with perfect (high elbow/ EVF) technique, building to speedier reps. You could also simulate the ‘YMCA’ drill where you pause at certain parts of the stroke; in the water you would scull but with the bands you could mimic the scull or just hold, checking your form in a mirror.
Thank you. That gives me some stuff to work with.