The rest period is over and it’s time to get back to training in the pool, but there is a problem: as soon as you start swimming a long way, you notice that you can’t keep up with your usual rhythm. The muscles are there, but the fuel that moves them appears to be low. To do?
Like everything of value in life, swimming requires consistency . Our cardiorespiratory system, as good as it is, is not perfect, and needs to be awakened little by little so that it returns to its optimal levels after a long rest.
Although HIIT training is very useful for these cases, these routines to retrain swimming that we propose can help you make that transition in a more friendly and safe way.
The best routines to retrain swimming
When swimming again after a while without doing it , it is difficult to maintain a high swimming pace – at VO2 max – for times of 200 seconds or more. When this happens, we can take different routes: we can play with the variables of distance, repetitions, speed and rest time to achieve a challenging but not excessive effort. Using this to our advantage, we can build routines to regain swimming rhythm easily .
1. Intense effort over long distances
This routine sets us a difficult but achievable goal. It consists of unfolding our potential as much as possible, for relatively long distances. However, we can handle the effort by adding a few seconds of rest between each rep. A good example of this routine would be doing 20 reps in 100 meters, keeping about 10 seconds of rest between each rep.
In this routine we must swim with strength and with a control of the breath, but feeling free to ignore the times. Instead, we should focus on maintaining a consistent swimming rhythm throughout the entire routine.
2. Moderate-intense effort in short distances
The second routine uses a different strategy, doing maximum effort repetitions over shorter distances and varying the rest time.
This is an example of how to do the routine, using a range of 40 repetitions per 50 meters:
- 16 repetitions x 50 meters: every four repetitions are done as fast as possible, and then return to normal rhythm. Rest time between reps is 10 seconds.
- 12 repetitions x 50 meters: every 3 repetitions the journey is made as fast as possible. Rest time increased to 15 seconds.
- 8 repetitions x 50 meters: the speed increase occurs every 2 repetitions. Rest time increases to 20 seconds.
- 4 repetitions x 50 meters: all repetitions are done swimming as fast as possible. Rest time is 25-30 seconds.
If you feel energetic, you can repeat the entire routine after 2 minutes of rest.
3. Quick routine (30 minutes or less)
If the first two routines are difficult for you, you can try a somewhat demanding but less time consuming routine.
After doing a free warm-up for 5 minutes, do 20 repetitions of 25 meters each, slightly slowing down every 5 repetitions. The rest time is 15 seconds.
To end the day, you can swim 800 meters with mittens, with maximum effort in the first 200 meters, medium intensity in the next 400 meters, and finishing with maximum effort in the remaining 200 meters.
Reference
- Chrabot, M. Early Season Swim Workouts For Improving Race Pace. For TrainingPeaks. [Revised May 2018].
