This is an email from a coach of a major University from a Division 1 Women’s swim program.
We have implemented some “new” strategies in the weight room that I am VERY excited about. Specifically, we have transitioned our max strength efforts into a more usable form of strength that I believe is transferable to the water. I have felt over the past few years that athletes that I have coached have been strong but it was not functional. Based on my readings of Bompa, Gambetta and others as well as valuable input from Jim Richardson at Michigan, we have implemented a cycle of work we started the week of January 4th.
Jim calls it GH (growth horomone) work and Bompa refers to it as PE (power endurance) work. Essentially, we do circuits in the weight room with 3-4 exercises on a prescribed work to rest ratio at 20-40% of 1 rpm. The week of Jan 4th we did it 3 days (M,W,F which was way too much) for 3 cycles of 4 exercises at 30 on/ 30 off continuous for 12 minutes total. We adjusted the next week and only went two days but increased it to 4 cycles of 30/30 on 4 exercises for 16 minutes. We built up to 5 cycles and are currently down to 2 cycles of 3 exercises at 20 on/40 off.
Our exercises vary each workout…cleans, high pulls, squats, front squat to press etc. We were not very good at this at first. I want them doing a rep every 1.0-1.5 seconds. The work has certainly changed their bodies…lean as heck. Also, I am seeing some of the work transfer into the water. I believe that this is pretty good stuff and can’t wait to develop it further this summer and into the future.
Here is the fasterswimming comments in regards to this email by John Coffman:
Their work in the weight room is similar to how we’ve included cluster sets (ie Power Cleans @ 70%+ of 1 rep max – 5 sets of 5 singles with 3-5 seconds between reps), speed work in base exercises (bench, pull-ups, etc) and complexes (which we use throughout a peaking cycle).
I would call what they are doing power endurance work… probably more similar to what we do in dryland as to time/duration. I like to stick with higher % of max – as with power cleans above – and get in some harder, shorter fast efforts (bench, pull-ups, complexes) in the weight room and do more power endurance work with things like Squat-Thrust + Push-up + Jump.
Heading into a peaking phase we go hard and test – for instance I’d expect high-level swimmers to be able to do 4 x 1:00 SQ/TH/P/J and get 25+ reps per set on 2:00 rest. Or just plain SQ/TH, I’d expect 3 x 2:00 getting 70+ reps per set on 1:00 rest. We rest more for the power endurance dryland and less for the more general endurance dryland. Power endurance for us is also timed push-ups… upper level swimmers should be over 100 reps in 3:00, and we’ve had many guys get over 150.
If they are getting good results – that’s what matters. Power endurance should be a focus at the end of the season – so by that measure I totally agree. I prefer to keep maximal strength work in the picture to some degree, as maximal strength is foundational to all other types of strength – even in a peaking/power endurance phase. I prefer to get in the energy-system work in mainly with dryland, as above, and their work-to-rest patterns in the weight room are similar to what we do with tabata sets in hard dryland (ie 8 x :20 work, :10 rest of SQ/TH/P/J… or :30/:30, etc). We mix up work to rest ratios in regular dryland workouts all the time, and usually in shorter efforts (like tabata). The longer sets are mainly for testing.
The testing part is where we are probably a little apart. I like to test dryland at least twice within 8 weeks of the top meet – like was outlined in our monthly dryland. We had 2 test days in Jan (start of month and end of month +/-) assuming big meets coming up through the end of Feb, start of March. We try to test some lifting – not all – so maybe power clean, pull-up and bench sometime in Jan. That way we can get a good fix on numbers (for %’s for cluster sets, etc) AND because it has always been highly motivational for the team(s). They are more confident heading into the big meets knowing that they are in great general condition (dryland) and are the strongest they’ve ever been (lifting) – and they have the numbers for both to prove it (to themselves…).
The lifting we do is probably more similar to track & field sprinters, and we do significant energy-system work (conditioning) with dryland so that we can avoid over-use injuries in the pool and still have great general work capacity.
