Dryland for swimmers is becoming more and more mainstream as coaches are realizing the benefits of strength training. But are swimmers doing effective dryland programs? Teams that have coaches who are well versed on strength and conditioning principles or use strength coaches tend to have great programs. Some teams on the other hand, just do 30 minutes of core exercises before practice twice a week. This kind of program will not get swimmers the results they deserve. In order to avoid being a team with an ineffective dryland program, make sure you do not make the following three mistakes…
#1 Not Doing Any Dryland
The biggest mistake you can make regarding dryland is to not do any dryland at all. It sounds silly, but often dryland is the first thing to go when a team is time crunched, does not have the pool space, or when a coach feels like they do not have the equipment they need. Something is better than nothing, especially with dryland programs. Many swimmers can be challenged with body weight exercises, which require little space and no equipment. There is no excuse for your swimmers to not do dryland.
#2 Not Using Weights in Dryland
Some teams have access to weights or a weight room but choose not to use it. Other coaches avoid using weights because they believe it may increase the risk of injury in their swimmers. As I have previously discussed, youth athletes lifting weights is not harmful, and when done properly, has a small risk of injury. Of course, with age group swimmers, your time would be better spent working on mastering bodyweight exercises and improving body awareness rather than hitting the squat rack. But for older, senior level swimmers, resistance training in their dryland program can lead to massive performance gains, decrease the risk of injury, and help give swimmers a solid foundation they need before they go to college and lift in a collegiate weight room.
#3 Doing too Many High Repetition Exercises
Swimmers are aerobic beasts. With all the hours they spend in the pool, extra cardio is not the best way to improve their performance. When doing high repetition exercises, you are improving muscular endurance as opposed muscular strength or hypertrophy. Working on improving muscular endurance in sport specific patterns in the pool will be a better use of a swimmer’s time. This is something many teams already do, whether they realize it or not. Using power towers, cords, or repeats of fast 25 and 50s are all great ways to work on muscular endurance.
Your dryland workouts would be more effective if teams focused on lower repetition exercises (<12 reps). The adaptations made from lower rep ranges will be a combination of strength and hypertrophy (muscle growth). High rep exercises (>12) can lead to muscle growth and strength gains, but it will be much more taxing as the swimmer will have reach muscle failure for muscle growth and strength gains. This will leave your swimmers more fatigued for their swimming workouts.
It is important to note that the intensity of exercise must be increased (i.e. increased weight, harder variation) when doing lower rep exercises to improve strength or build muscle mass. Doing the same amount of weight you would do for a normal 25-rep set of squats for only 8 reps will not lead to a meaningful change. How you execute an exercise is more important that what exercise you pick. Strength and hypertrophy adaptions will allow swimmers to become more robust, powerful, and efficient in the water. A bonus is that strength training can improve recovery too, allowing for even more training!
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References:
Lopes TJ, Neiva HP, Gonçalves CA, Nunes C, Marinho DA. The effects of dry-land strength training on competitive sprinter swimmers. J Exerc Sci Fit. 2021 Jan;19(1):32-39. doi: 10.1016/j.jesf.2020.06.005. Epub 2020 Jun 25. PMID: 32922461; PMCID: PMC7473998.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32922461/