One Of The Biggest Mistakes Of Land Training... And How To Avoid It
Today we read an article from SwimSwam.com about 5 exercises from directly, DIRECTLY, translate to swimming performance.
This got the cogs turning and the blood pressure higher.
What’s more is that these 5 movements were called ‘CrossFit Moves’, whatever that means. So, why don’t we break this article apart, have a look at the exercises and claims, then cast our thoughts.
Okay, let’s go
Kipping Pull-Ups: …. Oh, dear. What a way to start this list, with one of the most stupid exercises. We’ve all seen CrossFitters doing this ridiculous shit. Throwing themselves up at the bar in a mad attempt to complete as many ‘Pull Ups’ as possible in a small window of time. This will only contribute to shoulder overload, SLAP tears, basically everything you don’t want. Nor does it help with body position control as you are flapping about like an idiot. Swimming athletes, in particular seniors, should be incredibly able to perform strict Pull-Ups from a dead hang with zero contribution from the lower body. Failure here is a huge gap in the athletes’ development. The author here refers to ‘muscle memory’ during the Kipping Pull-Up to Butterfly… well, for one there is no such thing as ‘muscle memory’, rather engrained neuromuscular pathways, and second, during Pull-Ups, we are NOT trying to get better at Butterfly, we are trying to get better at Pull-Ups! Stop trying to link the two so closely.
Toes to Bar: This is an abdominal exercise and nothing more. Having a stronger trunk is great and all, we don’t disagree with that but how exactly does this movement DIRECTLY relate to improved swimming performance? The answer, it does not. There are hundreds of trunk exercises that athletes could be doing, one is not necessarily better than the rest, it’s what’s appropriate for each athlete. We would rather get an athlete performing a holding exercise to train their body awareness and body position, with the aim to reduce drag forces in the water.
Jumping Squats (CMJ): The first exercise on this list that should feature in most athlete development programmes, especially at a younger age. This helps to train the slow stretch-shortening cycle. However, suggesting a jump immediate after a countermovement, like the one shown in the SwimSwam article, is a poor choice to activity impact swimming performance when you investigate the mechanical profiles of rebounding jumps. The mechanisms trained in this type of exercise do not feature in swimming competitions! We’ve spoken about this before in an article on land training for explosive starts which you can read here.
Thrusters: Nope… no…. just stop pushing this exercise onto swimmers. Swimmers, and most athletes, barely need to touch an Olympic barbell. A front squat into a press is doing what exactly? This might be a great conditioning exercise for the general population… but why does a swimmer need extra land-based training like this, surely they get all they need from the pool work.
Push Press: … The author here makes some vague claims to how they feel the connection between this exercise and the start of the Butterfly stroke. Right, so what? Feeling some subjective connection is not a rationale to include this in a swimming land training programme, nor claim it has DIRECT transfer to swimming performance. Also, it’s worth noting that the pressing movement of a barbell overhead can place the shoulder (Glenohumeral joint) in a vulnerable position to impingement and may also compromise the low back position should the athlete lack sufficient overhead motion and lumbopelvic control. In a sport where impingements and back injuries are fairly commonplace, this exercise seems not only obsolete but potentially dangerous.
The take-home message is this, you cannot say an exercise has DIRECT transfer to swimming. You can only carefully analyse the needs and demands of swimming for each stroke in the peer-reviewed literature and apply quality training methods and best suit both the athlete and the sport.