Triathlon swimming made easy

by Terry Laughlin

  Because a swimmer's shoulder rotates 1,200 to 1,500 times every mile, a prevention plan is clearly in order. The most important muscles to strengthen are the rotator cuff muscles, which anchor and stabilize the head of the humerus, allowing the other shoulder muscles to perform effectively, and the scapular (shoulder blade) stabilizers, which protect against pinched tendons and rotator cuff stress. The primary virtue of this routine is that it requires little time (10 minutes, three times per week) and little equipment. All you need for those exercises specifying the use of resistance is StrechCordzTM (www.nzmfg.com), a theraband, or light weights — keep it light enough to do at least 10 to 15 repetitions of each exercise. Work until you feel fatigue; rest and do a second set, for at least 20 to 30 reps of each. Try to build to 30 or more repetitions in a single set (no second set necessary when you do) before fatigue.

  Strengthen Your Rotator Cuff Muscles

  Exercise #1. Stand with arms at your sides, a dumbbell in each hand. Roll your shoulders forward, up toward your ears, back, then down again, moving through the greatest possible range of movement. Alternate one front-to-back rotation, with one in the opposite direction.

  Exercise #2. Lie on your side with your head propped on your hand and your top arm against your side, bent at a right angle with knuckles forward and palm down, holding a light weight. Keep the upper arm against your body as you slowly rotate your forearm until your knuckles point to the sky then return at the same speed.

  You can also do this exercise while standing, with StrechCordzTM or a theraband for resistance. Hold your arms close to your body in a "shake-hands" position with your elbows held into your ribs. (Place a thin cushion or pillow between elbow and ribs for greater stability.) Grasp the ends of the StrechCordzTM or theraband in your hands. Rotate your forearms slowly out to the side, then return at the same speed.

  Exercise #3. Sit or stand with your arms straight and hanging at your side. Leading with your thumb, slowly raise your arms to just below and just in front of your shoulder, pause for a moment, then return at the same speed. Use a light weight of 5 to 8 pounds, a theraband or StrechCordzTM for resistance.

  Exercise #4. Bend at the waist, with your arms hanging straight from your shoulders. (Soften your knees to avoid lower-back strain.) Leading with your knuckles and slightly-bent elbows, raise your arms slowly to shoulder level, pause for a moment, then return at the same speed.

  Strengthen Your Scapular Stabilizers

  Exercise #1. Sit on a firm surface with your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands on seat or arm rests. Straighten your elbows and push down, lifting your hips off the chair. (If necessary, help by pushing a bit with your feet; as you get stronger let your arms do more of the work.) You can do this one at work! At the pool, do this on a stack of kickboards.

  Exercise #2. Place your hands on a stable surface (a starting block at the pool, counter, desk, the back of a couch, almost anything that's 3 to 4 feet high). Position your feet so that you are in a semi-standing "push-up" position with hands at shoulder width and arms straight. Do a slow pushup — but without bending your elbows. Keep your arms straight, and lower your chest a few inches as your shoulder blades pinch together. Then, using shoulder muscles, press back up, rounding your shoulders and spreading your shoulder blades as much as possible. As you grow stronger, move toward a more horizontal position, eventually doing it in a pushup or "plank" position.

  Exercise #3. Attach a theraband or StrechCordzTM to a stable object at waist or chest height. Grasp the ends and with your arms straight in front and your shoulders down away from your ears, pull your shoulders back (pinching shoulder blades together) then return them forward at the same speed, until you feel your shoulder blades stretch wide. Move slowly enough to feel the muscles in the middle of your back contract and relax.

  Exercise #4. Lie on your stomach, with a rolled towel under your forehead and a pillow under your hips. Extend your arms forward from your shoulders (biceps two inches from your ears), elbows straight and thumbs up. Raise your arms as far as possible, without bending your elbows; hold them at their highest point for a moment, then lower slowly. Feel the effort from your shoulders to the middle of your back. Start with no weight; work up to 2 to 5 pounds. This and the next exercise can also be done on a swiss ball.

  Exercise #5. Lie on your stomach, with a rolled towel under your forehead and a pillow under your hips. Extend your arms to the sides at shoulder level with palms down or forward, (thumbs pointing up). Keeping elbows straight, pinch your shoulder blades together as you lift your arms; pause at the highest point for a moment, then lower slowly. Do this with or without light weights.

  Stretch the Muscles Under the Shoulder

  Swimming promotes natural flexibility and fights the stiffness of aging better than any other sport, but it's not enough by itself. If you do no others, at least use the stretches described below. They will target the muscles you use most. Do one or both of each pair of exercises, holding each stretch for 10 or more yoga breaths, before and particularly after swimming.

  Stretch #1. Raise one arm above your head, dropping your hand behind your shoulder. Lean the back of your elbow against a corner of a wall and press until you feel a stretch from the elbow down to your armpit and below.

  Stretch #2. Put both arms overhead in the streamlined position. Lean first to the left side as far as possible, then to the right. Feel the pull all the way down your side.

  Stretch the Muscles in Front of the Shoulder

  Stretch #1. Hold one arm out to your side at a right angle; bend your elbow 90 degrees with fingers up and palm forward. Brace the inside surface of your hand-forearm-elbow against the corner of a wall with your elbow at shoulder height. Press against the wall, turning your opposite hip back until you feel a stretch across the front of your shoulder and upper chest.

  Stretch #2. Repeat with your elbow braced at ear level.

  Stretch the Muscles in Back of the Shoulder

  Stretch #1. Place the back of your hand on your lower back with your elbow out to the side. Brace the inside of your elbow against the corner of a wall, while turning your opposite hip forward until you feel a stretch across the back of your shoulder.

  Stretch #2. Put one arm across your body so that the shoulder is under your chin and your hand, forearm, and upper arm parallel to the ground. Without turning your body, use your other hand to pull the arm as close to your chest as possible.

  Strength Training the Total Immersion Way

  Many swimmers are tempted to think they can overpower the water by bulking up. But water, being a fluid medium, just doesn't respond to sheer power. The water's resistance will always surpass any strength you can apply and, besides, it takes a special kind of strength, accurately applied, to overcome the water's resistance.

  The strength you build with, say, intensive bench presses is best at helping you do more intensive bench presses. The world's best swimmers don't have bulky or highly defined muscles. The strength that produces world records, as well helping anyone to swim efficiently, fluently, and enjoyably is more like that exhibited by the slim, graceful cables that hold up the Brooklyn Bridge than by the brutes who heft enormous poundage in weightlifting competitions. (Which is not to say that conventional weightlifting has no value for swimmers; if you do go to a gym, ask a trainer to help plan a program of compound/complex exercises for general strength development)

  But what may be even more valuable is "functional strength," the kind that makes us more robust in everything from spading the garden to shoveling the walk to swimming 1500 meters. And that means training muscles and joints to work as they do when we move — multiple muscle groups, multiple joints, and complex planes of movement, all at once. This is because fast swimming isn't produced by muscling your way through the water, but by maintaining body positions that minimize drag and connect the propelling armstrokes to the power of the core-body's "kinetic chain." That kind of strength is developed by practicing challenging movements that teach torso an
d arm/shoulder muscles to work together.

  My yoga practice feels utterly functional for swimming because it teaches me to use my body as a system, working all muscle groups in unison, against the resistance of gravity and my own inflexibility to build strength and flexibility with each movement. Exercises such as pushups, pull-ups, dips, step-ups, and squats, done with just the weight of your own body, also develop muscle sense and joint stability, letting tendons and ligaments adapt rather than being overwhelmed as they sometimes are by machines or external weight.

  Especially critical to functional strength is "core strength," which means strength in the abdominal muscles, spinal rotators and erectors, hip flexors, the glutes, and more. If your core isn't strong, then neither are you because your torso is the force coupler, which transmits power from legs to upper body. Abdominal exercises of all sorts, and particularly Pilates exercises develop core power. I take Pilates classes with a certified instructor and practice on my own with the aid of a book (see Resources for more information on yoga and Pilates.)

  On the Ball

  One of the best developers of functional and core strength is Swiss Ball exercise. Here's my favorite series

  To Begin. Balance in a horizontal position with the ball below your hips, hands directly under your shoulders, and legs straight behind, parallel to the floor.

  Action: Walk your hands out until the ball is at your knees. Pause for two slow breaths, then walk back. Repeat 10 times.

  Key Point: Maintain a straight, horizontal line from your shoulders to your feet.

  "Advanced Placement": Try any of the following:

  1. While pausing with the ball under your knees, rock your chest down toward the floor - your legs and feet will rise and the line from hands to feet will get straighter.

  2. Walk out until the ball is under your shins or ankles, then walk it back to your hips. Don't let your back sway or bend; keep your hips in line with your spine and feet.

  3. With the ball under your knees, roll it under your left knee, then under your right.

  In each of these exercises you'll feel yourself contracting a connected band of muscle from your hands to your hips - exactly the way you should feel your strength while swimming. The variations will each recruit different stabilizer muscles into the action. This training is as swimming-functional as anything you can do on land.

  Dear Terry,

  Success! On May 27, 2001, I completed the Keauhou-Kona Half Ironman. I was ecstatic, not just because it was my first Half Ironman but because I stayed in control during the 1.2-mile swim. Since I began doing triathlons, I routinely panic during the swim. It's easy doing lap after lap in a pool, but the same distance when measured out in X number of buoys in a lake or the ocean has always been an intimidating sight. I hyperventilate as soon as we're in the water, I'm afraid of being left behind. Everything falls apart when I try to chase the other swimmers and subsequently flail and struggle my way to shore. After repeated experiences like this, 1 doubted everything: my training, my body, and my mental state. Thoughts of not starting the race, thoughts of drowning; flailing, struggling, and, finally, the humiliation of an inevitable rescue crossed my mind countless times. But stubborn as I am, I refused to give up without a fight.

  Prior to this race, I swam daily to get used to the water — the taste, sights, and swells. I repeatedly visualized the swim start and the entire swim itself, seeing myself going out with the rest of the athletes, one stroke at a time, breathe in, breathe out, sighting the big orange buoys, the King Kam Hotel, and finish Every night when I went to bed, I filled my head with encouraging thoughts of swimming smoothly.

  When race morning finally arrived, I was calm and determined. I positioned myself at the back left of the crowd. When the air horn went off, I dived in with the others, focusing on one stroke at a time. I started slow, stayed calm, and found my "groove." Five minutes into the swim, 1 realized I was completely comfortable and immediately became more relaxed; the rest of the swim was a breeze. I wore a big smile all the way from the turnaround buoy to the swim finish It felt so easy I even wished I could swim some more, but it was time to get on the bike. I knew I couldn't possibly have a bad race because I'd just had the most magical swim in my entire life.

  Thanks for this experience,

  Jo Wang

  The lesson: It's reasonable, even logical, to feel intimidated by open-water racing. But it's not inevitable. By rehearsing with a plan and then simply following your plan during the race, you'll learn to LOVE the swimming part of any triathlon, no matter the distance.

  Part 5

  Getting Ready to Race

  We've come a long way together and I hope you've enjoyed the experience. You've learned how to turn frustration into fulfillment, how to teach yourself a new stroke, and how to systematically expand your mastery by practicing at a variety of speeds and SL/SR combinations. Now it's time to put those lessons to the test. Because I'm a swimming (not multisport) coach, I won't presume to advise you how to race once you leave the water. But having raced in open water since 1972, I'll share what I've learned about how to make every race satisfying and pleasurable. The first lesson is to rehearse prior to the race and then to swim the race as you've rehearsed. We've already covered neoprene-free swimming in exhaustive detail, so now let's shift our focus to how to use your wetsuit in the smartest way possible.

  Chapter 20

  Dress Rehearsal

  I have only 10 minutes of wetsuit experience, but after swimming with a group of triathletes — most of them novice swimmers — during a TI triathlon camp in late August of 2000,1 learned priceless lessons about how rehearsal and a wetsuit strategy can put any triathlete in the driver's seat. Although you will assuredly swim faster with a wetsuit, that will not be the most important factor. The ease and control you can gain will be far more critical to your overall race experience.

  We began the camp, in Killington, Vermont, with several days devoted to mastering the drills presented in the Lessons section, and had done little whole-stroke swimming before we went to Chittenden Reservoir to test those pool lessons. At the reservoir, the coaches swam without wetsuits; the campers — several of whom had never swum outside the "friendly confines" of a pool before — were neoprene-clad. Our first reservoir session was limited to brief distances (60 to 100 strokes) simply to acclimate to swimming without lanes and walls — and to the disorientation and general unease that often comes with that. For the first 30 minutes, we practiced a variety of SSPs, mainly to get everyone so focused on technique that they wouldn't pause to think: "Where's the wall?" Then we spent another 30 minutes learning basic navigation skills: how to sight without interrupting your rhythm and flow and how to closely follow other swimmers. We swam slowly so everyone could maintain comfortable proximity over the short distances we traversed.

  Two days later, we returned for a final open-water rehearsal before the Vermont State Triathlon Championships, which would be the "final exam" for our 6-day camp. Our plan was to swim a triangular course of about 1200 meters. The first leg was roughly 300 meters to a well-marked rocky point on the reservoir's eastern shore. Then, after reconnoitering, 600 meters to a boathouse on the west shore, before returning the final 300 meters to the boat ramp from which we started.

  On the first leg, two or three faster swimmers (those with competitive swimming experience) took off at a brisk pace. Immediately, most of the 20-odd other campers, anxious not to get left behind, took up the chase. And just as quickly, all the week's hard-won lessons in efficiency were forgotten, as most degenerated into churning. There were many discouraged looks and heaving chests at our first checkpoint. Before beginning the long east-west leg, I reminded everyone of our mantra: "Never practice struggle." My instructions were to swim as slowly as necessary to cultivate a sense of comfort and control. "Just start at a leisurely pace — like a warmup — and find a rhythm that you can maintain indefinitely. Keep the group in sight, but don't try to keep up. Do whatever it takes to stay relaxed and
in control. Focus on one SSP if it helps. If you feel yourself getting rough, slow down, until you 'find your groove' again."

  Immediately, the difference in "group flow" was marked. From my vantage point bringing up the rear, it was evident that splashing and flailing had been transformed into smooth, controlled movement. And the group did a much better job of staying together, despite the increased swimming distance. When we gathered again, satisfied smiles had replaced long faces. "That actually felt good," someone said.

  After a brief stop, we began the final 300-meter leg. When everyone had finished, there was palpable elation over what they had done and how they felt. Several stood on the boat ramp surveying the course and shaking their heads. "I can't believe we just swam that far. Not only that, I could go back out right now and do it again." Which is just what several did, wading back in to do another quarter mile, one saying, "That felt so good, I just want to keep swimming."