Q & A.
On my q & a page, I will answer the most frequently asked questions that are asked on my site. I hope my answers will provide you with useful insight and tips for your workouts.
1. How often should I exercise?
This depends on your fitness level. To explain, if you have a low fitness level you will notice progress with only one workout per week. However, if your fitness level is high, then you need more training to take it to the next level. It is all about increasing the body’s workload to the next level. So that the body must adapt itself to the new level. We call this: Progressive overload. [1]
Tips:
- Create a workout schedual that gives room for a grdually increase. (Progressive overload.) [1]
- Add enough recovery time between each workout to give your body time to adjust its workout load. (Super compensation) [2]
The number of workouts per week.
- Beginners: 1-2 workouts of 45-60 min
- Well trained: 2-4 workouts per week of 45-90 min
- Very well trained: 3-5 workouts per week of 45-120 min
Elite athletes.
Swimmers often train between 23 and 36 hours a week. For exmple, I trained for 32 hours a week. Alltough, it is important to point out that my training was varied and periodized. Consequently, I could keep a good balance between the workout load and recovery time. During the week I trained for 20 hours swimming, 3 hours strength, 3 hours basic training, 2 hours jogging or running, 2 hours boxing, and 2 hours gymnastics. Hard workouts were spread throughout the week with enough recovery sessions in between for my body to be able to adapt to the workout.
2. How many repetitions should I have in the program?
It is not uncommon to hear claims that 3-5 reps are for maximum strength. While 12-15 reps are for endurance strength, and etc. This is a simplification. It depends on how you carry out these repetitions.
Therefore you need to evaluate the workout in its entirety to decide how many sets or rep you need. Try to balance the number of sets, ropes, rest, series, and lifting speed against each other. I have illustrated guidelines for this here.
3. What abdominal exercises do we give me a flatter stomach?
Important!
Tips:
Reference:
4. How can I increase my muscle size?
Muscle size increases as a product of more muscle fibers and an increase in cross-sectional area. Seeing that you have probably heard about different approaches to this goa already. And since I have previously written about exactly this earlier. I will recommend you read that post.
5. What intensity zone should I train in to get better endurance?
Intensity zones
|
Intensity zone. |
Lactat |
Heart rate (% max). |
Bianary model. |
|
I-zone 5 |
6,0-10,0 |
95/100% |
High-intensity training. |
|
I-zone 4 |
4,0-6,0 |
90-95% |
High-intensity training |
|
I-zone 3 |
2,5-4,0 |
85-90% |
High-intensity training |
|
I-zone 2 |
1,5-2,5 |
75-85% |
Low-intensity training. |
|
I-zone 1 |
0,8-1,5 |
55-75% |
Low-intensity training |
What intensity zones should you choose?
Furthermore, he questions whether this is the most effective method. Short-time efficiency is not necessarily the same as long-term efficiency.
Best practice.
|
Intensitetssone |
Langrenn (n=1) |
Sykling (n=1) |
Orientering |
|
I-sone 5 (95-100% av HF maks) |
5 timer (1%) |
5 timer (1 %) |
…. |
|
I-sone 4 (90-95% av HF maks) |
47 timer (6%) |
43 timer (6%) |
64 timer (11%) |
|
I-sone 3 (85-90% av HF maks) |
25 timer (3%) |
57 timer (8%) |
10 timer (2%) |
|
I-sone 2 (75-85% av HF maks) |
45 timer (6%) |
36 timer (5%) |
55 timer (10%) |
|
I-sone 1 (55-75% av HF maks) |
625 timer (84%) |
589 timer (81%) |
443 timer (77%) |
|
Total treningstid |
747 timer |
730 timer |
572 timer |
Find the balance between intensity and duration.
«How intensively is interval training and fast long-distance running carried out? In most athletes, it depends on the training period, but mainly most of the training is carried out slightly above (I-zone 4) and slightly below (I-zone 3) anaerobic threshold (approx. 90% of maximum heart rate). Only 1-3% of the training is performed with an intensity where the heart rate is over 95% of HFmax. This indicates that it is not about training as intensively as possible, but about finding an optimal relationship between intensity and duration. When training at over 95% of maximum heart rate, one will not be able to work more than a few minutes. By reducing the intensity to 85-90% of maximum heart rate (approx. 20-30 beats below maximum heart rate) you will be able to hold on for a much longer time, which experience has shown to give a far better effect on performance development than one-sided training on I-zone 5. »[1]
2 Questions
My Name is Georgine
I am a swimming coach who has been asked to measure turns of 12 – 13 year old state medalists
Q 1) Do you have a test with a warm up on how I can measure my swimmers turns 5 meters into the wall and ten meters out from the wall
Q2)
Do you have a Competition warm up and a Competition Cool down you can recommend for 12 – 13 year old 200 m Medley swimmers
Thank you
A 1) Part 1. Test warmup.
Perhaps it will be better if I explain how I design warmups? Then you can include does principles that fit with your coaching philosophy. I use these principles whenever I create warmups for tests, training, or competitions.
Making a test warmup is easy enough. Firstly, keep in mind the goal of the warmup. In this case, you are aiming to prepare the athletes for the explosive burst and technical maneuvering of a 15-meter sprint turn test.
Step 1.
General warmup.
Dryland.
Firstly, use mobilization exercises to prepare joints, ligaments, and limb movements. Principally for relevant movement patterns. In this case, mobilization exercises for inducing mobility in the deep squat position.
Secondly, induce muscle activation exercises for relevant muscle groups. Core muscles, leg muscles, etc. For example, plank exercises and squat jumps.
Step 2.
Specific warmup.
Firstly, start with easy swimming to stimulate the feel for the water. Drills and sculling are good exercises for this.
Secondly, use a short pre-set with a design according to the physical and technical demands of the test. For example, short sprint bursts with turn drills.
Afterward follows a rest period with easy swimming before the test.
Follow these principles, and you will be able to make an appropriate warmup to whatever test, competition, or training set for the day.
Since this is a test warmup. I will recommend using the same warmup every time. It is better to keep all circumstances around each test as similar as possible. See sport-specific test protocols.
Part 2. Test protocol for turns.
The 5 meters inn and 10 meters out is a test that you describe is a good option. You can do this by performing a 50-meter maximum race and measure the turn parameter. Or you can start from the middle of the pool and perform a turn with maximal speed. Just make sure that they achieve maximal speed before the head crosses the 5-meter mark.
The measuring method will depend on your time capacity. Video tracking is the most reliable. You can use kinovea, tracker, or coach’s eye (all free apps). However, this is very time-consuming and will eat up time if you have many athletes. A time that you might need for aspects of the training. I use the stopwatch myself. Not as reliable, but when you perform several tests, the average results will give a good picture of their improvement.
However, I recommend you include competition analysis in your evaluations. Because it gives a direct result for how much of their training they manage to bring into the competition. It is always interesting to compare test results from workouts and results from competitions.
A2. Competition warmup.
I do not have a fixed set of competition warmups for my swimmers at that age. Instead, I am working on teaching them the principles mentioned above. I challenge them to create their warmups.
Creating independent thinking swimmers is a big part of my coaching. Besides, what works for one swimmer does not necessarily work for another. I like to give them the tools and let them figure out what is best for them. They will not always succeed straight away at that age, but they will learn and become stronger for it in later years.