Boost your surfing fitness with regular swim training!

Regular swimming training has to be one of the best ways there is to get you fit to surf, upper body movements and fitness demands on the body are very similar.
During surfing paddling movements the shoulders, back and triceps all work to power you along this is also the case during swimming, although speed in swimming is largely governed by good technique, they are very similar.
In fact the aerobic fitness gained from swimming, will help you during paddle outs, hold downs, wipe-outs, and paddling for waves.
Providing you get to the pool about 2-3 times a week and you can swim front crawl with an ok technique you will find that with in just a few weeks there’s a big difference in your surfing fitness. To make a significant improvement in your swimming fitness then at least 40 -60 minutes of front crawl swimming is important.

Just swimming up and down is good, but a basic program of swimming will boost your fitness further. For example; after a short warm up of 6-8 minutes front crawl begin basic swimming sets to boost your aerobic fitness. Try swimming 16x25m of front crawl at a steady pace with 10 seconds rest after each length. If you find this ok and your breathing is not too high then this can be known as low to mid range aerobic swimming usually about 60-75% of your max heart rate.

If you pick the pace up a bit more, then you take your aerobic fitness training up to high end aerobic levels, this is about 85% of your max heart rate, and during this you should be breathing very heavily.
Both aerobic levels of fitness here will boost your surfing fitness to new levels if done regularly. Taking your heart rate above 85% of its max is known as anaerobic this will take your surfing paddle power to the next level. A basic set of anaerobic swimming could be 6x100m of front crawl with a short rest interval of 30 seconds pushing your heart rate up to near its maximum about 85-95% of max.

And finally if you have any energy left! Then 5-10 minutes worth of sprint training is a must. For example try swimming 8x25m of front crawl at 100% effort done on a regular basis this will definitely boost your wave count and aid paddle outs!
In addition to using these basic principles you may wish to use a Pull Boy (a small float that goes between the legs). Using a Pull Boy during swim training sessions can aid in developing upper body strength; try going to Swimshop.com and of course if you can’t get to the pool there’s the Powerstroke cord!
Before undertaking any swim training programme it is always advisable to warm up properly. Light mobility before you hit the water is beneficial. Try to avoid too much sprinting up and down the pool and aim for a basic varied programme combining distance and short sprints.

HYPOXIC SWIMMING TRAINING FOR BIG WAVE HOLD DOWNS!!

Swimming coaches have been fans of hypoxic (more accurately anoxic) training for about 20 years. If you’ve ever done a hypoxic set, you know it means making do with less air, since it refers to a low-frequency breathing pattern, usually every 3, 5, or 7 armstrokes, occasionally even less than that.

Coaches have favored hypoxic training for so long based on an assumption that you could simulate the effects of training at high altitude by breathing less often while swimming at low altitude. Studies of swimmers who live and train in places like Colorado (usually at 5,000 feet or more) have shown that they become highly efficient oxygen-processing machines. Among other changes, since it doesn’t get as much oxygen, the body makes more hemoglobin, the element in blood that shuttles oxygen to the muscles. Since our blood generally uses only about 4 percent of the oxygen in the air we breathe, there is room to improve that.

Hypoxic training was supposed to accomplish much the same thing at sea level. But what really happens when you do hypoxic training is that you’re breathing less often, not less oxygen, and this simply increases the level of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream. And the sole effect of that is YOU WANT TO BREATHE. Furthermore, the adaptations that result from breathing thinner air occur only from spending 100 percent of your time in that environment for weeks or months, not from doing a few hypoxic sets a few times a week.

Hypoxic training is particularly unsuitable for aging athletes since lung capacity is one of the functions that begins to diminish with age, and no amount of “breath-holding” will return or retain that diminishing capacity. It’s important for Masters coaches – especially those who have not yet experienced the effects of aging themselves – to be reminded that the hypoxic effect of breathing every 7 for a young person might well be similar to that of an older person breathing every 3.

Nonetheless, coaches still like to give hypoxic sets. So what can you do? Actually, quite a lot, because while breath-control sets may not convey any TRAINING effect, they may still have a LEARNING effect. You just need to relax and look for creative ways to survive the ordeal. And that often means finding more economical (i.e., less oxygen-consuming) ways to move through the water. Here are several suggestions for getting the most benefit from your next hypoxic set:

Instead of breathing every 3, 5, or 7 strokes by 50s, try breathing every 5, every 3, every 2 by 25s. Try to remain just as fluid on the last lap of each interval as you are on the first.

If you normally breathe to one side, and if any hypoxic work is too much for you, swim the set breathing only to your opposite side. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy this will become after just a few laps, and at how it can help streamline your stroke once you return to breathing on your “normal” side.

Since excessive or improper head movement is the stroke error with the greatest potential to hurt your body position and balance, one of the most effective and simplest drills to correct it is to swim short distances with the head held absolutely still. Try swimming 25-yard repeats, taking 0 to 2 breaths per length. For 50-yard repeats, aim for 3 to 4 breaths per length. On longer distances, try to breathe every 3 to 5 armstrokes, BUT GO VERY EASILY in order to swim without feeling distressed or tense. Tune in to how this smoothes out body movement and what your stroke feels like when you do so.

You may find that when you do hypoxic sets, your body seems hungrier for air on the first repeat, but becomes progressively more comfortable with each repeat. This is because your body is adapting to the reduced oxygen availability by identifying and letting go of needless tension. Tension is nothing more than useless and involuntary muscle contractions that use oxygen without helping your swim faster. By relaxing and letting go of tension, you teach your body to use the oxygen that’s available more efficiently.

Hypoxic sets are most often assigned with pull buoys. That’s because the largest (and oxygen-hungriest) muscles in the body are your quadriceps or thigh muscles. Stop kicking and it gets easier to swim further between breaths. But unless you anticipate being able to use a pull buoy in your next race, you’re better off training your aerobic and nervous systems to perform without the aid of extra flotation. To take the load off your thigh muscles while doing hypoxic work, think of your legs as passive, and simply do less overt kicking. If you use hypoxic training, do it with the awareness that the benefits will be in technique, not physiology. While you’re swimming further between breaths, concentrate on better balance, controlling your head movements, and learning to relax more while swimming.

Aerobic Training

Basic Aerobic Training Advice
The aerobic training zone represents swimming intensity below the anaerobic threshold.

Aerobic training can be broken down into 3 levels of intensity:

En1- General Recovery work i.e. light kick sets/ low impact drills/ recovery swimming from sprinting or an intense long distance set.

En2- Aerobic Maintenance i.e. distance sets with off times/kicking sets and mid impact drills etc.

En3- Higher levels of aerobic effort distance sets with off times and aerobic output at just under anaerobic threshold

To get the best from your aerobic training then HR (heart rate) training is advisable.

Example of En1 Training sets.
Low Intensity

Warm up: 300-400m of front crawl

16×25m front crawl on 10 seconds rest with HR at 50-70 beats below your maximum.

8×50m front crawl on 15 seconds rest with HR at 50-70 beats below your maximum.
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4×100m front crawl on 20 seconds rest with HR at 50-70 beats below your maximum.

2×200m front crawl on 30 seconds rest with HR at 50-70 beats below your maximum.

1×400m front crawl no rest at a light swim with a target HR at 50-70 beats below your maximum.

Example En2 Training sets.
Aerobic Maintenance

Warm up: 300-400 front crawl

4×300m front crawl on 30 seconds rest with HR at 50-40 beats below your maximum

1×1000m front crawl as 100 kick 100 pull with HR at 50-40 beats below your maximum

20×50m front crawl with HR at 50-40 beats below your maximum

Example of En3 Training sets.
Aerobic Development

Warm up: 300-400m front crawl

This level of aerobic training is at just below anaerobic threshold. For some swimmers this pace may slightly overlap with there anaerobic threshold training pace.

4×400m front crawl on 30 seconds rest with HR at 40-30 beats below maximum

2×800m front crawl on 60 seconds rest with HR at 40-30 beats below maximum

20×100m front crawl on 20 seconds rest with HR at 40-30 beats below maximum

Sprint training for surfing paddle power

Swimming sprint program for surfing paddle power.

Warm up with 5 minutes of mobility, arms and legs.

In the pool aim to warm up slowly for at least 10 minutes before starting a sprint swimming session.

During any sprint training program try to maintain a good swimming technique.

Once you have completed a good warm up your ready to begin your main set.

*Beginners
Main set

Swim 4x25m front-crawl at 70% effort.
After each 25m take 20 seconds rest.

Then swim 4x25m front crawl at 80-90% effort.
Then take 30 seconds after each 25m front crawl.

Then swim 4x25m front crawl at 100% effort after each 25m take 45 seconds rest.

Once you have completed this basic set it would be advisable to swim down and cool off this should be 10 minutes of light swimming.
Sprint swimming can improve your paddle power big time, try to swim at least twice a week, mix up your training with a power-stroke cord work out for best results!