Vasa trainer

christian birkedal · February 17, 2014 2:53AM

Good morning. This is my first year with EN and the results have been very impressive so for. Added 15 watts to FTP - now at 255 and run speed has increased dramatically too, and I'm only in week 7 of OS.

I have a vasa trainer in my garage training area. As we start adding swim workouts later in the year, how do I use the vasatrainer? Obviously open water and pool swims are best, but the time necessary to go to the garage to swim is minimal.

Thanks

Christian

Coach Patrick · February 17, 2014 9:09PM

Christian, have you used the Vasa Trainer before? Let me know what your experience is before I dive in here (hahahahahahahahahahaaaa!!)

christian birkedal · February 17, 2014 11:01PM

Yes I have. I have used it both for endurance work and intervals and mental training. Nothing more fun that swimming 10k on the vasa. Obviously it will never replace pool or ow swimming but it's an easy way to get in 45 -60 min swim

John Withrow · February 18, 2014 8:58AM

I have a Vasa Erg... Never used it that much and wow, 10k on that thing might just kill me. I have found that it is great for muscular and cardiovascular training. But the "feel for the water" and "technique" can only be found in the water. If you already have great technique (i.e. were a swimmer in a previous life), then there's no reason in my opinion that you can't substitute "most" of your pool workouts with a Vasa session. If "strength" is your limiter, this might even be better than pool swimming. However, if technique is a limiter, I would caution being on the vasa too much. All the strength and conditioning int he world is useless with bad form in the water.

Coach P, it might be great for you given all of your collar/bone and shoulder injuries. Not to mention how puny your arms are in proportion to those massive legs...

So Christian, which one are you? Good/bad technique swimmer? Weak or strong from a muscular perspective?

christian birkedal · February 18, 2014 9:03AM

Thanks for your advice. Great technique but not strong so I will do 1-2 weekly vasa sessions.

John Withrow · February 18, 2014 9:03AM

oops. Sorry. Didn't realize this was a Micro thread post. Christian, this might actually make a good post in the General Training section.

Patricia Rosen · February 18, 2014 9:54AM

http://www.dcrainmaker.com/2011/06/putting-together-vasa-swim.html for info on details. looks fun! this looks expensive!

Paul Hough · February 18, 2014 11:30AM

I looked at the review and video and he was really dropping his elbows. Wouldn't a much cheaper HALO bench give you pretty much the same benefit? Plus, the HALO would be real quiet and you could watch TV at the same time. The VASA sounded pretty loud, or is that just cause he had the camera right next to the cables??

Vasa trainer

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