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Swim Treadmill
The athletic club I belong to recently equiped itself with a Vasa Ergometer, a sort of swimming treadmill. The club's trainer was attempting to sell me on its uses and benefits. It looks a little funky to me. My club has a lap pool, so I am not sure why one would use this rather than jumping in the water.
Anyone out there have any opinions or personal experience whether use of this machine could be a good compliment to traditional swim training and workouts?
Anyone out there have any opinions or personal experience whether use of this machine could be a good compliment to traditional swim training and workouts?
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wow. I'm impressed your gym has it. that's pretty cool. usually it's tough to come by any kind of arm/cardio-like machine (low interest for most peeps in gyms and they cost an arm and a leg).
My understanding is that it's like a resistance band workout except you can adjust the resistance and be in more of a swimming position.
Great way to do one arm drills and really focus on arm/elbow hand placement without having to worry about all of the body position components. This time of year you could easily "warm up" on that machine and dial in your catch/pull before hopping in the pool and adding the rest. That's what I would do if I had access to one (but I'm also one of the non-fishies in the house and need to work on stuff like that...).
I've used a Vasa trainer before (when I belonged to a fancy gym). Let me preface by saying that I'm no swimmer...I found it harder than "real" swimming and that it was more like weight training for the arms. The one I used really had no kicking involved. Also, there really wasn't a way to rotate the hips on it either. After 30 minutes, my arms and shoulders were quivering (I have roadie noodle arms).
They look like a great idea. Every year they have one at some multisport conference. I have tried it and never felt right. Have been a swimmer my whole life, not competitive since HS many moons ago, but have been in Master's group, etc. I do not feel that I can get my arm in the correct catch/ pull position. Kitima may have hit on the reason- you can't rotate the body. While it might make your arms stronger, I do not think it will help if you have technique issues. Just my $0.02.
I have a vasa erg in my basement. I use it all the time in season and maybe once a week in the outseason. There are no pools close to me; would take a 45min drive to get to one. No time for that. In the summer I swim in the water only about 1/week. Erg is the only reason I can do tri's. Of course I am not the fastest swimmer, you can't substitute anything for water but I think you get as close as possible. The vasa trainer is not half the machine that the vasa erg is. So if you did not like the vasa trainer and think you won't like the erg that is probably not true. So for those who can't get to the pool very often I highly recommend it.
I have no swim background at all but here are my personel bests (haven't done a IM)
800m 11:38, 1500m 22:38, 1.2m 24:xx; really misleading because this was at Augusta 70.3. Anyway I had only been in the water about 4 times between first of August and end of sept when I did augusta. Most of my "swim" work was on the erg.
You can tell I am a big advocate of the vasa erg. No I have no affilation whatsoever with the company.
Hey Todd:
Have you experienced measurable gains from your vasa erg usage, such as improved stroke rate, power, time per 100 meters, etc?
I have to admit to being a bit of a slacker when it comes to swimming. I track all my power and pacing and use wko and a garmin 305 for running and biking but when it comes to swimming I haven't really followed my stroke rate or 100m times. I pretty much have just seen a trend of about 2.5mins off my 1500m times and 1.5min off my 800m swims over the last 18months. I know very unscientific. I have really been focusing on improving biking and running and just letting the swimming fall where it may. If you are intrested in it they used to have a free dvd put out by coach Al Lyman talking about how to use it in training etc. Go to the vasa site and see if it is still possible to get one. Also I am pretty sure Troy Jacobsen uses it for traing, especially before his last IM.
I have to say I have been very happy with my swim times considering how infrequently I actually swim and how little focus and time I put into it. And it is great to just go to the pain cave and knock out a swim workout in 30-45min.