Transcription
[Music]
Welcome to Whiteboard Wednesday. And on today's episode, I'm gonna share with you guys the five best dryland training exercises that you can do with resistance bands.
Now, if you're not familiar with resistance bands, these are a fantastic training tool that you can do at your home, around the pool deck, very minimal equipment. And these are great because they not only mimic the swimming-specific movements that you do in the water, so it'll improve your performance, but can also reduce your chances for injury. They come in a number of different colors and designs, some with handles, some do not. If you're interested in purchasing a pair, we'll link them in the description where you can pick up your pair of resistance bands.
Now, you might be wondering to yourself, why would I do dryland training? And what other resources can I have if I don't have resistance bands? Maybe you have TRX, if you have a Swiss ball, medicine ball, there's a number of different resources linked in the description. Of course, if you're new to the channel and you're new to the video, welcome to MySwimPro, where we share the latest technique and training to help you improve your performance and health, both in and out of the water. If that sounds interesting to you guys, make sure you subscribe to the channel and, of course, like the video.
Now, let's get into the first topic of understanding why you would do dryland training in the first place. And we're going to talk about the five different exercises that are specific to the resistance bands. But first, I want you guys to fundamentally understand why you do dryland training at all.
The first reason is that it will improve your performance. Now, obviously, we want to swim faster, we want to get stronger. And by using things like a resistance band or other types of training out of the water, you get to get some muscle engagement and muscle recruitment and firing that you can't necessarily do in the water. So obviously, we want to get faster, we want to improve our performance. And of course, we want to prevent injury. By focusing on certain movements specifically around the shoulder, around the waist, the diaphragm, lower back, and of course, your knees, you can significantly lower your chances of injury. Because when you swim, you do the same repetition over and over and over, and you can have a lot of overuse injuries. So we want to stop that before we even get to the point of injury.
And with resistance bands specifically, there's a lot of things you can do there. And of course, you want to stay engaged, you want to prevent burnout. When you swim over and over and over, it can be really difficult to stay motivated. Maybe you plateau in certain things. And when you train out of the water, it's so exciting because you get to work on something new and different. Maybe it's improving the number of push-ups you can do, how heavy you can move in the weight room, a certain skill that you can pick up with the resistance bands, for example. A lot of different things that you can do to stay engaged, both mentally and physically.
And of course, no pool, no excuses. So if you don't have access to a swimming pool and you really have no option and you can't actually go to the water for whatever reason, maybe you're traveling, you're in quarantine, whatever the reason may be, you can always train in your home, in your garage, in your gym, wherever it is, you always have a way to train. If you guys like the swag that I'm wearing, "No Pool, No Excuses," you can purchase this and other MySwimPro swag underneath the video.
So we know a couple of reasons why we want to do dryland training. But how about swimming-specific movements? I mentioned it with the dryland resistance bands, there's really a swimming-specific focus here. So the first is obviously promoting good core stability. Streamline is the most important word in swimming. It is the fundamental body position. And anytime you can engage more than just a specific movement like a bicep curl is only one specific muscle, it's an isolation movement. We really want to avoid those types of exercises. We can use them to supplement in with our other and complement with our other training, but it's really important to focus on compound movements that really engage the entire body that promote good core stability. Because that way, you can transfer it into the water.
Resistance bands specifically are awesome for that because you have to stabilize your body like a TRX band to be able to use it because you're leveraging your own weight against the resistance of the band. It also allows you to increase muscle length by stretching and flexibility. So you can improve your flexibility by training with resistance bands and other things. You can also get a full range of motion. So if you're lifting with dumbbells or barbells or heavy weights in the weight room, you're not really able to get that full length of movement and full range of motion like you can with resistance bands. So that's another big bonus.
And of course, there's more dryland training resources. Really quick, before we get into the five swimming-specific dryland resistance band exercises, here's a few articles and videos that I'm gonna link in the description. The first one is "How to Workout at Home." If you're stuck at home for whatever reason, you might want to figure out how to create a good, safe environment and what exercises you can do inside of your home. That's a great video. Another one is "The 10 Best Core Exercises for Swimmers." These are core exercises, no equipment, all bodyweight. Check out that video. Another video is "The 30 TRX or Suspension Cable Exercises." Awesome video. And then the other one is "The 20 Medicine Ball Exercises." These are great, they're pretty complicated, some can be pretty tough.
Now, the five resistance band moves. Now, I call them moves because they are moves, they're very swimming-specific, really generate your core strength. The first one is called the swim pull. As you can imagine, the pull motion is very similar to what you do in swimming. Imagine you're doing two butterfly strokes at the same time. You're really focusing on generating power, keeping your elbows up high, your arm is almost straight. You really want to engage your lat muscles on this movement.
Now, the second version of this is our second exercise. Now, this is a variation of the swim pull. And what you're doing here is you're alternating one arm at a time. This requires you to engage your core. Remember, we talked about the importance of having that cross-sectional length, and you're really gonna hit that when you alternate your arms. And the sprint version of this is moving your arms very fast. So similar to how you could sprint, and we talked about how you can improve your performance and get that muscle engagement that you can't get in the water. So when you're doing the alternating swim pull sprint, you're able to actually move your arms faster than you can in real life in the water. And so by really maxing out your body in this effort, there's a high-intensity type of training by really pushing your body to the point that you can't actually do it. Not when I say pushing your body, that doesn't mean to the point of poor technique, it means pushing your body in terms of speed and agility that you don't really have in the water. And if you can do that out of the water, you can actually increase your performance in the water because you're moving your arms faster and you have that dynamic range of power and speed that you don't have in the pool.
Number three is the internal and external rotations. This is fantastic for injury prevention. The internal rotation is where your elbow is at 90 degrees. Both of these, your elbows are at 90 degrees, and you're actually gonna pull the band into your opposite side. The goal here is to focus on that rotator cuff. And then for external rotations, you're doing the inverse. You're actually gonna pull your hand out to the outside. You're still keeping your elbow about 90 degrees, trying to keep that elbow in, don't let your elbow come out. Keep your posture nice and tall, shoulder blades back. And it's really important to focus on good technique. This is not about the amount of resistance you can add when you're doing an internal or an external rotation. It's about good technique. Focus on moving your hand through the full range of motion, keep your elbow in, shoulders stable. And that's really the most important part of this specific activity. We're not, we are trying to get stronger, but we're not trying to, like the alternating swim sprint pull, trying to be as explosive as possible. We're trying to be controlled here so that we can prevent injury. So it's really important to understand the fundamental basis of why you do any of these activities so that way you're getting the most out of the exercise, it's the most efficient use of your time.
Now, the fourth one is similar to number three in the sense of improving you're reducing your chances of injury. It's the band T, Y, and I pull. You can do this without any equipment, similar to the external and internal rotations. The benefit of this exercise is where you can stabilize those back muscles. And so if you think about T, you're actually gonna make a T, kind of like doing a back fly. You're gonna make a T, your arms are gonna be straight, and you're really gonna engage those back muscles, bring your shoulder blades back together. Then you're gonna make a Y. You're gonna raise your arms up and you're gonna make a Y with your arms, keep your arms straight, similar to that back fly but in a high position. And you're gonna do the I. So your arms are gonna come up at 11 and 1, and you're really gonna work all the range of motion in your shoulders. And by focusing on the shoulders and back, you're really gonna strengthen those supporting muscles. Because when you swim, you're using your lat muscle the most, and you're using a lot of muscles when you swim with your upper body. But by focusing on these specifically, it's gonna really strengthen the supporting muscles that fatigue when you get tired in swimming, and that's how you can injure yourself. So not only improve your performance, but reduce your chances for injury, which is what this is all about.
And number five is the kneeling Pallof press. Pallof press, I think that's how you pronounce that. A lot of different interpretations. This one is where you're kneeling on the ground, you're gonna have either one or both handles depending on what kind of resistance band that you have. You're gonna have it into your chest, and then you're gonna focus on pushing your hands out to your arm straight, and you're gonna feel the resistance with the band, and then you're gonna pull it back in. Try and do this as controlled as possible. This is really activating your core, your diaphragm. You're gonna feel this if you have the right amount of resistance. Now, it's really important that you don't lean or wobble, or when you're explosive with your hands, you don't want to have your body sway either. So really focus on keeping your body in alignment, don't let your body lean side to side. And this is gonna work on that core stability, which is crucial. We mentioned that when you swim specific movements, it's all about good core stability. It is so important to maintain that core posture and do that through the repetition of the technique.
So these are just five different movements. If you're thinking about how do I put these into a workout, a lot of different options. I mean, at a basic, you can do 10 repetitions of each of these, 30 seconds between them, and do that whole thing three rounds. I recommend you follow a training program so you get the right progression. Check out the MySwimPro app, linked in the description for iPhone and Android. You're gonna get an awesome dryland training program or swimming training program that's separate, they can work together. But this allows you the opportunity to have a progression. Because that is the most impactful way to do dryland training, or any kind of training, swimming or dryland, whatever, to have that plan. Because when you have workout structure and you build progression, you might not understand what progression means. Let me explain that really quick. That means on day one, you're gonna do a certain amount of the exercise with a certain difficulty. And then the next time you do it, you're gonna build a skill and you're gonna have more resistance, more repetitions, and a more advanced, complicated version of that same thing. And by having that progression, you're gonna develop your strength and your skill set to get the most out of the exercise. So that's why it's so important to have a specific workout plan. While you can do 10 repetitions of each of these and take 30 seconds rest, by varying not only the number of repetitions but how much rest you get, and in the progression from workout to workout, is the most impactful way to see progress in not only your fitness but also your strength and have the best chance for reducing your injury. And that's what we want to do. We want to improve our performance and reduce our injury. So by having a step-by-step guide with different skill levels, that is the most impactful way.
So we'll link in the description of different training plan options that are with equipment or no equipment. So whether you have resistance bands, you don't have any equipment, you have a Swiss ball, medicine ball, jump rope, yoga mat, foam roller, any equipment you have, we have different training programs that can use it. We have different training programs that you don't need any equipment at all. So if that sounds interesting, keep stay tuned. We have three different training programs with equipment that I'm gonna highlight right here because we talked about the resistance bands. So the first one is called the Swimmer Strength Program. It's eight weeks, it's great, it's a foundational strength training program that uses the resistance bands, uses a medicine ball and Swiss ball. And by using this different equipment, you're gonna build your strength. I would say this is a more intermediate or beginner dryland training program. Then we have the High-Intensity Interval Training Program, which is a six-week session. And that one is a little bit more advanced, between intermediate and advanced level. Similar exercises, but the more complicated version, and you're just your baseline is gonna start a little bit more advanced, and you're gonna build your way up to even more advanced movements and more complex movements. And then we have The Swimmer's Core. The Swimmer's Core is all about the core. It's four weeks long, not as intense as the High-Intensity Interval Training one. So The Swimmer's Core is a little bit more intermediate level, maybe more beginner, and you get to have different modifications for the workouts. So if you can't do certain core exercises, we have different ones. Remember, we have that video, "10 Best Core Exercises for Swimmers" with no equipment at all. But if you're interested in following these three training programs, or almost the other dozen for dryland training with equipment or without equipment, check out the MySwimPro app. At least start with your free trial. And of course, we have this swimming training program separate from that. We have over a dozen different training programs, all different skill levels, from the couch to 5K to doing a 10K challenge, open water triathlon race, all that stuff included in the MySwimPro app. I think that's enough selling the app. I hope you guys check it out and subscribe.
If you have any more questions, let us know in the comments. I would love to know from you guys, what is your favorite dryland training exercise? If it uses the resistance bands, that's awesome. Let us know what we missed from these five in the comments. Until next time, wishing you the best. Stay safe, happy swimming, happy training, and take care. Bye bye.