The Breaking Muscle Swimming Workouts are programmed by Jake Shoemaker, an elite athlete in his own right and highly experienced swimming, cross-country running, and triathlon coach.
The swimming workouts are designed for those whose swimming skills are bringing the rest of their game down. If you're a CrossFitter or triathlete, it's no longer acceptable if your swimming isn't up to par. Swimming can also be used to condition all the systems of the body for endurance without beating it up the way some other modes of exercise can.
Distances are in yards.
Workout One
Warmup:
400 easy swim
Warm up set:
2x
- 200 free cruise @ :20 seconds rest
Main Set:
- 4 x 100 - 25 kick, 75 swim @ :10 sec rest
- 4 x 75 - 25 swim, 25 kick, 25 swim @ :10 sec rest
- 4 x 50 - 25 kick, 25 swim @ :10 sec rest
- 4 x 25 - 25 kick descending 1-4 @ :10 sec rest
Warmdown:
200 easy
Total: 2000
Workout Two
Warm up:
200 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim
Warm up set:
Super 500 @ :10 sec rest:
- 25’s - Free drill
- 50’s - Stroke
- 75’s - Free swim
25, 25, 50
25, 75
50, 50
75, 25
50, 25, 25
Main set:
10x
- 100 - 50 drill, 50 swim @ :15 sec rest
odds - free
even - stroke
200 Fast all out effort - Record time
Warmdown:
200 easy
Total: 2300
Workout Three
Warm-up:
3x (swim straight through):
- 50 freestyle
- 25 backstroke
- 25 freestyle kick on back in streamline position (head relaxed back, hips pressed toward the surface)
Warm-up Set:
4x:
- 50 freestyle gradually building effort throughout @ :10seconds rest
- 2 x 25 freestyle @ :10 seconds rest - 1st - fast, powerful first 8 strokes, smooth relaxed rest of way; 2nd - build first 8 strokes, fast 6 strokes, smooth rest of way
Main Set:
2x:
- 8 x 50 freestyle @ :05 seconds recovery 1st set of 8., :10 seconds recovery for 2nd set of 8
Goal: maintain your best average pace throughout set 1. Hold that pace as you fatigue in set 2 OR build pace faster.
:60 recovery
2x:
- 4 x 25 freestyle kick with kickboard @ :15 recovery try to maintain best average time
- 1 x 50 free smooth and relaxed body position focus @ :15 recovery
Cooldown:
200 your choice, very relaxed
Total: 2000
Workout Four
Warm-up:
300 choice
Warm-up set:
2x:
- 3 x 50 free descend effort from 1 to 3 @ :10 rest
- 4 x 25 kick with board alternating hard, easy @ :15 rest
Main Set:
3 x 200 freestyle @ :30 rest as (100 smooth, 50 build, then take 5 seconds rest, then 50 max effort); goal is to get times of the max 50 and keep them consistent despite fatigue
100 easy backstroke
8x
- 25 freestyle as: 2x ( 1 - sprint @ :20 rest, 2 - sprint @ :15 rest, 3 - sprint @ :10 rest, 4 - EASY @ :30 rest) - goal is to keep pace same despite fatigue and dropping rest
Cooldown:
2x:
-
50 drill
-
50 backstroke
-
50 easy kick
-
50 swim choice
all relaxed
Total: 2100
Click on the number below that corresponds to the week of training you're in.
