Advanced Swim Tools
220 Triathlon (November 2009)
This month Dan Bullock gets to grips with the more technical swim 'improvers'.
POWERbreathe - Exercises and strengthens muscles
"POWERbreathe is an inspiratory muscle trainer that exercises and strengthens the muscles we use to breathe. Inspiratory Muscle Training (IMT), as it's known and a subject we looked at extensively last issue (p63), has been scientifically proven to benefit athletes at all levels of competition.
It's certainly an improvement on hypoxic training, which historically swimmers employed to recreate altitude training."
Top tip
"During a recent training camp, I stumbled upon the idea of using 'quantity of breaths' as a way to measure a rest period. Over the week, I felt my fitness improve dramatically using this 'active recovery' style of rest. Here are some examples of some main sets using the POWERbreathe..."
- 10 x 200m front crawl (FC), rest and take 15 deep breaths between each 200.
- 10 x 100m FC, rest and take 10 deep breaths between each 100.
- 10 x 50m FC, rest and take 5 deep breaths between each 50.
Click here to go to 'Swimming' and see how POWERbreathe can improve swimming performance.