Some of the more popular workout programs preach “variety.” You might recall hearing common marketing phrases for these programs such as “muscle confusion” or “eliminating boredom” with flashy, never-the-same exercises. The reality is that this isn’t the approach you want with your dryland workouts.
The problem with these types of programs is that there is usually no rhyme or reason behind them. In order to have a reliable training program, there must be a plan in place. Every single exercise being performed should have a reason behind it that contributes to the larger goals that you set for yourself or your team. Each session should bring you closer to your desired results and be a part of a bigger overarching plan – always keeping your end goal in mind. Variety should be considered but should not be the “end goal” of a dryland workout or overall dryland program.
Here are a few ways to make sure there is variety in your dryland workouts and overall dryland program but not at the sake of effectiveness:
1) Eliminate Boredom in Dryland Workouts
It could be argued that swimming is one of the most repetitive sports. Think about how many laps you watch your swimmers do in a season to prepare for one race – one iteration of those practiced laps. You know that those laps are helping them get better, even when they are constantly repeating the same motion again and again. In fact, without the repetition of yardage (within reason), they would not be ready for their race.
Yet, too much boredom while swimming laps negatively affects the effectiveness of a practice. This also applies to dryland. If you find that your athletes are complaining about getting bored with the exercises in your program, or if you as a coach wonder if your program is too repetitive, it is important to take a closer look at the program itself.
Check yourself with the following question: Is it possible that your swimmers are getting bored with your dryland workouts because the exercises are truly boring, or is it because they just aren’t fully engaging in it?
Instead of rushing to change a dryland program to make it new and exciting (again – with too many random exercises), try explaining the “why” behind your program and chosen exercises first. How you sell the exercises to your athletes is what gets them engaged, not necessarily how new or complex the exercises are.
2) Dryland Workout Variables
In the SURGE Strength Dryland Certification Curriculum, you learn about the “dynamic eight” workout variables that can be focused on in order to achieve variety (without losing purpose in our program).
These variables include range of motion, volume, load, tempo, rest, exercise order, density, and complexity. You could do the same exact exercises but change one or more of these variables and have a whole new workout with a whole different purpose.
For example, let’s say the athlete is tired of performing jump squats. We know that jump squats are a great knee-dominant exercise for improving lower body strength and power. We also know that training the jump squat will improve our kick, starts, and turns in the water. We know that we want to keep these training outcomes, so the priority is keeping jump squats in our program.
Instead of switching to a new exercise, let’s simply change the tempo. Instead of just having them do the squats at their own pace, let’s have them react to an uneven cadence. On our clap or whistle, have the athletes explode into a jump squat. As soon as they perform the exercise, they are waiting for our next cue. Now, we are still getting the benefits of doing jump squats and even increasing the intensity of the exercise simply by tweaking the tempo of the exercise.
While we could change out jump squats and do something else, this example shows that there are other options available to engage athletes rather than constantly changing exercises. Managing these options will challenge your creativity as a coach and save you time teaching new exercises every dryland session.
3) Progressing the Exercise in Dryland Workouts
Aside from changing dryland workout variables, we can also progress the athlete through both the exercises that are programmed into the current training phase and throughout each training phase within the year. There is almost always a way to progress or regress an exercise to tailor it to an athlete’s current strength level.
To go back to our squat example, we can regress the jump squat with a regular bodyweight squat or progress it by adding resistance. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel to accommodate for more advanced athletes or for beginners, we just must make sure the movement is challenging the athlete while also aligning with our short- and long-term goals.
Aside from progressing individual exercises, let’s think about the entire training year. As the swimmer progresses through each season in the water, they should also be progressing through periodized phases in dryland. In the offseason, we might be progressing them through more hypertrophy and strength-based exercises. By the time big meets are coming up, we may have them focusing more on power and speed. During taper, we might be working more on mobility work and maintenance. What we should not do is keep the focus of the program or the program itself stagnant. In order to progress our swimmers throughout the year, we should have a goal of what each phase, or mesocycle, is accomplishing and create space for variety within that framework.
Conclusion
A good dryland program does not have to chase variety. Variety is simply a by-product of setting up a well-thought-out, periodized program. If you find that your swimmers are still wanting more or you as a coach want to change it up, think through the eight workout variables.
By keeping programming simple and tweaking the training variables that keep your session on target, variety can be achieved in a more balanced way. Finding ways to progress and regress exercises as well as undulating them throughout a training year will also give your swimmers the variety they need without “confusing their muscles” or losing sight of your goals.
Finally, explaining the program to your swimmers in a way that gets them bought in is what keeps them engaged rather than constantly throwing new exercises at them. Through the progression of training variables along with proper coaching, variety will come as the goals of the dryland program unfold.
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Courtesy of SwimSwam’s exclusive dryland training partner, SURGE Strength.
SURGE Strength, a strength training brand created by Chris Ritter, CEO of RITTER Sports Performance, aims to build better athletes and faster swimmers through dryland programs, and coaching education.