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I'm at http://www.TriSwimCoach.com- a resource for beginning through intermediate level triathletes looking for help with swimming. The site features a free email newsletter offering tips and articles on triathlon swimming. I have also written an electronic book titled “The Complete Guide to Triathlon Swimming” and created "The Essential Triathlon Swimming DVD", both available on www.triswimcoach.com.
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Shmashin
Date: Apr 23, 2007It is true that it is best to exhale throughout the stroke cycle. It is, although, beneficial for one to have the lung capacity to continue swim with little or no oxygen. Breathing takes time and energy and can slow a swimmer down. If a swimmer is able to keep his head down the stroke will be more efficient and thus creating a greater speed burst. More importantly, hypoxic/anaerobic training (when utilized appropriately and with caution) improves muscular fitness by forcing muscles to work under less than perfect conditions. Essentially, the muscles get used to working in poor conditions caused by intense exertion which improves endurance and the ability to fight fatigue. There are many great articles on anaerobic exercise that explain more precisely what occurs in the muscles. (PLEASE NOTE: Be careful when attempting hypoxic training and limit the frequency. Always swim with a lifeguard on duty.)
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Hypoxic Swim Training for Triathletes
Some anaerobic training is essential. You will need to have some speed to break out of the pack, turn a buoy at a proper angle, or to lose the annoying swimmer behind you that's grabbing your ankles.
Definition
Hypoxic training means training with little oxygen.
Swim coaches for ages have used this method to train swimmers for a variety of distances and different types of swim races. Like kick boards and pull buoys, it has become part of swim workout tradition to include some kind of breath control set at nearly every workout.
Examples of hypoxic or breath control swim sets:
300 yards breathing every 3-5-7 breaths by 50.
8 x 25’s, every other 25 no breath. <---(don't try to replicate)
Many coaches blindly dole out breath control sets day after day with little thought as to these two questions:
• Why do we do these sets?
• Who do they benefit?
How can breath-control training benefit the triathlete?
Hypoxic training can no doubt benefit the sprint (50 or 100 yard races) or middle distance (200 or 500 yard races) swimmers. [.....]
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