Inspiration for fin training in the pool

[XabreTooth]

Hi everybody!


I Started swimming with fins in the pool about a month ago. It's pretty fun! I do dolphin kicks underwater swimming only:

So far I've been doing either single lanes (25m) or doubles (50m). One pool session could consist of 60-100 x 25m or a little warm up followed by 25 x 50m - or something inbetween..

One lane (25m) takes me about 20 sec. to swim (and heart rate is about 110-130bpm I reckon). On the contrary when doing 50m swims I slow down and one dive takes about 1:05-1.10 (heart rate is slow - but not sure exactly how slow).


For now I'm happy with progress etc., but obviously a time comes when I will need to add new elements to my session to keep it interesting. Also there might be wiser (or funnier) ways to proceed!


So: How does this sound to you experienced breath-holders? Should I change my practise?

Any advise, comment or inspiration is greatly appreciated!

 

[trux]

Any advise, comment or inspiration is greatly appreciated!

Well, it depends what you are training for. If it is for speed fin-swimming, for relays, or even for serial recreational diving or spearfishing, then your training, which looks pretty hypercapnic, makes sense. But if you train for improving your distance, then adding more hypoxic components, and training your diving reflex, would likely help you better.

You can add static apnea at the beginning, in the middle, and/or at the end of DYN swims; you can do extremely slow swims, trying to make the distance always in a longer and longer time, you can try some FRC or empty lungs swims; etc, etc. Some of these exercises are shown in my Apnea Training Manager (during the summer I plan adding many more I collected in this season), and you may find others here, if you browse the forum little bit.

However, never ever even try doing this kind of hypoxic training alone, without a buddy knowing exactly what you do, knowing how to proceed in case of LMC or BO, and following you closely in the final phase, just like at a competition. Asking just a friend, or a pool life guard to keep an eye on you is completely insufficient.

 

[XabreTooth]

Thanks for your answer!

I have been wondering how quick blood levels of O2 and CO2 returns to normal after a dive: Is there a build up of CO2 throughout a pool session, or is it 'normalized' between each dive? Which returns to normal first: CO2 or O2?

 

[XabreTooth]

- is that a stupid question?

 

[trux]

The shorter your recovery time, the more the CO2 builds up. Also acid lactic that builds up in muscles breaks down into CO2, so the more physical your training is, the more hypercapnic you'll be despite solid recovery times. As for O2 - the hemoglobin get's charged relatively quick, but then there are also other factors that play role - myoglobin, higher heart-rate and consumption during the recovery, breaking down acid lactic, etc. So in other words, there are so many factors that it is not really possible to tell you how fast it comes back to normal, or what comes first back to normal - it simply depends on the conditions.