21 May 2024, Physical Therapy, 0m; 22 May & 24 May 2024 Kerkpolder, Delft 3700m & 2700m; 25 May 2024, Pijnacker 2600m
“What more do you need from me?” says Dion, my soon-to-be ex-physical-therapist.
“I guess some advice on what to look out for if I want to start dryland training in the gym?”
My sons have been on my case forever. When am I going to join them for a weights session in the gym?
They’re fanatic, and the thought of joining them kind of scares me to be honest.
The advice that’s out there is all over the place.
Don’t do weights! That’s low rep stuff. Endurance swimming is about high reps. You’ll be wasting your time.
Do weights! The “swim only”-viewpoint is archaic. Swimmers around the world are starting to see the benefits of strength work.
That may be true for pool swimmers, who need explosive strength for a short distance, but not so for endurance swimmers! Don’t do weights!
It reminds me of the dog training world.
Crate train your dog! The crate is a safe place for them to hole up. They’re den animals.
Don’t crate train your dog! It’s a cage. You’re locking them up. By the way, did you know it’s illegal to crate your dog in parts of the world?
How is any one person supposed to navigate this maze of contradictory advice?
How is any one person supposed to figure out what applies to them and what doesn’t?
Who do you trust?
If my dog training journey has taught me anything, it’s that everything starts with trusting yourself.
Trusting yourself to find the right thing.
Which basically means to trust that you will forgive yourself with fervor when you get it wrong.
Because you will. Get it wong, that is.
It took me almost a year to get my shoulder to where it is. Still nagging sometimes, but no longer 24/7. To where I can swim three to four times a week without aggravating it further.
The first time I didn’t stop swimming long enough. I started back too soon.
The next time I waited longer, but I upped the intensity of my training too much too soon.
I didn’t do my PT exercises and then I overdid them.
I tried doing my PT exercises on swimming days. I tried only doing them on non-swimming days.
There were times I believed in my physical therapist and times I thought he was a quack.
There were times I believed in myself and my recovery and times I thought I would never be pain-free.
The latter times usually coincided with days on which I wouldn’t do any exercises or overdid my swimming.
But now, it feels like finally we’re getting somewhere.
Look, says Dion, if you had been any other patient, if you hadn’t had this crazy goal of yours, you would have been out of my practice a long time ago.
You know what to do, you know the exercises and you’re doing them correctly. The rest is up to you. It’s trial and error. Listen to your body. Experiment.
He gives me the pointers on weight training I asked for.
(Don’t extend you upper arms further back than the frontal or coronal plane of your body! Yes that makes for slightly less efficient training. Make up for it with an extra rep or two and keep your shoulders healthy.)
And with that, I graduate from physical therapy.
The next day I swim 3700m with lots of interval. On Friday it’s 2700m at endurance pace.
Saturday I join the TRIP squad for another 2600m of interval training.
I can feel my shoulders ache. This appears to be the good kind of pain though. The kind that says you kicked ass at training.
It’s end of practice. I kneel down on the side of the pool to unhook the line and reel it in.
Almost immediately my knee starts acting up. By the time I get home it’s genuinely hurting. I can’t sleep and the next day it will barely bend.
I guess I can’t deny that I’m 45. Let’s see how soon I’ll be back in Dion’s office again.
