The Effects of Swimming and Dry-land Resistance Training Programme on Non-swimmers

Power represents the ability to perform movements at high speed, or the possibility of developing high strength in a short time. More than sixty years ago the relationship between power, strength and speed of muscle contraction was described by Hill [1]. Swimming performance is a multi-factorial phenomenon depending upon energetics, biomechanics, hydrodynamics, anthropometrics and strength parameters [2, 3]. Strength and speed are major factors determining performance of swimmers [4]. Scientists and coaches agree that training should include sessions on land and in water. Many authors emphasise that the achievement of high results in swimming is not possible without special strength preparation [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16]. Strength and endurance training in swimming is administered both on land and in water. Activities on land constitute a component of training. During the year swimmers train between 100 and 300 hours per year. The time devoted to strength training, which is focused on the development of maximum strength and endurance, constitutes 60% of the total working time on land. The volume of work in water is about 1,000 hours per year, during which athletes cover from 1300 to 3400 km [10, 11]. Several showed that the combination of strength and endurance training inhibits strength and power development [17, 18, 19]. Some studies showed that concurrent training hinders the development of strength and power [17, 19], and endurance [18, 20]. Other studies reported positive effects of dry-land resistance training on sprint performance in swimming [21, 22, 23]. However, Tanaka et al. [24] did not observe improvement in performance after a dry-land strength training period. These authors claimed that combined swimming and traditional dryland strength training did not enhance swimming performance, while combined swimming and swimming-specific in-water strength training increased swimming velocity. Tanaka et al. [24] also suggested that strength training executed in water would be more efficient than dry-land training. Nevertheless, the efficacy of dry-land, resisted and assisted sprint training methods in sprint performance is widely documented [23, 24, 25]. Strength training improves swimming performance [4, 25, 26, 27] and performance-related parameters such as increased stroke length [27], reduced stroke rate [25, 26] and increased tethered swimming force [4, 25, 26, 27]. Therefore, while improvement of swimming technique can be caused by strength training [12], it seems important to analyse the influence of specific land training on swimming performance in non-swimmers. Therefore, the aim of this work was to assess the effects of combined swimming and dry-land resistance training on swimming performance, force and strength in non-swimmers. Abstract Introduction. The aim of the study was to estimate the influence of combined swimming and dry-land resistance training on swimming force, swimming performance and strength in non-swimmers. Material and methods. Thirty male non-swimmers took part in the research. They were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: experimental (n=17) and control (n=13). The experimental group took part in combined swimming and dry-land resistance training. The control group took part in swimming training only. The swimming and dry-land resistance training programme lasted twelve weeks (48 training sessions of swimming and 36 sessions of dry-land resistance training). Average training volume and intensity were the same for all swimmers throughout the study protocol. The training programme included dominant aerobic work in front crawl. Results. Dry-land resistance training applied in the experimental group significantly improved the upper body strength. In spite of the theory that dry-land strength training is probably not specific enough to improve the sprint swim performance, the experimental group tended to demonstrate greater improvement in sprint performance. The imitation of the underwater phase of shoulder work during front crawl provided by the ergometer can be a useful training method in non-swimmers.