Like many athletes, blueseventy professional triathlete Justin Metzler, is incorporating more strength work using stretch cords while he's stuck on dryland during the Coronavirus shut downs.
"It's not a time where we have to take a step back on our swimming, if anything i'm looking at it myself as an opportunity to improve not only my muscular strength via the stretch cords, but also dialing in some of the technique."
Check out the video from Justin below where he'll go through how he's using the stretch cords including a basic set similar to what he's doing and recommending to his coached athletes.
For a basic stretch cord routine to get started, Justin recommends you focus on stretch cord work for about 10-30 minutes at a time, total time will depend on the routing you have, and if you've been using the cords previously. Don't over do it with the stretch cords. These are a great way to supplement swimming during this time, but should not be your entire workout.
Break your workout into sets of 10-20 intervals per exercise depending on how familiar you are with the stretch cords and the resistance on the band you are using. Here is the basic routine breakdown from Justin's video above.
- Fly - 10 - 30 seconds
- Single Arm "Swimming" - 15 seconds on each arm
- Freestyle - 10 - 30 seconds
- Justin's "Reverse Drill" - 10 - 30 seconds
- Squats - 10 - 30
- Jump to Streamline Squats - 10 - 30