Dr. Marc Luko Guest Series Post #3: Training Well

In my last two posts we talked about Recovering Well and Moving Well. If you missed
either of those posts make sure that you check them out. For today’s post, we will be
discussing the concept of training well.

A decent amount of you that are reading this probably have a coach. Your job as an athlete is to
show up to practice and complete the workout that day. Simple, right? Well, nothing about
training ever is. Showing up for your training is important, but what are you training for? What is
the goal? If you don't have a goal for your training, i.e. drop 3 seconds in the 400 IM,
then you're just guessing, and when it comes to reaching peak performance, are you willing to
guess?

Every good training plan starts with a goal. As world renowned strength coach, Dan John, likes
to reiterate, “The goal is to keep the goal the goal." So when devising a training plan, you have
to ask yourself what your goal is for a specific training cycle and reverse engineer it from the end
result. In our example of the 400 IM, what would you need to swim 3 seconds faster? Here are
some examples:

• Speed workouts
• Speed Endurance workouts
• Strength Training
• Skill/Technique training
• Turn Work
• Race-Pace Workouts (at a pace 10 sec faster than current race pace)

Now, when you look at your training, what do you see? If the goal is to swim 3 seconds faster
in the 400 IM but your workouts consist of long, slow, swimming, then it's no surprise that you
have not gone faster. This leads to the next important concept of training well: auditing.
No one wants to find out after six months of training that their training was not up to par. While
you cannot know if your training is effective after one week, it's important to schedule training
audits to make sure that you're “keeping the goal the goal,” but also that what you're doing
in training is having a positive affect on your performance. Part of the auditing process is
performance testing. While the best test is a race, you can't always race every 4-6 weeks. In
this case, testing and measuring the different abilities that lead to peak performance in your
sport is important. Examples include:

• Reaction time
• Power: medicine ball throws, jumps, Olympic lifts, etc.
• 50-meter test
• Video analysis for technique
• Lactate Threshold Testing
• Heart Rate Variability

These are just some examples of metrics that you can test every so often (4-8 weeks) to make
sure that the training you are doing translates to the results you are looking for. As the saying
goes, “what gets monitored, gets managed." If you aren't setting goals, developing a training
plan that supports these goals, and monitoring to make sure that you're on target, this may be
why you are not seeing the results you had hoped for. Log every workout to make sure that there is a track record. That way, you know what worked
and what did not. Even if you are not the one making the training plan, it's very important that
you still log your workouts in some fashion. This allows you, the coach, the strength coach, and
the clinician to have an understanding of what may have been the cause behind poor
performance.

Training hard is important, but training smart is crucial.

Valentine's Day Gift Guide for Swimmers

It's that time of year again, everyone's favorite Hallmark driven holiday is almost upon us and I, for one, cannot wait to celebrate with an over-priced box of chocolates and sweatpants (hint hint husband). Candies aside, there are a lot of people who prefer actual gifts on Valentine's Day, so I wanted to throw some ideas at you guys that are specifically for swimmers, as well as the staples I've used to get to and from the pool pretty much my entire life. Get ready, there's a pink and red theme ahead...

One thing I always coveted were the backpacks all of my older swimmer friends had when I was little. They have side pockets for caps, goggles, and shampoo, as well as a mesh compartment to put your wet suit in after getting out of the water. There's enough space in the main compartment for shoes and the clothes you want to wear afterwards as well as a towel and any hair dryer/straightener you might need. 

The one I use to this day is the Speedo Large Teamster Backpack. It's also great as a carry-on bag for short trips that fits easily in the overhead compartment of airplanes.

This one might seem a bit odd, but I promise you'll be finding uses for it for years to come. I've had mine since I was a freshman in high school and I've never had any issues with it. What I'm talking about is the Finis Tempo Trainer. This tiny little tool sits inside your cap and gives you something to pace yourself off of. Think of it as a cute little metronome (any orchestra buffs out there? Fun fact: I played the violin for 9 years and my metronome became one of my closest friends when I first started). If you don't know what a metronome is it's something that helps you keep a beat. You can set it to whatever interval you like and it will make an audible beep for you to follow along to. The Tempo Trainer is a great tool to help you work on your pace, rotation, kick, timing of your breath, etc. It's a bit pricey for what it does but it's a great product that lasts for years. And no, sadly, it doesn't come in pink.

Back to the pink theme! My next pick is something I actually stole from my diver friends when I was swimming for my summer team as a kid. The Speedo Sports Towel is 12.5 by 16.5 inches and is the most absorbent thing I've ever come across. It's incredibly light and dries quickly as well. This towel is perfect to have at meets, open water events, and triathlons that won't take up too much room in your bag but will get you drier than any beach towel ever could.

Now before you say it I already know what you're thinking, why in the world is a silicone oven mitt listed in a swimmers gift guide? The answer is that this thing saved my life growing up when it came to getting ready for school after swimming every morning. This one's pretty specific and I'm sure isn't for everyone, but a Silicone Oven Mitt was the one thing that kept my hair straightener from burning a hole straight through my bag. I know, like I said, this isn't for everyone. But it was my mom's idea when I was in high school and I still use it to this day. It's also perfect for hair driers!

Last on the list is simple but something every swimmer should have at least one of, if not 2-3. The Speedo Goggle Case is exactly what it says it is, a goggle case. I had a lot of different variations of this one over the years but this is the best one I've found. It's cheap and easy to use and won't take up too much space in your bag. I used to think these were just silly and unnecessary, but now that I'm an adult and buy my own goggles I use this every time I swim because it keeps them from getting all of those teensy, tiny, scratches all over the lenses, which means it keeps me from buying goggles every 3 weeks because I can't see out of them anymore. Think you don't need this because you're a triathlete and don't swim as much as you bike and run? Think again, because this case will save your goggles from getting damaged in your bag where they're hanging out with all of your other belongings and keep them pristine for race day.

Dr. Marc Luko Guest Series Post #2: Moving Well

In my last post I talked about the importance of recovering well. If you have not read that post yet, you can check it out, here. Today I want to address the second secret to elite performance: the importance of moving well.

Moving well is all about efficiency. Whether you're a runner, swimmer, soccer player, or a gymnast, the better you move, the more efficient you are. In sports where the objective is to be the fastest, this can mean the difference between finishing in 1st place or 3rd place. So, what does moving well look like?

Look at these two athletes. Which one do you think “moves well”? If you said the one on the left, you would be correct. But can you tell me why the athlete on the right does not? We can all guess, but one frame does not tell you about the whole movie.

This leads to my next point. Moving well can be broken down into two parts: the mobility that we have and the mobility that we can use.

The mobility that we have is called range of motion. Range of motion is a measure of how much movement is possible at each joint, e.g. knee, shoulder, elbow, etc. For a visual, think about how much motion a swimmer is going to have at their shoulder vs. someone with arthritis. This can be limited because of injury, surgery, short muscle length (e.g. hip flexors) or a slew of other factors. If someone has an issue with range of motion, they can work to improve theirs. This is where stretching, manual therapy, manipulations, dry needling, etc. are appropriate. But, what happens when there is plenty of range of motion but the athlete is still limited? This is an issue of the mobility we can use.

The mobility that we can use is a concept that is not so obvious. Do you remember when you were a kid and your parents would tell you not to use a calculator for simple math because you would lose that skill? They would say “if you don’t use it, you lose it”. As hard as it may be to hear, they were right, and that concept doesn’t just apply to math, it also applies to movement. Just because someone has a lot of range of motion does not mean they have the ability to use it, or, more importantly, control all of it. If you have the available shoulder range of the person in Figure 3a (180 deg) but you only use the amount of the person in Figure 3b (90 deg), you will lose the ability to control the shoulder at the upper ranges. This scenario tends to lead to injury because you are taking your body to a place it rarely goes and it's not comfortable with. Think of it like this, if I'm a runner and I have the genetic capability to run 30 miles, but I usually only run 15 miles. What do you think is going to happen when all of a sudden, I attempt to run 25 miles? Here's a hint: nothing good.

Figure 3a.

Figure 3b.

So how do you move well? By practicing good form with exercises and going through full ranges of motion. This will help you reinforce good movement and gain control through all ranges of motion. Never push through ranges that are not available to you. Your body will naturally give you more motion when it feels you are able to control it. While stretching can help, particularly after surgery when joints are stiff, strength training through full range of motion will give you more bang for your buck in the long run. Strength training in this way will help you improve the mobility that you have and the mobility you can use, while at the same time making your stronger in these movements. Once you have done that, follow the words of well-known Physical Therapist, Gray Cook, “Move well. Move often”.  And your parents, "If you don’t use it, you will lose it."

Not sure if you move well? Get screened by a Physical Therapist and have them give you tips on how to improve where you are at. 

New Year New...Failures?

I feel like January can be a very hostile time of year, even if it doesn't appear to be from the surface. Everyone's starting New Year’s resolutions and promising themselves to work harder, eat healthier, and most of all (I'm sure you guessed it), go to the gym. That being said, it's always come across to me as the perfect time to fail. There's even more societal pressure than normal, which can lead to a big let down if you make even the smallest of slip ups.

Well, I just wanted to take a second and tell you how I really feel about it when my friends tell me they're beside themselves because not even a month into the new year they're already back to their same old bad habits: so what? Just taking the time to think of ways you want to better yourself is a step in the right direction. So many people think they're done growing up by the time they get out of college, but you're here working every year at learning something new to make yourself grow and become just that much of a better person. That's huge! So dust yourself (and try again, any early 2000's R&B lovers out there giggling with me?), pick yourself up, and try again. Fun fact? It took me 3 years to figure out how to change one small piece of my freestyle catch. Yup, you read that right. Three. Years. It was discouraging and enraging at times, and I thought I was a lost cause more than once (changing something minute in your stroke after swimming for 23 years is no easy feat you guys), but I never gave up. I tried different things and kept coming back to trying to make that one little thing better. And that eureka moment when I finally got it? It was just incredible. Almost as good as that first bite of a freshly baked cookie (...almost).

You're going to have goals. You're going to come up with lists of things you want to change to help keep yourself growing and learning and bettering yourself. And you're also going to have setbacks. And failures. So what? Take what you've learned from those failures (even if it's nothing, because let's be real, we all have setbacks where we don't think we've gained anything) and keep moving forward. It's almost come to seem like failure is a taboo word nowadays. But who hasn't had their fair share of failures? It's okay to fail, it's okay to get upset (and console yourself with a donut or 4), just keep your goal in mind. It's that simple.

It might seem hard and silly to think that way just because some virtual stranger online is saying this, but you know I'm right. Deep down that nagging voice we all have (that we love to hate so much) knows I'm right too.

Don't beat yourself up over the mistakes, the failures, and the setbacks. Acknowledge them, let yourself pout for a bit, and keep moving forward. You'll reach your goals and have your eureka moments. It might not be overnight, but you will.

Dr. Marc Luko Guest Series: The Secret to Elite Performance

Who knows the secret to maximizing your performance? I believe there are multiple secrets, because one thing alone does not turn you into an elite athlete. In my opinion the three utmost points to elite performance are:

Recovering Well

Moving Well

Training Well

If you don't read any further, you will have just learned the "secrets" to elite performance. But if this is the end of the line for you, implementing those three points properly - and knowing why you should be doing so, will remain a mystery. For those of you that are curious, read on, as today's post will be about the first point: recovery.

Contrary to popular belief, working harder does not constitute performing better. While hard efforts are par for the course and necessary to improve performances, training hard all of the time will only lead to injury. With the advent of social media and the internet, many athletes are gaining insight into what elite athletes are doing for workouts. But, what they are not seeing, is the aftermath. And that is just as important - if not more so - than the actual workout. Elite athletes don’t just train hard, they recover hard too.  

The science and benefit of sleep has been gaining a lot of media attention lately, and for good reason. It is the cheapest and most effective form of recovery there is. Yet, it is highly underutilized. The focus for so long now has been on how to gain more training hours, when it should really be geared towards looking into more recovery hours. Triathletes that have increased their recovery times while still maintaining quality workloads have demonstrated less injuries and better times.

Some of you may be asking yourself “Well, that’s nice, but how do I know how much sleep I need? Or whether or not I'm ready for another hard workout?” This is a completely valid question, as up until recently, most athletes would judge their state of "readiness" based on unreliable factors, such as soreness levels. Today, the world of sports science has evolved and has discovered that many of the “secrets” of recovery are accessible and reliable, with the right technology and data analysis. When these variables are monitored and managed well, athletes are able to get the most out of their workouts as well as reduce injury so that they can continue to train well and perform better.

As an athlete, you're already doing a lot. Whether you’re a high school swimmer and have a job while also juggling classes, clubs, and your social life, or a mother of three who is a competitive triathlete who also works 70 hours/wk at a law firm, adding something else to your training is difficult, even if it will ultimately help you. In my experience athletes who want to be performing at their peak don't necessary yet another person telling them to workout, they need someone telling them when not to. It's ingrained in our brains that the more we train the better we'll be. But speaking from experience, over-training without proper rest and recovery won't get you anywhere but stuck on your butt while everyone else is out there getting better. 

I'm so happy to be a part of SwimBox Elite, our new performance optimization service. Over our careers, Dominic and I have seen too many athletes that have trained themselves into short or unfulfilled athletic careers due to overtraining, not to mention more injuries than we can count. Discussions of how to fix this lead to extensive research and testing that ultimately manifested into our new program. If you have experienced poor recovery from workouts, inexplicable drop-offs in performance, long history of injuries, or want that slight edge over the competition, this is for you. Our program offers virtual recovery monitoring with email updates on actionable steps, 24/7 data collection, and personalized coaching based off of your specific needs. This will ensure that you are getting the most of your training. Each component of our program ensures that you are recovering well, moving well, and training well. Our goal is for each of our athletes to improve their performance by at least 5-10%. 

*stay tuned for the next post in this guest series: Moving Well

California FBM Clinic Trip Recap

Who's ever flown to and from California (from the east coast) in less than 38 hours, worked the entire time you were there, and lived to tell the tale? At this day and age I'm assuming there are at least some of you answering in the positive to this question, but still, it's not a normal thing you do on a weekend. But alas, that's what Dominic and I set out to do last weekend in order to hold our first ever Foundational Breathing Method Clinic, and it was great! That is until a giant fog fell over us this past Thursday that caused me to live off of Oreos, donuts, and Papa Johns for a 13 hour period (it was great, don't act like you're not jealous) and change our bedtime to 7pm...

We landed in CA at 9:45pm EST, which is already well past when we normally get to sleep, and headed to dinner with our hosts for the weekend. The restaurant we ate at claimed to be Cuban, and no offense to CA but it definitely wasn't. Cuban inspired is more what I would call it. If I hadn't fallen in love with all of the authentic Cuban food we had in Miami maybe I wouldn't sound like such a snob right now, but I did, so I'm going to hold my nose up a bit too high for this one.  

Dinner put us back at the house at 12:45am EST, but the clinic wasn't until 10am PST the next day, so there was plenty of sleep to be had. That being said, I've only travelled to a different time zone once, so I'm not used to my internal clock not matching up with the external clock, and I was wide awake and ready to go at 3am. Oops.

All of my complaining about food and sleep aside, the clinic was great. We spent an hour in the classroom, two hours in the pool, and finished off with an hour of dryland. It might seem a bit weird to start off a swim clinic outside of the water, but this really allowed Dominic to teach everyone about the anatomy we'd be utilizing during FBM and how these subtle changes would improve multiple parts of their swimming. Not to mention our participants gained a greater knowledge of how it's possible to manipulate your breathing to aid in day to day aspects of life as well.

Putting everything together in the water is where everyone really started to understand how helpful FBM is. One of my favorite parts of clinics is being there to see the moment someone learns something new. Seeing that spark of understanding in someone's eyes really is a great feeling, and having the chance to be a part of that feeling is something I'm truly grateful for. We had one participant say that she'd never been able to swim across the length of the pool without gasping for a breath before, and now she feels like she can actually swim. Hearing that made the whole trip worth it.

After two hours in the water we headed into a ballet studio to work on some dryland moves. And if your first thought when you read the words "ballet studio" is of those rooms lined in mirrors, you'd be right. If you know me well enough you're laughing right now, because I can't walk past a mirror without looking at myself...I just can't. There's always a hair out of place or my bangs need fixing, so a room full of mirrors is my dream (and Dominic's nightmare). 

Our dryland session was the perfect way to end the clinic. Dominic went over certain PRI moves that help you better understand the strength of your breath and explore how to better gain your FBM when you're in the water. All of the movements are body weight only and can be done in the comfort of your own home. And by that I mean in your living room, dressed in sweats, with the TV on in the background.

Even though the weekend was jam-packed and we spent two full days traveling it was well worth it. We got to meet a great new group of swimmers and triathletes and spend the day learning with them. But the real moral of the story? If you're about to spend an entire Sunday flying from California, to Denver, to DC, make sure you have plenty of snacks with you, otherwise you might find yourself buying a $15 six ounce bag of popcorn while your husband stares at you with his jaw dropped...Was the popcorn good you ask? Sigh, it was okay...just okay. Does this mean it'll be my last extremely overpriced junk-food purchase? No way.

Butterfly Fun with Softballs

If you don’t learn anything from this video, at the very least I can promise you some entertainment, because this one’s a good one. Ever swum in an Endless Pool with two softballs in your hands? No? Well now I can proudly say that yes, yes I have.

This fun drill we came up with works on driving power through the finish of your butterfly stroke (which is also eerily similar to the finish of your freestyle, hint hint). As a kid butterfly was my favorite stroke and 100 butterfly was my best event, but I’d be lying if I said I always followed through to my finish and that I always carried my force during my entire pull through the water. It’s hard to focus on that for an entire 100 or 200.

Take a softball in each hand and start with your arms extended in front of you. While doing fly kick you’re going to take a pull and try to throw the balls behind you as far as you can (maybe have your brother or sister be behind you so you have a target you really want to hit). This forces you to have a strong pull the entirety of the way from your catch to your finish.

If you think this sounds easy, I say ha to you good sir. Ha to you. The first time I tried this I barely got the balls out of the water. I turned around and stood up only to hear Dominic laughing hysterically at my first attempt. Thanks for the support, husband.

After a few attempts I got the hang of throwing the balls behind me and out of the water, but they never went too far. And I was tired, after just a few kicks and strokes of butterfly. I like adding this drill to the end of a workout when my body and my brain are fatigued. It forces me to focus and stay engaged when all I want to do is crawl out of the pool and head to Panera for a loaf of bread.

Performance Optimization with SwimBox Elite

Growing up as a competitive swimmer I was always very focused on everything that impacted my performance…Okay, I can’t even write that sentence with a straight face, that is just a blatant lie. I swam all the time, so I ate all the time. Do you think I’m talking about protein and veggies here? Nope, not even close. Donuts were my one true love, probably still are (don’t tell Dominic), and I definitely never paid attention to my sleep habits. An 8:30pm bedtime as a 16 year girl isn’t exactly going to make you a happy camper.

But as I’ve gotten older and learned more about taking care of myself (be proud, Mom & Dad) I really wish I had paid attention to these things more when I was younger and competing. Which just makes me want to have everyone else take as good of care of themselves as they can in order to get the best out of their training. Which is why Dominic and I are so excited about SwimBox Elite, our new performance optimization service.

Using the Whoop Strap, a wearable that’s worn 24/7 (don’t worry, it’s waterproof), we’re able to monitor your resting heart rate, heart rate variability, recovery, cardio strain, and sleep. Yes, we’re basically asking you to let us stalk you, get excited. Getting all of this data in real time allows us to take the guess work out of your training. Our head of performance, Dr. Marc Luko, takes all of this data and sends you weekly analyses and training suggestions to make sure you’re staying on top of your game.

If you’re like me, you definitely have those days where you wake up and wish you could call in sick to your training plan because you’re feeling so beaten down and dead. With SwimBox Elite we’ll see your data, in real time, and let you know you need to give it a rest, take a break, and let your body recover. And even though we all can get a bit obsessed with sticking to our training and getting those endorphin highs from our long workouts, breaks are necessary, and sometimes it’s hard to know when to listen to your body and when to suck it up. But not anymore.

As a member of SwimBox Elite you'll receive training tips based off of your personal data, take a movement screen so we can head off injury before it happens, specific advice on how to best prepare for your races, and how to take care of your body in terms of training, recovery, and sleep performance. Members also get data updates, Skype sessions to plan for your race season, and performance coaching. We believe this is a perfect add-on to any swimmer's current training plan to give them the extra edge over their competition. 

I was always the kid who would miss a practice and come back about 3-4 days behind in my conditioning. But to me it seemed like I was the only one this happened to, because my friends, who would sometimes miss 2-3 practices in a row, would come back even better than they were before they left. I hated not knowing why this was happening, so that makes me super excited to be able to take that guesswork out of your training and give you the answers you're looking for to have you perform at your best.