I am gearing up for a 12.2 miles swim around Key West on June 6th 2009.

Any suggestions on exercises/workouts using the TRX and Suspension Training? I imagine i'll be doing a lot of shoulder and leg works to keep everything together for the challenge.

Did my first swim workout to prepare for the event.

8x50 Free on 1:00
4x25 Kick Back
8x50 Back on 1:00
4x25 Kick ***
8x50 *** on 1:00
4x25 Kick Fly
8x50 Fly on 1:15
4x25 Free

12x50 (4 on 1:00, 4 on 55, 4 on 50)

Total: 3200 Yards

I am looking forward to some stretching tomorrow.

I did nice little ride this morning to help build up my endurance for my swim.

I think the ride was a 40-45 miles. 

Goal for next week is to do some single leg squats and squats on the TRX to help my legs and knees feel better for the longer rides to come.

After a nice weekend of riding and soccer, I felt it was tim to throw the TRX into the mix. Below is my first attempt at the TRX Swim Workout.

2 Sets of 15 Reps, when possible do the second set single are or single handle mode

1. Standing Hip Rotation with Reach
   You should feel this stretch through your lats
   Focus on your reach
2. Chest Press/Single Arm Chest Press
3. Squats/Single Leg Squat
4. Rows/Single Arm Rows
5. Hip Press
6. Atomic Push-Ups
7. "I" Raise
8. Reverse "I" Raise
9. "Y" Raise
10. Reverse "Y" Raise
11. "T" Flys
12. Reverse "T" Flys
13. "W" Rotation
14. Reverse"W" Rotation
15. Tricep Press/Single Arm Tricep Press
16. Suspended Lunge
17. Side Plank (Hold each side for 30 sec)
18. Prone Plank
19. Assisted Pull-Ups
    
    

I would love any feedback on this workout.

HH, nice workout.  What are the "reverse" raises, though?  I love the Swimmer's Row and Swimmer's Roll-Out for targeting that whole muscle chain needed for a strong stroke.  Your swim sounds like it's going to be awesome, I'm eager to hear how the progress goes.  I can't wait to get back to CONUS and be able to start swimming again....

I was really inspired by the Reverse Isolated "W" on the TRX Performance: Tennis DVD. Reverse exercise in the workout are all similar to the Reverse Isolated "W".

I will have to give the Swimmer's Roll-Out a go as the workout is a little lacking on the core strength.

Did my first spin class to help build up my engine for the swim to come. Turns out I need to invest in some diffeent cleats. It's a small price to pay, so that i can enjoy the class a bit more. My old Adidas are not going to cut it. I was not able to recruit all the musle groups that I was hoping to but it was my first class in almost 4 years. 

That being said I was able to maintain a 90-100 cadence for the full hour and wattage ranged from 180 - 280.

Here is to the long road back into shape.

I have a bit of a nagging pain/burning snesation just above my knee towards the end of my rides or spinning. If anyone has any suggestions for TRX Exercises to help counter act or reduce the pain I would love to here it.

I had that same problem (left knee only) when I was doing high mileage bike rides but since I haven't been on a bike in over a year it's gone away. I'm going to want to get back to the road, though, once I get home so a little preventative medicine would probably be a wise idea!

I love these reverse shoulder series. It's a lot harder to keep your upper arms still and not go into a press than it looks.

Well after three days of rest, I know that's a bit long but i was really tired, I got back on the bike this morning and did the preiously mentioned Paradise Loop with a 3 mile hill climb up the Marin Headlands. The last 3 miles of climbing hurt a lot, but here's to feeling better next week. 

It was also decided on the ride that at some point I am going to have to bite the bullet a just do a 50 plus hilly ride next month. 

 FYI - The knees are holding up fine and hopefuly after next weeks spin class i will have some ever cool wattage and cadence stats. 

I played soccer and had no problem doing my part on defense of getting in peoples way and pushing them to the outside. I also did a little offense too. After winnning our game, whoohoo, I went on a piddley 15 minute run and then walked up the monstrous hill on the way to my house.

My legs and upper-body were rocked, but knees seem to be able to take the impact of both sports. 

Goal for this week is to swim 3 times in the morning.

Pulled my self out of bed this morning for a swim. Hooray!

8x150 - 1:15

4x25 kick (alternating butterfly & freestyle) - 0:30
4x25 drill (alternating butterfly & freestyle) - 0:30 

4x50 Freestyle  - 0:40
1x50 Butterfly - 1:00
100 EZ
3x50 Freestyle - 0:40
2x50 Butterfly - 1:00
100 EZ
2x50 Freestyle - 0:40
3x50 Butterfly - 1:00
100 EZ
1x50 Freestyle
4x50Butterfly - 1:00
100 EZ

8x50 Kick - 1:00

This morning was a big wake up call, no pun intended. I need to do a lot more strength work and flexibility.

Some more stretching will have to be worked into my TRX Swimming Workout

Spin class number 2 in as many weeks. I had some equipment issues focused around my shoes/cleats. It's all good I would rather have the issues now. All that being said the class went pretty well.

Here are my stats for the total 01hr 05 min 00sec 

Wattage: Max: 610 Avg: 183 (hopefully the average comes up, to above 200)
Cadence: Max: 124 Avg: 83 (hopefully I can ease the avg up to 90)

Kilojules Burned: 707kj

I am starting track next week and really want to give some of the exercises mentioned in the Forum below a try this weekend. 

TRX Track Workout

 

Despite the wind and the rain I got up this morning and prepared get out on the road. I hopped on the bike and road to the meeting point, excited by the fact that i was a little early.

Woot. 

As i was waiting for my fellow cyclist to arrive one of the bolts fell out of my cleat. This is the same situation that i had in spin class. Frustrated by the ever loose bolt I uncliped and was able to get the bolt back into the shoe. I took the advise of my fellow riders and stopped at the only bike store open at the wee hour of 8 AM, where i found out my cleats were stripped and would need a new pair of size 15 or 50 shoes if your fancy.

So no ride for me this morning, looks like I'l be doing my TRX Workout later this morning. 

These shoes got me through a season of Triathlon & Cycling Racing, a two stint in Australia and two years of cruising around San Francisco. They will be missed.

So the ride did not go so well, but the TRX Swim Workout did the job. The same rules apply as before; 2 sets of 15 reps of each or to failure. If you fail do a third of an easier exercise to make up for the missed reps. (I'll explain this as i needed to do it this time through. 

1. Reaching Hip Rotation
   a. I really need a picture of this
   b. once again you should just be focused on feeling the stretch through your lats and side
2. Stetching Shoulder Series
   a. this is essentially the Reverse shoulder series but rather than pulsing it's a static stretch moving through each position every 10 seconds or so
3. Calf Stretch
4. Suspended Toe Touch
5. Single Arm Chest Press
6. Single Leg Squats
   a. I did a set of assisted squats then a set of Single Leg Squats on each leg
7. Sprinter's Start
   a. I did a set of Double Leg Sprinter's Starts then a set of Single Leg Squats.
   b. I really like the way the Double Leg Sprinter's Starts map to the old school swimming starts, from now on I will call these Swimmer Starts.
8. Single Arm Rows
   a. I did high rows on the first set and low rows on the second set
9. Single Arm Tricep Press
   a. The first set was double arm and the second set was single arm
10. Reverse Crunches
11. Atomic Push Ups
    a. I was only able to crank out 10 and 6, so I did a extra set of Suspended Crunches
    
12. "I" Raise
13. Reverse "I" Raise
14. "Y" Raise
15. Reverse "Y" Raise
16. "T" Flies
17. Reverse "T" Flies
18. "W" Rotations
19. Reverse "W" Rotations
20. "L" Rotations
21. Reverse "L" Rotations
22. Suspended Lunge
23. Side Plank
    a. Hold for 30 seconds
24. Body Saw
    a. by this time I was pretty spent and these turned into Prone Planks
    
    

 

Still trying to nail down this workout and would love to hear any suggestions about substitutions or additions. Might be nice to have a couple of Swim Wokouts to keep the body confused.

Great workout!  I really like the "Swimmer Start" concept.  For some variation, every once and a while you could toss in the Split Fly (one arm goes high like in the "Y" while one arm goes low, switch every rep).  Also, Scorpians really work my trunk hard; I'll bet the increased hip rotation and trunk strength will transfer to the pool workouts and help generate a little extra power in your kick.    

In another thread somewhere, people were talking about mixing TRX work with pool work at that same time (i.e. swim 100m then do a Shoulder Series set, swim 200m then another TRX exercise, you get the idea).  That sounds like a puke fest waiting to happen but I'll bet after a few of those workouts a regular swim workout will seem like a walk in the park! ;-)