Unlocking Your Potential: Maximizing Performance with VO2 Max Training for Swimmers!

Welcome to the VO2 max training overview. Let’s learn a little before we jump into the pool!

So, what exactly is this thing we call maximum volume of oxygen uptake, or VO2 max? We will look at the energy delivery architecture and some examples of VO2 max training in other sports. Then, we can discuss how it fits into different race-specific training plans. Finally, we will plug VO2 max sessions into our training cycles.

VO2 max is critically important to the amount of quality training you can accomplish in a session and how you build your body to do more work long-term. 100% VO2 max is also a weird term in physiology; it doesn’t actually represent the highest effort you can achieve but relates to all the energy systems working at maximum capacity at any given time — respiratory muscle, the heart, the vascular system, muscle oxygenation, oxidation cycle, phosphagen regeneration, glycogen usage, and gluconeogenesis. When you work below 100% the aerobic capacity of the cardiopulmonary and cardiovascular systems are more dominant; effort above 100% places the training emphasis on the anaerobic capacity inside the energy compartments of the working muscle.

Any effort above 100% creates an energy debt that must be recovered when you are finished working. For experienced swimmers, paces at 200 meters or faster are all completed well above 100% VO2 max range. 200’s are probably in the 120-140% range, 100’s in the 150-200% zone, and 50’s are sprint efforts that may be in the 300-400% range! Fast swims to failure create large energy debts.

Distance swimmers operate below 100% VO2 max. A 500 race might be at 95% while a mile swim may be in the 80-90% range. For reference, a top marathon runner usually holds their aerobic rate at 65% while an elite track runner can run a four minute mile in the 105-110% range. As you can see, the percentage range depends on the length of the event and how hard you are pushing yourself. Swimming an easy 100 may be at 70% max while an all out 100 is at 150%. This is important to understand the next piece of the puzzle, recovery.

You rarely need to push yourself to muscular or cardio failure to see training progress. Swimming an all out 200 freestyle three times in practice is not a valuable or efficient workout. If you want to maintain a fast time you need to take longer breaks. If rest periods are too short then you slow down and it’s not really a realistic race speed. If you get tired your technique gets sloppy and your stroke count increases.

In this scenario, 2-3 minutes of stress is also not enough time to improve your energy delivery architecture. In order to enhance all of the systems using VO2 max training, total working time during the set needs to be 12-20 minutes. By breaking down the VO2 max set into intervals, more fast repetitions can be completed with shorter rest while also maintaining an efficient stroke.

The distance you use should be a work period of around one minute or less. Beginners might swim 50’s in 50-60 seconds, intermediate swimmers could use seventy-fives if they can maintain a 55-65 seconds range, and advanced swimmers will move between seventy-fives and one hundreds depending on the training cycle. The best rest period will stay below 25 seconds to keep the cardiopulmonary system fully activated throughout the set. Intermediate and advanced swimmers should understand their stroke count per lap and try to maintain that during the set.

Swimmers training for distance events, such as the 500 yard freestyle or an open water triathlon swim, will use 100% VO2 max training to improve energy delivery endurance before technical failure during long swims. This means you are going slightly faster in practice than during the race to force cardiopulmonary fatigue.

Distance event speeds are slightly below 100% VO2 max, and fatigue is indicated by technical failure. This means when you swim longer distances at your event pace you will eventually add a stroke per lap, become inefficient, and expend more energy to maintain your speed. In practice, if you start adding a stroke per lap then you are in technical failure and should use a quick rest to reset and reload the energy system.

Swimmers training for shorter events, usually the 50, 100, and 200 events, use 100% VO2 max training to improve recovery between short swims at fast speeds.

This is important because interval training for these events will include a lot of 15-50 yard or meter swims with a little more rest than the long swims. The more energy the system can reload during the breaks, the more repetitions you can complete in practice. If you keep VO2 max training on your schedule these sets will result in fatigue within the working muscle.

The general conditioning cycle should focus heavily on improving VO2 max capabilities. Around 50% of the total training time may be devoted to this area. This is the most effective and efficient way to get in shape after a training break or to re-balance the systems after a tough swim meet.

The technical endurance phase will still focus on building the capacity of all the systems but this is where more race-specific training and technique instruction ramps up. VO2 max sets should be completed at least once a week depending on how often you practice and how many strokes you are working on. Distance training may alternate days and more advanced swimmers can transition this into 400 meter or 500 yard freestyle specific race speeds.

The event capacity cycle uses VO2 max sets for longer warmups and on recovery days. Shifting the sets from 12-20 minutes to somewhere in the 10-12 minute range allows for system activation without much stress. One tough set a week should be adequate with shorter sets used throughout the other practice days.

Speed development training for sprint swimmers uses VO2 max at the beginning of the swim week and for short warmups. Distance swimmers should fully transition to doing more 400/500 race freestyle sets at this point in the season.

VO2 max can be used at any point in the competition taper phase because, at this point in the season, it will build the least amount of fatigue and technical stress on the swimmer. Short sets of 6-8 minutes can be plugged in before, after, or even in between race specific sets.

Remember, VO2 max swims are your building blocks and default sets throughout the training season. Eventually they even become solid warmup sets! If you’re having a tough day you can always swap to this type of training to get some good work in without worrying about hitting race paces or repetition goals.

I’m glad we could build on our knowledge foundations today! We are always improving and working to be our best! Have a great practice this week!