Swimming back and forth with only a total time or distance in mind is not the best way to get faster in your swimming. Make your time in the pool more efficient, by structuring your workouts with a variety of strokes, sets and interval training. The best type of swim workouts are organized by sets and set groups!

Sets

In swimming, workouts are broken up into sets. Sets are composed of four things:

• Number of repetitions
• Distance to be swum
• Stroke type
• Interval

If you put it all together, it looks like this. This is one set:

4 x 100m Freestyle @ 1:30

We can break it down like this:

• Number of repetitions: 4
• Distance to be swum: 100 meters
• Stroke type: Freestyle
• Interval: 1:30

Set Groups

Also known as Supersets, a Set Group is simply a collection of sets. Set groups can have multiple repetitions, so if a Set Group as two reps, you do all of the sets in that Set Group twice.

Warmup

1 x 200 Freestyle @ 4:00
4 x 50 Kick @ 1:20
Drill Set
4 x 25 Drill @ :40
4 x 25 Drill @ :40

Main Set (2x)
4 x 100 Freestyle @ 2:00
4 x 75 Freestyle @ 1:30
4 x 50 Freestyle @ 1:00
4 x 25 Freestyle @ :30
Cool Down

4 x 50 Freestyle @ 1:00

Interval

Interval = Swim Time + Rest Time

For example:

If the set is 2 x 100 @ 1:30, it might take you 1:21 to finish the set, so you get 9 seconds of rest before you push off again. The faster you go, the more rest you get! (but the more tired you get, too!)

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