If you find it challenging to motivate yourself to keep your dryland swim training consistent, you’re not alone. Many swimmers, triathletes, and surfers sometimes find it difficult to maintain purposeful dryland training when circumstances force them indoors.
Whatever the reasons, athletes must be creative and be motivated to maintain quality training even when stuck indoors.
While quality indoor swim training is a proven effective way of improving performance, unfocused training can ultimately be boring, hinder performance, and even increase the odds of injury. Here are a few ways to beat the boredom and stay motivated indoors.
How to Keep Your Dryland Training Interesting
It’s important to understand how the indoor environment can impact your training.
While indoor training has many positive aspects, including convenience, time efficiency, power metrics, and safety, it can also have a few downsides.
For one, your workout environment plays a significant role in making your training engaging and effective. Location, size of the room, cleanliness of the equipment, and even equipment selection really matter. It’s harder to stay motivated when you’re in an environment that doesn’t have what you need.
The people around you can also impact your motivation levels. It typically helps to train with a friend or to be accountable to a coach.
Busy or crowded gym environments can also add to the challenge of working out in a way that’s safe and convenient.
However, these environmental factors don’t have to be obstacles to a good workout.
In fact, you can use the environment to your advantage to create truly effective indoor training that keeps you coming back for more.
Here’s how:
1. Create a pre-workout routine and use it to trick your brain
There will inevitably come a time when the effort needed to do the workout will conflict with the body’s low energy levels.
When you procrastinate and think, “I don’t want to do this today,” one way to overcome this thought is to start your pre-training routine anyway. A pre-workout routine, such as making yourself a shake or snack, reviewing your performance stats from your last session, or simply putting on your workout clothes and filling up your water bottle, will trigger motivation.
It’s about consistency.
Or, as Chris Hague says, it’s about doing something.
“I first focused on what I could do and built from there,” he says. “Instead of making significant commitments, I started slowly.” Once you have your gear on and start the process, the brain wants to finish what it started, which can help you feel motivated, even during the slowest or most exhausting days.
So, a plan is essential. Psychologically speaking, having a regular routine (plan) is good for motivation.
2. Choose clothing and equipment that are comfortable
Another thing your brain dislikes is discomfort; it’s wired to seek pleasurable activities.
For people who enjoy swim training, it can be easy to become “addicted” to it, which can sometimes be enough of a motivator to work through the most dreary sessions.
However, only some athletes will treat an at-home training session as pleasurable.
If you’re more comfortable training in the water, with a coach, or using specific techniques or equipment, finding yourself in an uncomfortable environment will be the opposite of addictive—you’ll have to force yourself to do it.
Sometimes, your discomfort may be due to things you can’t always control, like temperature.
As pro-cyclist Sonya Looney says, “Sure, you can do ‘hot cycling,’ but that will make you miserable.”
Her advice? Find ways to make yourself more comfortable in your environment. This might mean using a high-power fan to cool down for better temperature control, for example, or using specific training equipment that fits your workout style.
“Initially I tried a few different kinds of trainers, but they were all hard to use,” she adds, “Every two minutes, I had to glance at the clock to see how long I had been riding. It didn’t take long before I wanted give up.”
For Sonya, finding the right equipment that helped keep her body in more comfortable positions was critical to staying motivated to train indoors.
When you feel comfortable in your environment, you’ll be more motivated to stay in it and train.
3. Use technology to track progress and set goals
When routine and comfort aren’t enough, the next thing you can do is use technology to help get you through a workout. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean distracting yourself while watching TV on the treadmill. Distractions can reduce your workout performance and increase the chances of injury.
Fortunately. there are other ways to use tech to boost motivation.
If you’re using the Vasa SwimErg, for example, you can use the PM3 Power Meter with ANT+ and BT Wireless Connectivity to record and analyze the metrics and use it for biofeedback.
In fact, Coach Eric Neilsen often recommends using visual and audible biofeedback (specifically, the Watts on the Power Meter and audible cues) to help indicate when muscular fatigue sets in. This is especially helpful when fatigue negatively affects your stroke technique and ability to sustain pulling power.
When you measure your results, you’re more focused on accomplishing a goal than simply getting through a workout.
Goals are essential for motivation.
4. Train with a Coach or Another Athlete
For example, coach Eric Neilsen motivated Chris Hague to overhaul his swim training after he moved from sunny California to wintery Canada. Coach Neilsen gave him a set of workouts that Chris could manage easily while still improving his performance.
Chris says, “I love Coach Eric’s quick 10-20 minute Vasa SwimErg workouts before indoor bike trainer rides because they are so manageable. Even though they are short, they still make me faster both on the SwimErg and in the water.”
Using a coach or personal trainer at the gym or at home can also be an excellent strategy for beating boredom. They will provide key technical elements to work on, push you further, and instill confidence that you can do it on your own.
Remote Swim Coaching
Fortunately, the right coach doesn’t always need to be physically present in order to help you stay motivated. Remote coaching is another way athletes can ensure that performance remains high.
Coaches usually hold athletes accountable when they miss practice or by providing different workouts that keep the momentum going without pressuring the athlete.
If you consistently dread indoor training, a remote swim coach would be an excellent way to get more from each workout while avoiding staleness and boredom.
Alternatively, partner with other athletes to stay motivated. Training with a friend or your spouse usually makes it more fun, and time flies by. Five-time Ironman age-group World Champion Lisbeth Kenyon, a busy professional and mother of three, acknowledges the value of maintaining consistency and training with others, including her husband Todd Kenyon.
Leverage your “pain cave” at home or meet at the gym. Swimmers can partner up and do swim-specific and dryland strength training, while triathletes might do swim-bike brick workouts together. Try the 30-20-10 workout for variety and challenge.
One study found that social interaction (competition or cooperation) between athletes was one of the best motivating factors for sticking with a workout compared to those who exercised alone.
So, if you really want to maximize your effort without being bored, bring someone else along on the journey with you.
Final Thoughts
While indoor swim training is designed to provide a fast, efficient way for swimmers to do quality training when they can’t get to the water, boredom can derail the best intentions.
That’s why finding ways to beat boredom during training sessions is important.
Pay attention to the workout environment. Make sure there is adequate space and the right equipment to support your training needs (if both of those things are an issue, consider using something like the SpaceSaver SwimErg).
Find a routine, stick with it, and don’t be afraid to include others, like a coach or a workout buddy. Technology can help you stick with your program, especially when you track and measure your progress.
Set yourself up to be comfortable in whatever environment you’re in. Choose the proper workout clothing and gear, use a fan to keep you cool, and have water and a towel nearby. Reducing discomfort in your workout area will let you focus on the real work of training…and that may not always be comfortable, but it will pay dividends!
Why Quality Training Matters
Correcting errors in technical sports like swimming isn’t solely about identifying and fixing mistakes. It’s about adopting a holistic approach that includes quality training, robust equipment, and consistent feedback. This identifies and addresses the root of the problems at their core.
At Vasa, we believe in empowering athletes by providing quality training tools and resources. Our motto, “Quality Costs Less,” reflects our commitment to offering high-performing, durable products that deliver a lifetime of reliable, functional service. Training with Vasa ensures that every effort you put into mastering your swimming technique translates efficiently into noticeable performance gains.
The Vasa Guarantee
Your journey to becoming a stronger, faster, and more efficient swimmer is our priority. We guarantee all of our products and stand by a “no questions asked” policy for the rare events in which they do not meet your expectations. Should you ever encounter a problem, we are here to make it right. Our pride comes from serving you and helping you achieve your athletic goals. Are you ready to correct your timing and improve your breaststroke? Check out our range of cutting-edge training solutions. Join thousands of swimmers, triathletes, and surfers who have seen real improvement and performance gains with our tools. Dive into quality and watch your swim technique soar to new heights!