As a coach and a competitive swimmer, I had always been familiar with the Vasa brand name, whose products are to be found on pool decks across the United States and around the world.
And yet I had never had the opportunity to incorporate Vasa’s equipment into my training routine….until now. When Swimspire partnered with Vasa, Inc. recently, we decided that if I was going to be an independent consultant for the company, it would make sense to familiarize myself with their premier swimming product – the Vasa Swim Ergometer (Vasa Swim Erg). Vasa prides itself on making products that yield results and improving their products through feedback received from users. Along the same lines of thinking, we thought why not share my honest experiences with the Erg – including both the positives and the negatives – in a weekly editorial format? Without further ado, the Vasa team shipped me a free Erg, and I was all set!
And so it is – a weekly editorial, for your reading pleasure, which will serve to hopefully educate and entertain at the same time.
This week we’ll start from the beginning: assembly and my very first impressions.
I have to admit I trembled with trepidation when the three large boxes arrived at my doorstep. I’ve never been one for assembling anything, let alone a large training machine like the Erg. And yet I was determined to give it a go on my own!
As it turns out, the assembly is straightforward. In addition to a clear instruction manual, Vasa provides you with a full set of tools needed to assemble the Erg. The boxes also need to be unpacked in a specific order in order to ensure that the assembly is smooth and efficient.
<<<< Welcome to the Vasa family! A very nice touch when you unpack the first box.
>>>> Instruction manual was easy to find and fairly easy to read. Be sure to follow each of the steps in order.
<<<< All of the pieces in the first and second boxes! Not too intimidating.
>>>> First step: assembling the bench.
<<<< Next step: attaching the monorail to the bench.
>>>> After that, it was time to attach the rear stanchion to the monorail, which holds the Erg up.
<<<< Attaching the tether cord to the bench. The cord allows the bench to slide along the monorail in a controlled manner.
>>>> Attaching the ergometer to the monorail was the trickiest part for me. It’s a heavy part and you have to balance it upright in order to attach. There were also quite a few warnings about being gentle with this part so as not to damage it. I made sure to have someone to help me here.
<<<< Almost done! Next up is attaching the wheel bracket to the front ergometer. The wheel bracket allows you to move the Ergometer around more easily than having to lift the entire machine up. This is convenient if you need to put the Erg in a different place.
>>>> Finally, you will need to attach the power meter to the cables in the front ergometer. I’ll go into all of the wonderful things that the power meter can do in a future post, but for now – here it is, plugged in and adjusted so that I can see it while I’m working on the Erg.
<<<< Assembly is now complete and I am the proud owner of a Vasa Swim Ergometer! I am very excited to see what it can do to help improve my swimming strength and to share my thoughts and experiences with you. So far, so good! Until next week….
Julia Galan is the founder and head coach at Swimspire. A lifelong competitive swimmer and member of USA Swimming and United States Masters Swimming, Julia has trained both in the United States and Europe at the regional and national levels. She has also spent time on the pool deck, coaching swimmers and triathletes of all levels in the Maryland area since 2004.
In addition to covering inspirational events, teams and swimmers through Swimspire’s news section, Julia has contributed to IRONMAN.com and Lifehacker.