No Pool? What Bands, Swim Benches and Dryland Can (and Can't) Replace

Pools close for refurbishment. Lanes vanish during holidays. Travel, work and injury get in the way. And sometimes, as many triathletes found in 2020, there's simply no water for weeks or months. The question is always the same: how much swim fitness will I lose, and what can I do on dry land to hold on to it?

The honest answer combines a small amount of solid evidence with a lot of reasonable assumption. This article separates the two. It covers what detraining studies show, which parts of swim fitness different substitutes can protect, where the evidence runs out, and how to return to the water without paying for it in the shoulder.

How fast does swim fitness fade?

There's no study of adult age-group triathletes losing pool access. The closest evidence comes from two very different groups.

Young competitive swimmers, four weeks off. Zacca and colleagues (2019) tested 15 age-group swimmers (average age about 14) before and after a four-week end-of-season break. 400 m front-crawl performance was impaired by about 3.8%. Stroke rate fell while stroke length stayed similar. The swimmers relied slightly less on aerobic metabolism and slightly more on anaerobic metabolism to swim the 400 m.

The most useful finding for triathletes is that non-swimming physical activity during the break explained about 40% of the variation in performance loss. Swimmers who stayed more active lost less. The authors concluded that the break caused "moderate impairments," but that "non-specific physical activities can minimise fitness losses."

Elite swimmers, the 2020 lockdown. Costa and colleagues (2021) tracked season-best performances of 515 world-ranked male swimmers preparing for the Tokyo Olympics. After steady improvements of about 0.5-2.5% in the seasons before, the 2020 lockdown impaired performance by about 1-2%, roughly back to where they'd been two years earlier. That's an observational analysis of season-best times, not a controlled study, and those swimmers had very different access to dryland training and alternatives.

What we don't know: how quickly adult triathletes with less swim training and less efficient technique lose swim fitness, how much a week or two off matters, and whether women or masters athletes lose it at different rates. No study answers these directly.

Three parts of swim fitness

A useful way to think about what you can and can't protect is to split swim fitness into three parts. This is a practical framework, not a published model.

1. Aerobic fitness: your heart, lungs and the general capacity to sustain effort.
2. Swim-specific muscle endurance: the ability of your lats, shoulders, triceps and trunk to keep pulling, stroke after stroke.
3. Feel for the water and technique: timing, body position, the catch, breathing rhythm, and the subtle sense of holding water.

Different substitutes protect different parts.

Aerobic fitness: mostly protected by bike and run

Triathletes have an advantage over pure swimmers here. If you keep cycling and running, much of your aerobic fitness is maintained. That fits with the Zacca finding that general activity during a break reduced swim performance loss.

It's not a full substitute, though. That's an inference from how training adapts, not a tested finding. Swimming relies heavily on upper-body muscle, which bike and run training don't train. Some of the aerobic adaptations that matter for swimming happen in the specific muscles you swim with. And breathing is constrained in swimming in a way it isn't on land. So bike and run will hold your central aerobic fitness, but not all of your swim-specific endurance.

Swim-specific muscle endurance: partly protectable on land

This is where swim benches, stretch cords and gym work earn their place.

The most relevant evidence is a 12-week study by Sadowski, Mastalerz and Gromisz (2020) in 26 youth swimmers. A group training on a swim-specific ergometer, which reproduces the swimming pull on land, showed higher transfer to swimming and a significant increase in swimming speed compared with a group doing traditional resistance exercises. That study was about adding training alongside swimming, not replacing it, and the participants were young. But it supports the principle that the more a dryland exercise resembles the swim pull, the more likely it is to carry over.

The broader evidence on dryland strength is mixed. Reviews find that about half of dryland strength studies show no swim performance benefit, and the clearest gains are over short distances, as covered in TriForward's article "Dryland Strength That Transfers to the Water."

Practical options, in rough order of swim-specificity:

• Swim bench or swim ergometer: the closest replica of the swim pull. Expensive, but some gyms and clubs have them.
• Stretch cords or resistance bands anchored at about chest height, used for pulling movements that mimic the stroke. Cheap and portable.
• Cable or band pulldowns and straight-arm pulldowns: a reasonable gym alternative.
• General upper-body strength work: pull-ups, rows and pressing, for maintaining strength rather than swim-specific endurance.

Some reasoned assumptions about how to use them:

• Train endurance, not just strength. A swim is hundreds of repeated pulls. Intervals of 30 seconds to several minutes of continuous cord pulling, with short rests, are closer to swim demands than sets of five heavy reps. This hasn't been tested as a detraining countermeasure.
• Keep the movement shape as swim-like as practical: a high elbow early in the pull, pulling back past the hip.
• Keep shoulder health in mind. Cord work is still shoulder load. Build it gradually like any new training.

Feel for the water: only water trains it

This is the part that can't really be maintained on land. Timing, the sensation of holding water, rhythm with breathing, and body position all depend on the water itself. A swim bench can't make you float, and a band can't simulate the changing resistance of water as you accelerate your hand.

This is mostly inference, but it fits with the Zacca finding that stroke rate dropped after four weeks off while stroke length didn't change much, suggesting that rhythm and turnover are among the first things to go. It also fits with what most swimmers describe on returning: the fitness comes back quicker than the "feel."

What you can do on land:

• Mental rehearsal and video. Watching footage of your own stroke and of efficient swimmers may help keep a technical image fresh. The evidence for mental rehearsal in swimming specifically is thin, so treat this as low-cost and uncertain.
• Mobility. Maintaining shoulder and thoracic spine mobility may make it easier to get back into a good stroke position. That's a reasoned assumption.
• Breath-control practice during runs or rides, such as rhythmic breathing patterns, is sometimes suggested. There's no evidence it preserves swim breathing, but it's harmless.

Open water: only when it's safe

When pools close, open water can look like the obvious answer. Sometimes it is. But it's not a like-for-like substitute and carries real risks.

• Never swim alone in open water, and use venues with safety cover where possible.
• Respect water temperature. TriForward's article on cold water explains why temperatures well above freezing can still be dangerous, and why acclimatisation matters.
• Know the conditions. Currents, tides, weather and visibility all change the risk.
• Use appropriate kit, including a bright cap and a tow float for visibility.

If you can swim safely in open water, it maintains feel and adds valuable race-specific skills such as sighting. If you can't, don't take the risk for the sake of fitness. Dryland work is the safer option.

A plan for two to six weeks without a pool

This is a practical example built on the assumptions above, not a tested protocol.

Keep bike and run going. Maintain or slightly increase aerobic work. The Zacca finding suggests that staying active reduces swim losses.

Two or three swim-specific dryland sessions a week, 20-30 minutes each:

• Warm-up: shoulder mobility and light band work (5 minutes)
• Main set: cord or swim-bench intervals, for example 6-10 × 1 minute of steady pulling with 30-45 seconds' rest, progressing duration over the weeks
• Strength: two or three pulling and pressing exercises, moderate load
• Shoulder health: external rotation and shoulder-blade work

Once a week: a few minutes of mental rehearsal or watching swim footage, if you find it useful.

Short break of a week or two: don't worry much. Keep bike and run going and do a little band work if convenient. Based on the detraining data, a short gap is unlikely to cost much. That's an inference, since short breaks weren't studied directly.

Coming back to the water

How you return matters as much as what you did while away. Returning to full swim volume immediately is a sudden spike in shoulder load, exactly what the swimming shoulder-pain research warns against.

First week back: shorter, easier sessions, about half your previous volume. Focus on technique and feel. Expect it to feel awkward.

Weeks two and three: build volume progressively. Add threshold work gradually. Leave paddles out at first.

Retest: after two or three weeks back, run a critical swim speed test to reset training paces, rather than assuming your old paces still apply.

Watch your shoulders: any pain that persists or worsens is a signal to slow the rebuild and get assessed if needed.

Expect the numbers to lag the feel, or the reverse. Some athletes find their pace returns within a couple of weeks while the stroke still feels clumsy. Others feel smooth quickly but find hard sets more tiring than before. Both are normal. Judge progress on a retest after a few weeks rather than on the first sessions back.

Most swimmers find aerobic swim fitness returns faster than feel for the water. Be patient with the feel. It usually comes back within a few weeks of consistent swimming.

When access is limited rather than gone

A more common situation than no pool at all is less pool: one swim a week instead of three, for a month or a season. Here the evidence is a little more encouraging, though again from a different population.

In a 12-week study by Kilen and colleagues (2014), 41 elite swimmers either roughly halved their weekly distance while increasing high-intensity work, or trained normally. Performance was neither improved nor compromised in the reduced-volume group. Faude and colleagues (2008) similarly found that 4 weeks of lower-volume, higher-intensity training produced the same 100 m and 400 m performance as 4 weeks of high volume in 10 competitive swimmers.

Those swimmers were still swimming several times a week at much higher volumes than any age-grouper, so this doesn't show that one swim a week is enough. But it suggests a reasoned approach for limited access: protect intensity and quality, and let volume drop. If you only get one swim a week:

• Keep a short skill block so feel for the water doesn't fade.
• Include one quality set, for example threshold repeats at critical swim speed.
• Do swim-specific dryland work on one or two other days to support pulling endurance.

That's an inference from studies in different swimmers, but it's a better use of one session than a long, easy, unstructured swim.

Planning for known gaps

If you know a gap is coming, such as a holiday, a pool closure or a busy work period, a little planning helps. These suggestions are practical judgement rather than tested advice:

• Don't cram extra swim volume just before the gap. A sudden spike followed by a stop is a poor combination for your shoulders and gives little lasting benefit.
• Use the gap for something useful. A few weeks out of the water is a good time to build shoulder strength and mobility, address a niggle with a physiotherapist, or study footage of your stroke and plan a technique priority for your return.
• Schedule your return. Put the first few return sessions in your diary at reduced volume, with a retest pencilled in two or three weeks later. It's easier to rebuild gradually when the plan already exists.
• Check race timing. If a race falls soon after the gap, accept that swim fitness may be slightly down and adjust your swim pacing expectations rather than trying to rush fitness back in the final weeks.

References

• Zacca R, Toubekis A, Freitas L, Silva AF, Azevedo R, Vilas-Boas JP, Pyne DB, Castro FAS, Fernandes RJ. Effects of detraining in age-group swimmers performance, energetics and kinematics. Journal of Sports Sciences, 2019. doi:10.1080/02640414.2019.1572434
• Costa MJ, Garrido ND, Marinho DA, Santos CC. How much the swimming performance leading to Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games was impaired due to the Covid-19 lockdown? Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, 2021;20(4):714–720. doi:10.52082/jssm.2021.714
• Sadowski J, Mastalerz A, Gromisz W. Transfer of dry-land resistance training modalities to swimming performance. Journal of Human Kinetics, 2020. doi:10.2478/hukin-2020-0025
• Amaro N, Morouço P, Marques M, Batalha N, Neiva H, Marinho D. A systematic review on dry-land strength and conditioning training on swimming performance. Science & Sports, 2018 (online). doi:10.1016/j.scispo.2018.07.003
• Feijen S, Tate A, Kuppens K, Claes A, Struyf F. Swim-training volume and shoulder pain across the life span of the competitive swimmer: a systematic review. Journal of Athletic Training, 2020;55(1):32–41. doi:10.4085/1062-6050-439-18
• Kilen A, Larsson TH, Jørgensen M, Johansen L, Jørgensen S, Nordsborg NB. Effects of 12 weeks high-intensity & reduced-volume training in elite athletes. PLoS ONE, 2014;9(4):e95025. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0095025
• Faude O, Meyer T, Scharhag J, Weins F, Urhausen A, Kindermann W. Volume vs. intensity in the training of competitive swimmers. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 2008;29(11):906–912. doi:10.1055/s-2008-1038377