The Best Swim Workouts with Fins for Military Training

If you are considering a military special program involving rescue swimming or diving, you will eventually be tasked with swimming in fins. These are typically large scuba fins that take time to get used to as they work the hips, leg muscles and ankles hard. Usually, I recommend people preparing for such military programs to swim with fins 2-3 times a week.

Here are three favorite swim workouts with fins to spread through your week:

The Tread Warm-up + Nonstop Swim Using a "Rest Stroke"

Warm up with a 10-minute tread (no hands), but each week, add five pounds to build up to weighted fin treads, which you will see again, depending on your future military training. Build up to 15-20 pounds in a weight belt or hold out of the water. Then do the following 10- or 20-set workouts for a total of 2,000 meters (or yards):

The strokes can vary, depending on the future training, so you can select either freestyle, Combat Side Stroke (CSS) or the Lead Arm-Trail Arm (LATA) strokes used by rescue swimmers, Naval Special Warfare and Air Force Special Warfare, respectively:

Repeat 10 times.

• Swim with fins 150 meters fast (free, CSS or LATA)
• Swim turtleback 50 meters easy (no rest; the turtleback is your rest)

Or

Repeat 20 times.

• Swim with fins 75 meters (free, CSS or LATA)
• Swim turtleback 25 meters (no rest; the turtleback is your rest)

Open Water or Pool

Getting used to open water swims is something you should consider if you have a swim partner, beach lifeguards and a swim buoy tied to you for safety. Otherwise, a pool will suffice for your preparation and training. Typical swim tests are in the 2,000- to 4,000-yard or 2,000-meter distances throughout training, so build up to 30-60 minutes of steady-paced swimming. It is recommended to start with whatever the fitness test is (without fins) as your warm-up, then do the swimming with fins for the workout:

• Swim 500 meters timed without fins + swim 2,000 meters with fins for time

For these distances, a competitive score is in the yard or meter per second range. A ballpark solid score for the 2,000-meter swim is 32-34 minutes. Strive for that level of swimming fitness.

Swim for Maximum Distance

You should build to swimming nonstop for 30-60 (or more) minutes. For instance, at SEAL training, you must swim two nautical miles with fins (4,000 yards) every week in the ocean. Competitive scores are in the 60- to 70-minute range, with some candidates breaking 60 minutes easily.

Here is the workout that requires you to keep track of distance or laps if done in a pool. One way we do open-water swims is to swim parallel to the beach about 20-30 meters off the shore and mark the distance from the start to the turnaround point on land or use Google Maps.

Swim 30, 45 or 60 minutes for max distance. Can you accumulate 1,800-2,000 meters in 30 minutes? Or 2,800-3,000 meters in 45 minutes? Or 3,500-4,000 meters in 60-70 minutes?

A final recommendation is to add these fin workouts to your leg days. These types of workouts are an ideal way to top off a leg-day workout and can help you build the stamina and durability you need with this type of leg-dominant swimming.

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