VASA Trainer Reviewed: The Swimmer’s Ultimate Dryland Tool for a More Powerful Stroke

Wondering if the VASA Trainer Pro is the right addition to your dryland training? Here is a hands-on review and how it can help you swim faster in the pool.

The VASA Trainer Pro is a swim bench that is designed specifically to help swimmers build conditioning and strength outside of the water…

So that they can swim faster when they get into it.

In this hands-on review of the VASA Trainer Pro, we examine how the bench can help swimmers get stronger and faster in the water, who is using it, how swim benches compare to other forms of dryland training, and more.

By the end, you’ll have a confident idea of whether the VASA Trainer Pro is right for you (as well as where to purchase one).

Let’s dive in.

What is the VASA Trainer Pro?

The VASA Trainer Pro (and it’s partner-in-crime the VASA Swim Erg) are dryland training and power-building devices for swimmers. They are simple in design and simple in functionality.

You lay down on a bench, grab a couple handles, and pull against the resistance of gravity or a flywheel. By doing so, we strengthen our pulling motion, increasing the amount of strength we have in the water.

Stronger pull = faster swimming.

VASA Trainer Pro – The Pros

There are a lot of reasons to train with one of these. While it shouldn’t replace actual time spent in the water, a VASA Trainer Pro can seriously compliment the work you are already doing.

Here’s just a few of my favorite reasons for using one:

✅ Works the high elbow catch.

A majority of the power comes from that first part of your pulling motion—the vaunted high elbow catch. The higher your elbow, and the stronger your shoulder and arm while in that position, the faster you are going to go. It’s about as simple as that. By catching more water at the top of the stroke, swimmers

The first thing you will notice when you get on one of these is that the VASA trainer forces you to get into that position. Working the early vertical arm and a “grippy” catch can be challenging in the water when we are focused on kicking, hip roll, shoulder roll, and breathing.

The VASA Trainer Pro gives swimmers the chance to isolate this part of the stroke and really work on it.

👉 Fun Fact: A dropped elbow during the catch and pull is the most common technique error with experienced freestyle swimmers. A study (Virang et al., 2014) with 31 NCAA division I swimmers showed that 61.3% had a dropped elbow in the catch and pull, by far the most common freestyle technique error.

✅ Mimics energy and power demands of in-pool training.

The VASA Trainer Pro can provide a training stimulus, especially for sprinters, that is very similar to in-water training.

A study (Pinos et al., 2021a) with 14 competitive swimmers performed either swim bench training using a VASA Trainer or pool-based sprint training. Both groups improved at the end of the four weeks of training, and the bench group actually ended up maintaining higher speeds in the final round of post-intervention testing.

Another study (Pinos et al., 2021b) looked at the blood lactate profiles, as well as peak and mean power generated on a swim bench, and found that performance on the VASA correlated strongly with performance in the pool.

Matt Kredich, longtime head coach of the University of Tennessee, has used the VASA machines for over two decades. He’s found that there are significant increases “in the specific strength of the swimmers’ pull.”

Dryland workouts can often include exercises that match demands and needs in the pool–core training, for example–while others aren’t as relevant. The VASA Trainer Pro is one of the few dryland tools that closely mimics in-pool energy and power demands.

Instead of spending hours and hours in the gym building bulk and muscle mass that doesn’t always transfer to the pool, the VASA trainer targets the same muscles and range of motion that swimmers use in the pool. In terms of swim-specific dryland, it doesn’t get any closer than this.

✅ Train stroke tempo.

The VASA Trainer Pro is an awesome tool for learning and mastering stroke rate and tempo! Stroke rate is frequently linked to faster swimming–makes sense, the faster you can move your arms while maintaining the same distance per stroke, the faster you are going to go–and the VASA Trainer can isolate this training metricl.

Hitting your target stroke rate in the water isn’t always possible due to fatigue (especially sprinters, who use a high output stroke rate), and even harder to measure in real-time.

By pairing the VASA Trainer Pro with a tempo trainer or even a timer so that you can target stroke tempos, you can get more comfortable with goal tempos.

✅ Consistent resistance.

One of the things that really differentiates the VASA Trainer Pro from other “pulling” resistance exercises on dryland, most specifically resistance tubing, is that you get consistent resistance all the way through the stroke.

Resistance tubing starts off relatively easy, and tension increases through the pull and push phase. The push phase is where the bulk of the power and propulsion is generated in the stroke, so the tubing is good for that phase of the stroke, but there is little to no resistance at the top of the stroke.

A VASA Trainer Pro means you are pulling hard from the beginning of the stroke, developing a more rounded out arm pull compared to resistance tubing.

✅ Strength + Range of motion.

The VASA Trainer Pro is excellent as it builds strength within the range of motion that swimmers use in the water.

Olympic backstroke champion and former world record holder Lenny Krayzelburg loves training with it for this very reason:

“You get strength training as well as stretching, and I think that’s extremely crucial, especially when you swim long course meters. It’s important to have long, lean muscles and I think VASA really allows you to do that.” — Lenny Krayzelburg

Swimmers know the importance of mobility and range of motion in the water. It allows us to reach out and grab more water, use a longer, leaner streamline, and position our feet to be able to displace more water when kicking.

But equally as important as range of motion is having the strength within that ROM to powerfully move through the water, and the VASA Trainer PRO can help with exactly that.

✅ Train at home.

One of the biggest benefits of the VASA Trainer Pro is that it can be used at home. Look, there is no doubt that swimming can be a very expensive sport in terms of time cost. Driving to the pool, changing, and vice versa on the way home, can eat up a lot of clock.

For busy swimmers, who want to get a decent swim-like workout, jumping on the VASA in the comfort of your own home can be a game-changer.

While nothing beats getting your butt into the water and doing the yards, complementary time spent on the VASA Trainer Pro can cut down on time going to and fro to the pool while still getting those gains.

VASA Trainer Pro – The Cons

While there is a ton of things to love about the VASA Trainer Pro, it’s not perfect.

Pricey.

Unsurprisingly, the VASA Trainer Pro is an investment at around $1,000, especially compared to resistance bands (as we will discuss shortly). This price point, understandably, isn’t for everyone and may not be feasible for all swimmers and swim teams.

Lack of portability.

While the VASA Trainer Pro can be stored away with a relatively small footprint, it doesn’t have the same portability as other forms of resistance like tubing, which can be easily stored in a swim bag.

This makes it tough to travel with, whether you are going away for a training camp or you want to use it at a meet for activation work.

VASA Trainer Pro vs. Stretch Cords

Stretch cordz or resistance bands are as familiar to pool decks as pull buoys and kickboards. They are versatile and can be used for mobility and strengthening (internal and external shoulder rotations are popular)

If the general movement is the same why shell out extra cashola for a VASA trainer compared to a set of cheap rubber cords? I’ve owned both over the years and there are advantages (and disadvantages) to both.

The main benefits of a VASA Trainer Pro over stretch cords include increased power output per stroke, heightened resistance in the catch, better posture, and the ability to train all four strokes (most specifically the addition of backstroke).

Here is a more detailed comparison:

The other is the VASA SwimErg, that is like the rowing machines you see at the gym. Bulkier and more expensive (starting at around $2,000) than your regular swim bench, it gives athletes 7 different damper settings that scale difficulty.

If you are a data nerd like me this is likely the version you want—it comes with a Power Meter that pumps out details of your workout including wattage.

Where to Buy the VASA Swim Ergometer: