Tour a Pro Triathlete's Pain Cave

Watch this video of Lionel Sanders' Endless Pools® training room

"Why would someone want such a beautiful device?" asks Lionel Sanders. The professional triathlete is standing over his Endless Pools High Performance model. As he makes clear in this new video from Slowtwitch, the popular triathlon forum, he wants this device because it's steadily helping him become a better swimmer.

Making Strides at Making Strokes

As Sanders told us just a few months after installing his pool back in 2017, "I've been improving across the board a significant amount." The year before, he'd completed the IRONMAN World Championship swim in 56:41. After training just a few months in his High Performance pool, he completed the same course in 53:41!

In an interview at the time, he explicitly credited his Endless Pools training with helping him to exit the water three minutes faster; he ended up taking 2nd place, his best finish to date at Kona.

The Front Crawl, in 7 Parts

Lionel Sanders has a world title and a combined 27 wins at IRONMAN 140.6 and 70.3 events. Not resting on his laurels, he's still training hard to be a better triathlete, and he considers the Endless Pools current an important tool. "I love it dearly," he says (which, honestly, made us blush a little).

In the Slowtwitch video in his personal pain cave, he says that he swims in his Endless Pools model "three days a week. … I come into each swim with some technical elements to focus on." He chooses either "proper entry width, proper entry depth, perpendicular arm, proper pull path, finish the stroke, relaxed recovery, [or] steady kick. When I come to the pool, I choose to focus on one of these seven elements.

"Without a doubt," Sanders asserts, "this has been helpful in making gains."

The Perks of Swimming in Place

As Lionel Sanders sees it, the main perk of swimming in place with the Endless Pools current is that it enables him to monitor his technique in "the mirrors down on the bottom." He can see every element of his stroke and make real-time adjustments.

Additionally, swimming in place means there are no flip turns. Sanders appreciates that the Endless Pools current "allows me to simulate the open water." Once a week, he reports in this video, "I'll treat it as if it was a race. And I'll site to the left, site to the right, breathe bilateral, crank up the speed, practice take-outs, all that kind of thing. So, this has been absolutely invaluable."

After the Pool Tour…

Lionel Sander's pool tour ends at the four-minute mark in the Slowtwitch video. His humor and insight make the rest of the tour well worth watching.

Immediately after discussing his swim training, as he steps onto his "weigh station," (a.k.a. a bathroom scale) you'll see that he has posted a handwritten "Pool Checklist." Sanders' checklist reads:

1. Clean filter once per month
2. 1/4 cup chlorine per day
3. Top off water once per month

His checklist is a testament to how easy it is to maintain crystal-clear water in any Endless Pools Original Series model.

Sanders acknowledges that his Endless Pools High Performance pool was "worth every penny." After making what he calls a "beautiful investment" in the pool, he "was unable to put in a washroom. I figured I at least need to have a urinal down here." Be sure to stay tuned for his creative solution! Clearly, he's results-oriented with his priorities in order.

If you stick around until the video's end, you'll hear Lionel Sanders sing the chorus of a Ray Charles classic! It's worth the wait.