Olympic Hopeful's Secret Weapon

It was the 2009 Charlotte UltraSwim, most folks had their attention tuned to Michael Phelps' return to competition. But it was 17-year-old Dagny Knutson who nearly stole the show, winning the most individual events at the four-day meet. In fact, Knutson beat Olympic medalist Katie Hoff by two full seconds on the 200-meter freestyle and .12 seconds on the 400-meter freestyle. Katie Hoff holds the U.S. records in both the 200 and the 400.

Knutson attributes her success to her intense training sessions with both her swim coach and her dry land trainer, Jason Blackburn. Blackburn has developed an intense workout regimen and has achieved incredible results for Knutson using the VMX Rope Trainer. Blackburn relies on the VMX for this training program:

Dagny's VMX Rope Training           Duration                         Resistance Level

Double Overhead Pull                      15 seconds                   1-4

(A straight-vertical pull down while sitting, one arm at a time with an underhand grip, isolating rear rotators, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, biceps, triceps, and subscapularis)

Double Fly Overhead Pull                15 seconds                   1-4

(A straight-vertical pull down in a fly motion while sitting, isolating rear rotators, trapezius, latissimus dorsi, subscapularis, triceps, biceps, and abdominals)

Straight Arm Deltoid Pull                 15 seconds                   1-4

(Standing approximately 2 feet beside the bench, a single arm pulls down on the rope, isolating triceps, latissimus dorsi, deltoids, and abdominals)

Double Underhand Pull                15 seconds                    1-4

(Bending horizontally at the waist over the bench with the VMX's adjustable carriage in the lowest position, a combined horizontal pull with one hand in a supinated grip and the other in a pronated grip - isolates biceps, triceps, latissimus dorsi, and trapezius)

Blackburn tracks the distance pulled with the digital display on the machine to measure progress. “The VMX has been an integral part of Dagny’s success as one the top female swimmers in the US. The versatility of the VMX has allowed Dagny to train more stroke specific than any other piece of equipment that is on the market today”.


Blackburn has no doubt in the results he’s seen, "I highly recommend this machine to take your swimmer to the next level."