U.S. Olympic Committee article on Ryan, his injuries, and competing at Nationals

This is a good article by Brandon Penny with some new information from Ryan and his coach Gregg Troy on how they dealt with Ryan's injuries.

http://www.teamusa.org/refresh/news/2010/08/02/lochte-calm-and-collected-for-nationals/37619?ngb_id=3

Here's an excerpt:

"The six-time Olympic medalist was forced to spend a month entirely out of water. After that, it was a three-month recovery process for him to slowly get back to a normal routine. Instead of losing his form and getting rusty, Lochte spent his recovery time learning more about his body and the sport.

“November to December, we were really limited about what we could do,” said coach Gregg Troy, Lochte’s long-time coach. “He did a tremendous job with fitness exercises through that whole point.”

* * *

Troy said that during his recovery, Lochte learned that he could improve himself outside of the water as well.
“He did a fantastic job in the weight room,” Troy said. “He learned how to take care of his body, and worked on some core body exercises.”

Lochte was still in the water during that time, but Troy had him focusing on different areas outside of their normal routines. Lochte spent more time than ever on his butterfly technique and increased his upper body strength.
“I think that aspect was actually really good for us,” Troy said. “Because it made us address what was his actual weakness.”

When Lochte returned to his normal routine in February, since the coach-swimmer duo were unsure if he would be able to swim the individual medley (IM) races, they put a new focus on distance freestyle and Lochte picked up the 400-meter freestyle."