Strength For Swimmers
Swimming is a fantastic way to build cardiovascular endurance and upper body strength - but it’s also easy to pull a muscle if you ignore certain strengthening exercises.
This week we’re diving into some key things swimmers can do to keep their joints strong and their swimming even stronger!
Shoulder Strength
Your upper body strength is incredibly important in swimming as this is how you are getting a lot of the momentum through the water. Ensuring that you shoulder joint is strong will help prevent strain and injury as well as improving your strokes. Try including the following in your weekly routine:
Overhead extensions with a resistance band
Cat Cow stretch
Thread the Needles
Single Arm Rows
Face Pulls
Lateral pull Downs
All of these are designed to increase mobility and range trough the shoulders and upper back as well as increasing strength
Hip Mobility
Strokes such as breaststroke use your hips more, so it’s important to ensure you are keeping good flexibility and range in your hip flexors and glutes.
Including these mobility exercises before you start your swim will help to open and loosen the joints:
Open and Closing The Gate
Hip Circles
Leg Swings
Bodyweight Squats
Marching on the spot
These are all very simple exercises that you can do to ensure the joints are properly warmed up before you place pressure on them.
Strengthen and Stretch
Incorporating some simple strength exercises for your lower body can be very beneficial as it will increase the power through your legs when swimming. Try including these exercises once to twice a week:
Leg Press
Weighted Squats
Lunges
Wall Sit
Glute Bridge
All of these (bar the leg press) can be done at home or at the gym so they are very accessible and are easy to fit into a day to day routine.
We also cannot stress enough the importance of stretching after your swim session! Most people forget this as it doesn’t feel like a normal workout, but it is still essential to release the muscles to avoid tension. We recommend these key stretches:
Standing quad Stretch
Thread The Needle Stretch
Standing Tricep Stretch
Lying Thread the needle stretch (hip flexors)
Childs Pose
We recommend holding each stretch for 20-30 seconds for best results.
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