1. Combine Swimming With Weight Training
Rounded shoulders and poor posture are the result of weakened shoulder muscles and unconscious form when standing and sitting. Use hand-held free weights to strengthen the shoulder muscles with behind the neck exercises. Increase the weight as you get stronger. Strong shoulders will look better in a tank top and will help with posture, back problems and stress levels. Another great way to define the shoulders is with swimming exercises.
2. Try Freestyle Form
Keep your elbows slightly bent during freestyle swimming. If you pull your arm out straight when you extend it from the stroke, then you can injure your socket and will not be able to swim as hard or as long. Keep your arms close to your body to make yourself more aerodynamic as you glide through the water. Freestyle swimming builds the shoulder muscles more than any other stroke. Work up to 100 laps or more each time you swim. Start with 10 and add a couple each time until you reach a goal to tone and define the shoulders.
3. Change Up Your Strokes
Alternate your strokes to give your shoulders range of motion exercise and to build all sides of the shoulder joint. While freestyle strokes build the top of the shoulder and under the armpit, breaststrokes work the outside muscles of the shoulder. Breaststrokes also work the chest muscles, or pectorals. These moves will add definition to your total silhouette and help to accentuate the shoulders. Backstrokes add stretching and warmth to the same muscle groups you work during freestyle swimming and keep the muscles and joints loose.
4. Stop Kicking
Do breaststrokes and butterfly strokes without kicking. Rely only on your arms to move you through the water. Let your legs drag behind you, moving them just enough so they don't pull you down. With more stress on your shoulders, the muscles must work harder to keep you afloat and moving.
5. Lose the Fat
Lose weight as you begin a swimming program of exercise. Constant swimming will definitely define your muscles and the cardio workout of swimming fast and for long periods will help you to burn calories, but you must eat less and lose the fat through dieting. Muscles may form in your arms, but if they are covered with fat, they won't be defined. Fat floats, taking away some of the effort used to get you through the water. Lean swimmers utilize every stroke much more efficiently to build and tone their muscles.
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