Swimming exercises the entire body, and the shoulders in particular. Any time a person propels himself using the freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly or even dog paddle, the upper body takes on much of the burden. Because of the demands put upon that part of the anatomy, perfecting stroke technique is as important as building strength. Putting too much stress on shoulder joints when muscles tire and fail results in pain and downtime from workouts due to injury.
Freestyle Exercises
Pulling or swimming with the upper body only exercises the shoulders. Pull buoys placed between the thighs prevent the legs from kicking and help elevate them in the water. Hand paddles increase the resistance swimmers feel while completing swimming strokes and give the swimmers a "feel" for the water. Not only do the paddles work out the shoulders and upper back muscles, they force the swimmer to concentrate on the pulling aspect of the stroke. Pulling with paddles is an exercise for people with healthy, uninjured shoulders. Anyone who has pain, or who has previous shoulder rotator cuff injury should forgo paddles, and just pull with bare hands.
Shoulder-driven freestyle focuses on the power of the shoulders and upper body. Swim freestyle with the shoulders hunched up and the shoulder blades pulled back together and pressed against the spine. Keep the head out of the water, Tarzan-style. Perform 100 m of the stroke. Perform 100 m of the stroke, this time focusing on elongating the stroke a bit and rotating the shoulders to generate more power.
Backstroke Exercises
Backstroke puts demands on the shoulders, back and abdominal muscles. Because backstroke demands so much flexibility of the shoulders, hyperextension of hyper flexibility of the shoulder vexes some backstroke swimmers. Rotating the body on its side for every stroke taken helps minimize stress put on the shoulder. Practice body roll and work out the shoulders safely by doing one-arm backstroke swimming exercises. Kick as normal in backstroke, but do one length of the pool using only one arm, and trailing the other alongside the body. Switch arms on the return length.
Breast Stroke/Butterfly
Swimming breaststroke with only the upper body exercises the arms and shoulders and helps improve stroke timing. Use small hand paddles so as not to over stress the shoulders. Place a small pull buoy in between the thighs to elevate the hips and isolate the legs. Swim 100 m pulling breaststroke.
Alternate-arm and double-arm butterfly works out the shoulders, and allows intermediate swimmers to complete longer distances. Perform a 100 m butterfly using only the left arm for 3 strokes, then the right arm for 3 strokes and then 1 full butterfly stroke. Repeat the series. Swim the exercise with or with out paddles.
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