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Swim Strength Training

Aug 11, 2011 | By Barrett Barlowe
Swim Strength Training
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Strength training complements the low-impact workout you get from swimming laps. You build strength through swim strength exercise outside the pool, but you can build power in the water too. Because water is denser than air, you exert yourself to overcome its resistance. You can increase the effort you make by using special swim equipment while swimming.

Benefits

Ideally, strength training enhances the efforts you make during lap swims or organized swim workouts. You also enhance your overall fitness and balance. Swim strength training helps balance out muscles that you do not use as intensely as others do during swimming. Stretching out and balancing all the muscles in your upper body in particular helps improve posture, helping you avoid back pain and other issues associated with "swimmers slouch." Strength exercises also help build lean muscle mass and build bone strength.

Upper-Body Dryland Exercises

Swimmers need strength, endurance and power. Olympic swimmer Jason Lezac recommends workouts that enhance all three elements. He avoids stress on swimming-critical knees and the back by avoiding squats or dead lifts, focusing instead on whole body workouts, three times a week.

Examples of upper-body exercises include the incline chest press, lat pull down and free-weight bicep curl. You work the internal rotator muscles in most swimming strokes, which can lead to postural problems and back pain. USASwimming.org features resistance-band exercises that stabilize your shoulder joint and core-strengthening exercises to support your back and increase balance.

Lower-Body and Core Dryland Exercises

Lower-body exercises include quadriceps extensions and hamstring curls. Seated leg presses mimic the motions you use in turns and push offs from the pool wall. Use a medicine ball -- a weighted rubber ball, to work out your abdominal core and improve flexibility. Stand upright with your back close to a wall. Hold the medicine ball out in front of you, then twist to the side and back to touch the ball against the wall. Move farther away from the wall to increase the distance you must stretch and the effort you must make. USASwimming.org suggests keeping your lower back in alignment with your body during this exercise.

In-Water Exercises

You turn up the volume on vertical flutter kicking by holding a medicine ball above the water as you kick. Horizontal kicking with short, stiff fins strengthens your legs and builds endurance at the same time. Swimming paddles come in different sizes and shapes and add increased workload on your shoulders and upper body while swimming laps. Open-water workouts swimming against a strong current also builds strength because you are fighting to move forward, or to keep from moving back.

References

Article reviewed by M. Gladden Last updated on: Aug 11, 2011

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