Swimming is an intense activity that provides a full body workout. Almost every muscle in the body is used in swimming the four basic strokes, crawl, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke. While swimming will develop muscles, developing muscles through additional training will help swimming performance. A variety of exercises, tools and techniques for use both in and out of the water can improve swimming strength.
Water Tools
The most basic swim training tools are kickboards, hand paddles and fins. Kickboards come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but all do basically the same thing -- support the arms while the swimmer kicks with his legs. Kickboards can be used for flutter, frog, dolphin or back kicks. Hand paddles also come in several styles and shapes but all fit on the hand to increase resistance in the water and build strength. Fins perform the same function when strapped on the feet; again there are several sizes and styles.
Resistance Bands
A good dry land training tool is a set of resistance bands. These can be simple wide rubber bands or rubber cords with handles on them. They can be used for bicep curls, overhead pulldowns, lateral stretches or tricep extensions or for leg exercises like knee lifts and leg raises. You can attach one end of the band to a fixed object or hold it with your foot or hand while you pull or stretch. Most bands are available in varying strengths.
Dumbbells
Dumbbells also are good swim training tools. They can be used much like resistance bands for bicep and tricep exercises for arms and shoulders. One advantage of dumbbells is that they come in many weights or use removable plates to change weights. This permits a swimmer to exercise biceps with one weight and shoulders with another. They also can be used for leg strengthening by holding them while doing squats or lunges.
Machines
Weight benches or multifunction exercise machines are another good type of tool for developing swim strength. An overhead bar with adjustable weight can be used to build shoulders with pulldowns, either close grip or wide grip, facing forward or backward. A leg extension machine can assist in knee lifts with varying weights. The basic bench rack with a bar provides a place to do presses, which build shoulder muscles, or the bar can be removed to do bicep and tricep curls and lifts.
Member Comments