The best dryland training tips for swimmers
image – sportcity den haag
Attending your swimming classes is incredibly important however your training does not have to be limited to the swimming pool. Of course in the water we focus on coordination and incorporating all the stroke components but in land we can focus on strength, mobility and flexibility. So if you love attending the gym or would like to advance your swimming technique continue reading for insight on dryland training.
Let’s dive into the benefits!
Content table:
- Building muscle mass
- Increasing your core strength
- Increased mobility
Building your muscle mass
The most efficient way to increase your stroke distance is by building up your strength.
However, building muscle through swimming alone is very complicated since muscles are not independently activated. Swimming, instead, integrates the whole body and focuses on cardiovascular health.
Therefore, it is incredibly beneficial to do strength based workouts at home or in the gym. How can you do this? Begin by incorporating weight-bearing strength exercises to your dryland workouts. This will result in an increased bone density, since weight on bones stimulate bone tissue development which is crucial for your health. Overall, with weight training you will have more power in your arms, legs and glutes which will inevitably result in a great increase of distance per stroke!
Exercises examples:
- Squat jumps
- Pull ups
- Deadlists
- Pushups
- Bicep curls
Increasing your core strength
Furthermore, do not forget about your core! Your core is a crucial component in swimming, it helps you stay balanced and afloat. It is your base and your foundation so paying attention to increasing your core strength will cause radical change in how you feel in the water.
Why is it necessary?…well this is a high movement sport and in order to transfer your energy from one arm to the other or from one leg to the other you need a well engaged core. Hip rotations, kicking off the wall, flip turns, chest rotation or diving require a stable core. To add on, it will allow you to increase speed and have a cleaner entry when diving.
So here are some create core exercises:
- Planks
- Abdominal crunches
- Bridge position
- Bicycle crunches
- Superman
- Bear Crawl
Increasing mobility
Step by step you will get there. To continue, swimming is a great sport for your health and you can read this article to refresh your mind. However, it can sometimes lead to injuries due to its repetitive nature; therefore it is important to engage in different types of exercises to shake things up and allow different muscles to engage. You can also work on flexibility and mobility exercises.
Firstly, mobility is controlled by flexibility, so remember to stretch before and after class (just five minutes will help your body so much). This will then give you a greater range of mobility which will result in your ability to have more efficient technique and be able to swim for longer.
However, why I mainly write this is because flexibility and mobility will keep injuries at bay and will help you feel good in your day to day. So if you arrive a little bit early to class do some stretches but also in your gym routine or perhaps you can include morning or night stretches before you head to bed.
Some amazing exercises include:
- Hip circles
- Deep squats
- Cat cow pose
- Leg and arm swings (I always do these before jumping in the pool)
- Hip rotations
- Ankle twists + wrist twists
image credit The MA Times
Step by step you will get there.
Overall, by adding at least one exercise of each section to your weekly routine not only will your swimming improve but so will your health. So many of my students have asked me what they could do at home to continue their swimming journey and drylands training is the best way. I also understand that students want to advance quickly and want to do more…well this is a great way to do so. But also remember to be patient with yourself, learning a new skill takes time and patience with ourselves therefore, do not overwork yourself (have rest days) and make sure you modify the exercise to your level and capabilities.
I hope that with this article you have a little bit of insight on the importance of drylands training. You can begin to incorporate just a few exercises into your week! Here are some articles to explore more dryland workouts & here
See you in class, and if you are an inspiring swimmer join us today!
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