How to Exercise to Become a Better Swimmer
Plan a swimming routine., Structure your swim sessions to promote fitness., Work on your breathing., Develop your backstroke., Strengthen your breaststroke., Isolate a single stroke per exercise., Learn how to do a flip turn.
Step-by-Step Guide
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Step 1: Plan a swimming routine.
You don't need to work out everyday, but try commit to at least three days a week.
Decide what time works best for you.
Some people find it helpful to swim before work, while others benefit more from swimming after work.
It just depends on what your schedule is.
It will take your body some time to form the rhythms between your stroke and breathe.While you are first starting, commit yourself to swim at least 10 minutes three to five times a week.
Then slowly push on to thirty minutes or more. -
Step 2: Structure your swim sessions to promote fitness.
A 2-hour swim session might look like this:
Warmup
- 15 mins, typically 200m IM then 200m each stroke individually, done at strength pace (focusing on applying constant strong pressure on each movement).
Kick or Pull
- 15 mins.
It's a great way to loosen up muscles and to start to warm up the legs or warm and get into a rhythm.
Hypoxic
- 5 mins, usually done before or after the main set, hypoxic describes the holding of breath under duress or exercise.
Do sprints while only taking 1 or 2 breaths per length, or butterfly kick underwater to halfway and then butterfly (breathing every 3 strokes) for the rest of the length.
Don't do hypoxic training for very long if you expect to be doing a main set afterwards.
Main Set
- 35 mins A short amount of lengths done at high intensity on fast times or lower intensity but lots of laps without rest.
A good example is 5 x 50m freestyle on 40 seconds with a target of
30.
Warmdown
- Very important, warmdown gives swimmers a chance to recover and stretch out their muscles.
You should be aiming to have a good DPS (distance per stroke; doing as little strokes per lap, should be doing 12-16 in a 25m pool). , Focus on both your inhales and your exhales.
When you're not breathing, don't move your head.
Keeping your head in a fixed position is more efficient.
Only tilt your head to breathe.
A lot of swimmers have this problem of not exhaling underwater.
Make sure you exhale a bit when submerging back underwater to maintain breathing and prevent your nose from filling up with water.
Never tilt your head upwards when you need to take a breath.
Always tilt your head to the side.
In Freestyle, keep one goggle in the water and one goggle out.
This helps to make sure that you don't over-turn your head.
Try to breath every three or five strokes, to make sure you breath on both sides of your body.
Don't hold your breath. , The backstroke can be one the most challenging strokes to accomplish.
It requires strong back and shoulder muscles.
The key to perform a fluid backstroke lies in your hips.
Practice a simple drill of flutter kicks on your back while one arm is raised.
Switch arms after a lap and then finish with a lap of normal backstroke. , The breast stroke relies on the synchronization of your glide and stroke.
This fluidity does not happen overnight.
Pulling harder or trying to pull more water back can actually be counterproductive.
Make sure to always do a pullout.
Pullouts give you a headstart and and are very important for your breaststroke being strong and fast.
Your arms shouldn't actually push water behind you, but instead you should focus on shaping an upside-down-heart with your hands.
Bring your hands together as you extend them forward.
Use your elbows, not your arms, to push your hands forward., If you commit a full day to just one type of stroke, you'll sync into the rhythm of that stroke faster.
You could even isolate one stroke for an entire week, then switch strokes the following week. , This is a tricky maneuver that will increase your speed doing laps.
Look for the "big T." The "big T" is the perpendicular line at the end of the lane in a lap pool.
As your head crosses the T, tuck your chin into your chest while you are following through with a stroke.
Then dolphin kick your legs for a final push.
Don't look up before doing the flip.
The wall will always be there as long as you look for the "big T" at the bottom of the pool.
This maneuver can be a challenge and it is recommend to have someone to show you first-hand how to do this.
To go faster, do a couple of dolphin kicks underwater in streamline position.
Try to get past the flags above the pool if you can. -
Step 3: Work on your breathing.
-
Step 4: Develop your backstroke.
-
Step 5: Strengthen your breaststroke.
-
Step 6: Isolate a single stroke per exercise.
-
Step 7: Learn how to do a flip turn.
Detailed Guide
You don't need to work out everyday, but try commit to at least three days a week.
Decide what time works best for you.
Some people find it helpful to swim before work, while others benefit more from swimming after work.
It just depends on what your schedule is.
It will take your body some time to form the rhythms between your stroke and breathe.While you are first starting, commit yourself to swim at least 10 minutes three to five times a week.
Then slowly push on to thirty minutes or more.
A 2-hour swim session might look like this:
Warmup
- 15 mins, typically 200m IM then 200m each stroke individually, done at strength pace (focusing on applying constant strong pressure on each movement).
Kick or Pull
- 15 mins.
It's a great way to loosen up muscles and to start to warm up the legs or warm and get into a rhythm.
Hypoxic
- 5 mins, usually done before or after the main set, hypoxic describes the holding of breath under duress or exercise.
Do sprints while only taking 1 or 2 breaths per length, or butterfly kick underwater to halfway and then butterfly (breathing every 3 strokes) for the rest of the length.
Don't do hypoxic training for very long if you expect to be doing a main set afterwards.
Main Set
- 35 mins A short amount of lengths done at high intensity on fast times or lower intensity but lots of laps without rest.
A good example is 5 x 50m freestyle on 40 seconds with a target of
30.
Warmdown
- Very important, warmdown gives swimmers a chance to recover and stretch out their muscles.
You should be aiming to have a good DPS (distance per stroke; doing as little strokes per lap, should be doing 12-16 in a 25m pool). , Focus on both your inhales and your exhales.
When you're not breathing, don't move your head.
Keeping your head in a fixed position is more efficient.
Only tilt your head to breathe.
A lot of swimmers have this problem of not exhaling underwater.
Make sure you exhale a bit when submerging back underwater to maintain breathing and prevent your nose from filling up with water.
Never tilt your head upwards when you need to take a breath.
Always tilt your head to the side.
In Freestyle, keep one goggle in the water and one goggle out.
This helps to make sure that you don't over-turn your head.
Try to breath every three or five strokes, to make sure you breath on both sides of your body.
Don't hold your breath. , The backstroke can be one the most challenging strokes to accomplish.
It requires strong back and shoulder muscles.
The key to perform a fluid backstroke lies in your hips.
Practice a simple drill of flutter kicks on your back while one arm is raised.
Switch arms after a lap and then finish with a lap of normal backstroke. , The breast stroke relies on the synchronization of your glide and stroke.
This fluidity does not happen overnight.
Pulling harder or trying to pull more water back can actually be counterproductive.
Make sure to always do a pullout.
Pullouts give you a headstart and and are very important for your breaststroke being strong and fast.
Your arms shouldn't actually push water behind you, but instead you should focus on shaping an upside-down-heart with your hands.
Bring your hands together as you extend them forward.
Use your elbows, not your arms, to push your hands forward., If you commit a full day to just one type of stroke, you'll sync into the rhythm of that stroke faster.
You could even isolate one stroke for an entire week, then switch strokes the following week. , This is a tricky maneuver that will increase your speed doing laps.
Look for the "big T." The "big T" is the perpendicular line at the end of the lane in a lap pool.
As your head crosses the T, tuck your chin into your chest while you are following through with a stroke.
Then dolphin kick your legs for a final push.
Don't look up before doing the flip.
The wall will always be there as long as you look for the "big T" at the bottom of the pool.
This maneuver can be a challenge and it is recommend to have someone to show you first-hand how to do this.
To go faster, do a couple of dolphin kicks underwater in streamline position.
Try to get past the flags above the pool if you can.
About the Author
Marie Sullivan
Professional writer focused on creating easy-to-follow home improvement tutorials.
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