How To Dryland Train For Swimming

Transcription

“How To Dryland Train For Swimming”
HowExpert Press
How To Dryland Train
For Swimming
“Your Step-By-Step Guide To Dryland Training
For Swimmers”
HowExpert Press
www.HowExpert.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction ......................................................................... 5
Lower Body ....................................................................... 7
Mid Section ....................................................................... 7
Upper Body ....................................................................... 8
Chapter 1: Core Exercises And Relation To The 4 Strokes ........... 9
Stretching And Core Exercises ........................................... 13
Pelvic Tilt ..................................................................... 14
Cat Arch ....................................................................... 14
Streamline Stretch ........................................................ 15
Forward Plank ............................................................... 16
Side Plank .................................................................... 17
Wall Sit ........................................................................ 17
Leg/Arm Raises ............................................................. 18
Leg Lifts ....................................................................... 19
Crunches ...................................................................... 20
Chapter 2: Jumping Exercises For Leg Power .......................... 25
Jumping .......................................................................... 25
Jump Roping ................................................................. 27
Front box/porch/bleacher Jumps ..................................... 29
Side Box/Porch Jumps .................................................... 30
Low Rope Forward Jump(Double/Single) ........................... 31
Low Rope Side Jump (Double/Single) ............................... 33
Force Jump ................................................................... 34
Body Squat ..................................................................... 35
Chapter 3: Pulling/Upper Body Exercises................................ 36
Pulling ............................................................................ 36
Skulling .......................................................................... 36
Door handle/knob .......................................................... 39
Fence Or Porch Link ....................................................... 39
Stretch Cordz Stretches ................................................. 41
Chapter 4: Stretch Cordz Exercises ....................................... 47
Arm Curls ..................................................................... 47
2 Arm Pulls ................................................................... 48
2 Arm Rows .................................................................. 49
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Conclusion ......................................................................... 58
Recommended Resources..................................................... 62
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INTRODUCTION
Swimming is an all body sport that has been acclaimed by
most to be the best all-around exercise for everyone alike. It is
used in all sizes and physiques and in various forms. In the
swimming world we begin with the toddler who is just starting to
learn to blow bubbles and gain trust of the parent or instructor
assisting them and then graduating to overcoming that fear and
taking on the water with confidence. Then the sport continues to
move forward into later stages of life.
As others continue to grow in their swimming skills they may
develop different personal reasons for wanting to do so. Some
parents and children alike just want to be safe on their summer
boating experience, day at the beach, or fishing on the lake for
example. Others will eventually trickle down to a summer, USA,
or YMCA swimming league and learn to become competitive and
eventually race. Here they will want to learn to become more
efficient and build strength to be more successful in their racing
endeavors.
Swimming also extends to the child, teenager, or young
adult who is looking just for regular fitness exercises,
rehabilitative purposes, or water aerobic exercises. Here people
have more personal goals to do x amounts of laps or x amount of
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exercises in a set time. Rehab in swimming for injuries or arthritis
for example is actually more well preferred by most physicians
and physical therapists due to the strength gained against the
water‟s resistance while producing minimum strain on the injured
area being treated.
Swimming is very well known for helping people build their
physical strengths in terms of endurance, lung capacity, and
blood pressure. This is primarily an aerobic exercise with certain
anaerobic stages while including every muscle in the body where
as other exercises do not help in total body workout with just one
activity. Swimming also builds lung capacity and is used for
certain training for military and nasa missions.
Competitive swimmers, not just Olympians, are said to be
one of if not the strongest of athletes of all sports. Many
swimmers who have not made it to an Olympic level of
competition have still done quite well in triathlons, cycling,
running, military training exercises, or collegiate level swimming
and without needing too much strength building in the beginning
of the season they move onto compete at.
It has been very popular in helping people loose weight.
Many can feel quite out of shape when beginning but once they
have built up stamina, strength, and endurance, they start to
notice that their body fat starts to slightly slim down with the
exercise regiment. If they continue to make it part of their
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lifestyle they actually find it as a great way to stay in pretty good
cardiovascular and physical shape without having to buy all those
hyped up fitness programs or buying a gym membership.
As we can see swimming comes with all types of benefits for
us. Swimming can be improved upon outside the pool as well.
There are those who have already hit the water in some shape or
form and are interested in how to become stronger in their
swimming skills and endeavors.
There are three major portions of the body that can be
improved upon to help strengthen ones swimming efforts.
They are lower body, mid section, and upper body.
LOWER BODY
Here the legs need work for strength and body support as
well as being able to aerobically and anaerobically handle stress
better in the water.
MID SECTION
The abdominal and lower back muscles are used for stability
and even rotation
on freestyle and backstroke. This
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section balances out the rest of the body in it‟s efforts in the
water as well being this is the center of gravity for men in the
lower pelvic area and the upper abdominal area for women.
UPPER BODY
Here we include the arms, chest, shoulders and side or
lateral muscles used to support a swimming stroke and control
the body as it moves forward through the water.
Moving onward we will focus on the midsection first since
core stability is crucial to injury prevention and balance in
swimming. We will move next to leg power since those are the
largest muscles and most relied upon for finishing a race when
the upper extremities are tired and more oxygen deprived trying
to recycle lactate. Then we will focus on strengthening and
stability exercises for pulling to become more efficient and
stronger in our swimming efforts.
Ok lets go.
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CHAPTER 1: CORE EXERCISES AND
RELATION TO THE 4 STROKES
No matter what form of swimming you are pursuing whether
it be recreational swimming, diving, or racing, you need to have a
balanced core. Many, I repeat many problems have come in
swimming from having an unbalanced core both in the abdominal
and lower back areas. This is not a hard area to develop injuries
to no matter what form of movement you are doing. People get
lower back problems just from walking at times or wearing the
wrong shoes.
In swimming it‟s easy to overdevelop one portion of the
body or group of muscles over another because we all like to
usually favor one portion of our body or our dominate side. This
usually leads to over enlargement of muscle on that portion and
leaves the weaker side to overcompensate. This leads to uneven
stroke, bad posture, walking,/running problems, nerve
impendgement, compressesed disks, neck problems, the list just
goes on and on.
When swimming competitively there are 4 strokes. The
butterfly, backstroke, breast stroke, and freestyle.There is also
the combination of these four into the individual medley in the
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order of fly, back, breast, and free. In the case of competitive
swimmers most are trained either in a specific stroke they excel
at with a balance of freestyle or they are trained to be versatile in
all four strokes and varying distances. This looks impressive to a
college coach but can as stated above lead to bad problems if not
done with a stable core. This is because there are two short-axis
and two long-axis strokes and when trained as a whole in the IM
for example you are changing muscle groups 4 times in a race
during a single effort. Lots of compressions and changes in
movement are occurring and it can be hard to train muscles to
cover all of them.
Butterfly and breast stroke are called short-axis for their
upward action and downward propulsion in moving forward.
Backstroke and freestyle are long-axis strokes in that they
provide movement forward by pulling and kicking with long arm
strokes while being supplemented by a long-axis rotation along
the spine or center of the body.
Core exercises are crucial to each part of the four strokes.
The harmful effects of overtraining a swimmer can be heightened
when training one stroke for too long over extensive periods of
time. The most notorious of the two strokes for lower back
injuries are breast stroke and butterfly. Butterfly and breast
stroke have compression movements more so than free and
backstroke. Many do not perform the butterfly correctly and when
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left unchecked by a coach this leads to hyperextension of the
back and upper body further leading to pinched nerves and disks
in the neck and back.
Breast stroke is not so much harmful in terms of butterfly
but can lead to lower back problems during the „frog kick” portion
as we call it in the kicking portion of the breast stroke. Both fly
and breast contain undulating motions while moving forward and
when performed out of sync the back problems begin to flare up.
This can be quite common in young teenagers between the ages
of 15 to 17 years of age after poor training habits in their earlier
years.
Swimmers will complain of lower back tightness, claim that
their side hurts when they breathe on freestyle, say they can‟t
feel the water on one portion of their body over another or that
there is a numb feeling. This numbing feeling is usually
associated with a compressed or buldging disk in the back leading
to psyiatic nerve problems. At the worst this problem can
eventually take over a whole side of a persons body from
fingertip to toe. Obviously at this state much rehab and careful
training efforts in the water are needed to fix this problem. At the
worst part it may just be too late for that person and there is
permanent damage for the rest of his or her swimming career
and maybe even their life.
This is something coaches of all backgrounds just „hate‟ to
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deal with because of how frustrating it is. This has to be taken
care of with stabilizing the core and done early enough to prevent
injury or hinder what may already be present. Burn that one into
your memory if you have to. STABILIZE THE CORE!!!!!
Plus it will save huge on the bill/medical claims involved in
going to a physical therapist to begin with.
Ok, sorry. Point made. Moving on…
Simply put your core or abdominal and lower back muscles
need to be balanced as well as evenly trained to provide for
better overall or symmetrical balance and for less over
strenuation of the muscles and nerves in that area. Plus on a
small side note you‟ll look great and trim some of that belly fat
off too as well as coming to feel stronger and better about your
daily physique too.
When swimmers come and say "My lower back is tight" or "I
feel like something is pinching my nerve and something feels
numb or wrong", heat and stretching can help initially with the
problem as well as some sort of anti-inflammatory. These will
however only go so far. Many make the mistake of thinking the
lower back needs to be stretched or treated to fix this situation.
This is true in some respects but balance it key. Focusing on
how the abdominal muscles are not supporting the back and
leading to compression or nerve impingement and how to ‟buff
them up‟ will help immensely. Over some time the athlete will
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notice that less pressure is on his or her back or affected area
going forward.
STRETCHING AND CORE EXERCISES
Stretching of course is what we should do initially to prevent
injury in any sport. Core exercises are to stabilize but even before
performing them you should s-t-r-e-t-c-h. Your muscles are put
together in a cross linked fashion and are elastic. Now here is the
catch though. Over do it and injury is around the corner. Under
do it and the same will happen but in a different form. The crosslinked fashion or elasticity they are formed in need oxygen,
hydration, and energy to perform at it‟s best. Otherwise we form
lactic acid and the energetic cycle of the muscle is halted. Done
to long this leads to problems. If done right out of the cannon this
causes cramps because the muscles elacticity is to overwhelmed
from the beginning without being warmed up to stretch back and
forth.
Stretching the lower back and abs muscles are crucial prior
to doing the exercises. This is especially so when this is mostly
the source of the problem we are trying to heal. We don‟t want to
make the problem worse by doing these movements incorrectly.
After some proper stretching techniques we will be able to
perform some back exercises as well as stability movements to
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balance the core out. We will first perform the following back
stretches.
PELVIC TILT
This is a flat position on your back with the knees raised up,
feet flat on the floor, and arms resting palms down on the floor.
Next you will press your lower back with your stomach
muscles into the ground focusing on your center. Compress and
hold for 5 seconds then release. Do this 3 times or until you fell
tension in your back decrease.
Pelvic Tilt
CAT ARCH
Get on your hands and knees with palms facing downward.
Now relax your neck and raise your spine up from your lower
back while keeping your palms and knees flat on the ground. This
will look like a cat-arching it‟s back when it gets angry or
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intimidated. In this case, however, you should be feeling more
relaxed as you go through the motion.
Cat Arch
STREAMLINE STRETCH
Get your body into a streamlined position with your arms
over your head and behind your ears. Now reach upward as far as
you can in that position while pressing upwards on your toes.
Hold this for 15-30 seconds.
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Steamline Stretch
FORWARD PLANK
This exercise is a much more preferred way to help stabilize your
core abdominal and lower back muscles compared to doing a
traditional crunch or sit-up.
Forward Plunk
Sit-ups and crunches if done improperly can lead to further
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lower back injury as well as
the vertebrate and muscles in the
neck as well.
Here you lay on your stomach and then raise your body up
on your toes and forearms
keeping the forearms shoulder with
apart and tucked under your body.
The objective here is to depend on your core abdominal
muscles to support you while keeping your spine straight while
remaining relaxed in the neck
SIDE PLANK
This is a plank like above but this time on your side with the
forearm resting on the ground as well as feet stacked one on top
of the other. Remember to keep the spine straight and the neck
relaxed. Hold this exercise for a minute.
Side Plank
WALL SIT
This can be fun and intimidating at the same time. My coach
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used to sit on my lap and hose down the wall so no grip was
there for us. Ouch!
Ok. Here you "sit" with your back against the wall, arms out,
and a 90 degree bend between you shins and your thighs.
Hold until fatigue or for a set time like 30 seconds to a
minute and then move up as you get stronger over time.
Wall Sit
LEG/ARM RAISES
Here you lye on your stomach with feet and arms extended
outward. Now raise the opposite arm to the opposite leg and hold
for 30 seconds. Example: left leg raises with right arm and vice
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versa.
Leg/Arm Raises
LEG LIFTS
Here you lye flat on your back. Put your hands to your side
and raise your legs about six to eight inches off of the ground and
hold until fatigue or for 30 seconds and build as you get stronger.
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Leg Lifts
CRUNCHES
(Basic, Rotational, Reverse) Here we perform the basic
crunch in three formations.
Basic
The traditional crunch with arms preferably over chest, feet
planted on the round evenly, knees slightly bent. Now lift upward
from the abs and NOT, I repeat NOT with or from your neck.
*Lifting with your neck WILL cause you trouble in your neck
and later on in your extremeties.
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Crunches
Rotational
aka bicycle crunches. Perform these starting in the regular
crunch position. However here you will have your hands
across chest or arms behind the head and bring your right
elbow to your left knee and vice versa with your left elbow
and your left knee. *AGAIN- DO NOT USE YOUR NECK IN A
FORCEFUL FASHION
Rotational
Reverse
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Here you lye on your stomach and put your hands behind
your head. Now lift your head slightly off the ground in a
slight and smooth repeating fashion. * Again- Do NOT over
extend your neck.
Reverse
Great! We‟ve finished the abdominal portion of the exercises
that will help strengthen your core and help in prevention of
further lower back injuries or nerve impingments. Plus you should
have a nice six pack over time that would make well for you and
your physique. Please remember to perform the exercises as
stated and shown in the pictures. Do not try to go haywire or
rush through it. Remember when done correctly it will benefit and
not harm you.
Now after we've finished these abdominal exercises we will
use a balance/stability exercise to stretch things out. This helps if
you are sore after performing the exercises above and will also
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relieve any minor tightness associated with the exercise that you
should not just walk off on.
Oppostite Arm/Leg Extension
Here again we see the postion where you are flat on your
stomach. This time you raise your opposite arm and leg in a
fashion where you stretch out each extremity as far as you
can without over straining.
Opposite Arm/Leg Extentsion
This is only one stretch but works wonders after doing the
above exercises. If you don‟t feel great after one round and have
time, then do another set until you begin to feel like you are
loosening up well. Remember proper stretching, warm-up, and
stretching after workout are keys to success here. If you are
extremely pressed for time and can‟t do them properly then just
move forward and do them later on that day or the next morning.
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You are most limber at night before going to bed so if you
have a second wind at night that‟s a good time to do some core
exercises. Some of the others coming up can be done in the
morning before you get your day started or all together in one
shot during a set workout time.
Ok moving onward..
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CHAPTER 2: JUMPING EXERCISES
FOR LEG POWER
JUMPING
We do it in some form or fashion every day. Walking is a
form of jumping if you think about it. Hoping over a curb,
jumping up to see something better or perhaps wave to a friend.
There is usually some form of our lifestyle where using our calf
muscles, toes, and other portions of our legs to do a jumping
action. Whether you believe it or not jumping exercises can help
quite a bit in competitive swimming but also for general fitness
swimming in both a dryland form of aerobic exercise as well as
building strength, stamina, and quickening our reaction time.
Regarding competitive swimming jumping exercises can be
used for building leg power, strength, and increasing force in
reaction time on a racing start, increasing force off a wall in a
turn, or force propulsion when kicking. Hey sorry to say there
aren‟t too many races where the guy with stronger legs looses
out unless his technique is way off.
Now in the world of competitive swimming kicking strength
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is crucial and accounts for more than 1/3 of a competitive
swimmers training and maybe even more than ½ of a National
swimmer or Olympian‟s training. Swimmers are allowed to kick
underwater for up to 15 yards off of a turn before breaking the
surface. It‟s very efficient because you spend more time
torpedoing through water rather than catching drag swimming.
However you don‟t just get up one day at a race and „do‟ this.
It takes time to build up the lung capacity to handle the
strain while keeping efficient with it. Some swimmers do this
without experience and then lose momentum off of a wall or „pop‟
up out of the water after a turn instead of continuing forward.
How do we build this strength? Kicking and lots and lots of it.
Some swimmers will actually train kicking sets in the water
with tennis shoes and a t-shirt on and still be expected to make
time! That‟s another book though.
These following leg exercises are used outside of the water
for both competitive swimmers and the general fitness or
recreational swimmer alike and can help you again build strength,
stamina, power, reaction time, and make you feel better too.
A small side note is that some of these exercises can be
great for warming up for other events such as running, cycling,
etc and can be used in themselves for an aerobic workout.
Now leg exercises can be performed with machines and
weights if need be but for swimming purposes using your own
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body strength can do just as well or better in many cases as well
as being more cost and time efficient. You don‟t have to join a
gym or wait for a machine to do these. You could even do most of
them in your room after you wake up or before you go to bed or
even in your backyard if need be. Here are some basic jumping
exercises you can use just on your own body weight alone.
Remember to stretch and warm up prior to performing any
of the exercises listed to prevent injury. Also stay well hydrated
while doing this. Water consumption helps greatly no matter how
much you have to use the bathroom afterwards.
JUMP ROPING
This can be used both as an exercise as well as a general
form of warm-up prior to workout. Most of us know how to do
this or have since we were young. This exercise can be used
suggestively starting out for a minute straight or for 3x 30 second
intervals to get your heart rate up. Again this is also excellent for
warming up your body for the future leg exercises to come.
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Jump Roping
Thick Jump Roping
You can use thick twine or rope of such found at your local
hardware store. This is for more advanced jump-ropers who
would like extra challenge for building strength. DO NOT do this if
you haven't trained up to it.
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Thick Jump Roping
FRONT BOX/PORCH/BLEACHER JUMPS
Most gyms have different levels of raised boxes for
measuring your jumping height and strength. You can use your
own box, raised level object, porch step, or bleacher seat for this
particular exercise. Here you can also use these to work on a
timed set for 1 minute or until fatigue or 3 x sets of 15 while
maintaining your body control.
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Front Box
Porch
Bleacher Jumps
Note:
Body control is important in these box or inclined jumping
exercises so you are using your center of gravity to throw your
body upward. Do not lean to one side favoring one over the other
because this can cause you to slip to the side and fall or other
form of overcompensation injury.
Use extra caution when using steps or bleachers and make
sure they are not wet. It‟s too easy to slip and bust your shin
open or bang your chin on metal. This has happened before so
it‟s best to use a spotter or friend and not perform these
exercises alone. Don‟t be a jokester either. Fooling around leads
to falling down. Ok moving on..
SIDE BOX/PORCH JUMPS
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Same as above but this time on your side, it is preferred to
switch from your right/left side after an even amount of jumps is
preformed.
Side Box
Porch Jumps
LOW ROPE FORWARD JUMP(DOUBLE/SINGLE)
Hold a jump rope or any rope for that matter about 6 inches
off the ground and jump back and forth over it quickly for one
minute.
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Low Rope Forward Jump
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LOW ROPE SIDE JUMP (DOUBLE/SINGLE)
Hold rope at six inches like stated above on the low forward
jump but this time jump to your side. It is preferable to try to do
the forward and side jump as quick as you can without tripping
over the rope. If you feel you are starting to fatigue then stop
and don‟t risk injuring yourself.
Low Rope Side Jump
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FORCE JUMP
Take your arms and swing forward and jump as far as you
can go. This measures force in your jump which can be used for
measuring the power off of one's start and turns. If you‟re at the
pool sometime you can use this exercise off of a starting block or
side of the pool to measure the force of your start or forward
jump.
Force Jump
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BODY SQUAT
Hold your position with feet shoulder width apart. Then
lower your body into a squat position and press back up. Do this
for a set of 1 minute or until exhaustion.
Ok great. As you can see most of these exercises are doable
anywhere and with little cost in time and from your wallet. The
most you‟ll need to buy is the jump rope. Everything else can be
done just by going outside and performing the exercise. Start out
small. If you find that this is causing you to loose energy quickly
then stop. Continue to build moving forward whether it be by
jumping more for a total, going longer on the clock, or increasing
your set range from one set of 15 to two sets, and then three
sets etc. This will help you build both aerobic strength and power
for your swimming or racing efforts.
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CHAPTER 3: PULLING/UPPER
BODY EXERCISES
PULLING
Pulling is the main force of propulsion that helps us swim. It
can make or break us in terms of our comfort level in the water,
stroke efficiency, amount of water we catch and move around us,
etc. Now the universal motion most of us use is a form of pulling
called skulling. This is where we basically move our hands back
and forth as we tread water or try to move forward. No offense to
non-swimmers but even those who have found themselves in a
dangerous drowning position are moving their arms in a skulling
action.
SKULLING
Skulling is where we catch the water between our forearms
and the palms of our hands and use the force resistance of the
water against our body to stay afloat or move ourselves forward.
This is a basic drill used for introductory competitive swimmers as
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well as for the fitness, rehabilitative, and recreational swimmer as
well. Having more strength, stamina, and mental control over our
body can greatly help us in our swimming efforts.
We see this skulling motion in butterfly and breast stroke as
well as in the freestyle and backstroke. The objective is to
affectively catch the water and manipulate it to move in a fluid
efficient manner past our bodies as we swim. Here swimmers get
a „feel for the water‟. The better the feel, the better the timing of
the stroke or manner in which one is trying to stay afloat.
Sorry to use competitive swimming again but this is very
useful here as swimmers try to increase what we call their
distance-per-stroke. It is much more affective for a swimmer to
cover the length of the pool in less strokes than more while
maintaining speed. This takes time but once the „feel‟ of the
water has been made the objective is to build force, power, and
stability into the stroke. That‟s why when we look at an Olympic
swimmer they seem to be moving effortlessly from an outside
point of view because they have great control over the water
mentally, time-wise, and with the strength he or she has built
over time through pulling exercises
Pulling exercises can be done in the pool but can also be
exemplified and performed on land as well. Now one of the tools
coaches and swimmers alike have used for a long time and still
do today are stretch cords aka stretch cordz. These can be found
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online or at your local sports/swim shop. They are used for
imitating strokes, pulling exercises, and training rotator cuff
muscles in the shoulder for stability. Upper pectoral muscles are
also developed with these tools to support the shoulder.
Yes stability is that term that pops it‟s head in again and
emphasizes its importance. Just like stabilizing the core was
important so is doing so with the shoulders from the pectoral area
to the back of the shoulder blade and up to the neck. This is
needed to prevent injuries from tendonitis and over-usage. Just
how we can favor one side in an exercise we can also favor one
side in swimming. This leads to over training, imbalance, and
injury. Plus a long road to recovery if there is any time left to do
so. Balance is key.
Now we are going to list some stretch cordz exercises that
can be done with the product. Now keep in mind I‟m going to
throw a little disclaimer here and say to
parents/coaches/mentors please exercise caution and supervision
when using these. They‟re simple tools but can really hurt once
they become a little warn out and snap. Yes these cords don‟t last
forever and after time can break.
It‟s your responsibility to use these with caution and once
you see them starting to dry rot then it‟s time to pitch and
replace them. Also do not overextend these cords as again if they
slip or become unhindged it‟s like a giant thick rubber band
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shooting back at you and can leave a nasty welt or worse.
That being said stretch cordz can also be quite a useful tool
to imitate several exercises you would normally use a gym or
weight room for. They are great for beginner, young, or underdeveloped athletes and a great starter for building into a dryland
program. They are great for rehabilitation exercises as well as
strength training exercises. You don‟t always have to use weights
to get the same results which stretch cordz delivers on.
So lets move onward to some basic pulling and strength
exercises you can do with stretch cordz moving forward into your
swimming efforts.
Here are some pulling exercises that can be done with
stretch cords. First you need to mount the cord somewhere safe.
Some examples are:
DOOR HANDLE/KNOB
Make sure the door is completely shut so it doesn‟t snap
back at you during workout.
FENCE OR PORCH LINK
Make sure the link is stable and can support your weight and
the pulling action of the band during exercise.
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Fence
Porch Link
A tree - Find a sturdy branch not too high up or use the
base of the tree
Your foot - You can use your foot for only particular
exercises like curls, but it can be done. Be careful not to let
your foot slip so that is doesn‟t snap back or out.
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STRETCH CORDZ STRETCHES
***Remember to stretch first!
Again we mention stretching here. It is always important to
stretch first as well as performing a brief 3-5 minute warm-up
prior to exercise. Preferably the warm-up should be more than 5
minutes and more near 10 to 15. Effective warm-up will increase
your heart rate at a steady and healthy pace while safely dilating
your blood vessels to receive greater amounts of oxygen to your
muscles for the activity it is about to perform. This will have your
muscles more elastic and ready for exercise. Remember your
muscles are put together in a stretching and linked over fashion.
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Working on them when cold or right off the bat will lead to injury
of some kind later on. Having them stretched, warm, and blood
pumping through them will make for a more successful exercise
routine.
Here are some basic upper body warm-ups:
Arm Swings
Cross your arms back and forth in a non-forceful and
controlled fashion. Do this for a minute.
Arm Swings
Jumping Jacks
Please make these short and sweet and not over
exaggerated like we‟ve seen in a lazy form. Proper form helps
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you do it better and get more benefit from it
Do 3 sets of 15.
Jumping Jacks
Single Arm Circles
Take each arm individually and swing loosely in a circular
fashion forward and backward until loose. 4-6 times per arm
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should be good. If need be a little longer but not too much or the
blood will rush to your fingers.
Single Arm Circles
Tricep Stretch
Reach arm over head and pull your elbow down the center of
your back.
Do in a slow and controlled fashion and not jerking the arm. Hold
for15 seconds.
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Tricep Stretch
Streamline Stretch
This was mentioned earlier but is quite useful for swimmers.
Just a reminder, hold your body in a streamline position and
pull tightly upward while reaching up on your toes. Hold this
for about a minute
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Now we are warmed up and ready for our stretch cordz
exercises.
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CHAPTER 4: STRETCH CORDZ
EXERCISES
Ok now that we‟re warmed up we can move forward onto
our stretch cordz exercises. Now keep in mind the precautions
listed above and remember not to overstrain yourselves with
these exercises. Most of these are basic in setup and immitate
either a pulling action in the water or lifting action in the weight
room and can be beneficial to you.
These first few basic cordz exercises will help with bicep,
tricep, and lateral muscles used in all four of the strokes. These
all greatly support the shoulder and the pulling action you use in
the water. Securing these muscles and building them in a
swimming fashion will also help prevent nerve problems as well
as help any ones you might already have.
Use caution with stretch cordz. They can snap back at you or
another if not properly secure and leave a not-so-good injury.
Here are some basic ones:
ARM CURLS
Standing on the cord perform 3 x sets of 10 arm curls with
elbows tucked in the chest
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Arm Curls
2 ARM PULLS
Attach the cord to a fence link, tree, etc and perform 3 x
sets of 15 pulling straight back. This is effective on training to get
the most out of the finish of your pull. This particularly helps in
freestyle, butterfly, and breaststroke.
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2 ARM ROWS
Sit down with the cord. Keep your legs shoulder width apart,
relaxed, and long. The cord will be in a long stretched fashion
close to the floor and ties off to a fence post, bed post, door jam,
low lying bar, etc. While attached grab the cords and pull evenly
with your elbows in. Then release back to original position.
This is one rep. Start out with 3 x sets of 10. These next
stretch cordz exercises are more swimming defined and related
fully to stroke stability and strength. When performing them be
careful not to overextend the motion. Doing so can cause minor
injury which if done continually will lead to worse problems. This
is especially on the reverse flys, wide pulls, and high pulls
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Here are some more swimming defined stretch cordz
techniques
Rotator cuff (Internal/External)These exercises help with swimmers experiencing pain in
their rotational portions of his or her stroke and helps
preventinflammation. Inflammation can lead to tendonitis
and can be very painful and debilitating to a swimmer.
Rotator cuff exercises are well favored by coaches of every
type because they help keep the shoulders stabilized.
Strength is important here but stability like in the core is of
utmost importance. Lack of strength, stability, and injury
can end a swimming career very early for a swimmer or
cause anyone with this type of injury to never swim
effectively again other than wadding around in the shallow
end or hot tub.
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Here are 2 favored ones that need to be done religiously:
o Internal -- Hold the elbow closely to your side and rotate
to your belly button with the stretch cordz. ***Keep the
elbow tucked into your side or this exercise will not favor but
cause overstrain and injury
You WILL feel this exercise if done correctly and be sore
after you initially start. But it will be of a huge benefit later
on.
Internal Rotator
o External -- Hold the elbow closely to your side and rotate
outward from your belly button. Again keep the elbow
tucked in and rotate out 90 to 120 degrees outward. Any
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further will cause overstrain. Do this for 3 sets of 15
External Rotator
Do so for a little while and alternate between external and
internal on each set to let the previously worked muscles recover
while the working ones perform. Then switch until finished with
the 3 sets.
Wide Pulls/Reverse Flys
Begin with arms towards your stomach and relaxed while
holding the stretch cordz. Then pull outward and up
squeezing your shoulders together making
the 'reverse fly' portion of this exercise.
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Wide Pulls/Reverse Flys
High Pulls
Pull up with cords shoulder width apart and pull high over
your head. Again do not overstrain yourself. Do this for 3 x
sets of 10.
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High Pulls
Pull And Rotate Up
This exercise works the lateral or muscles down your side of
your body that support the lower portion of your shoulders.
Rotate each side evenly in a set for balance. Pull with your
arms together the stretch cordz and rotate upward in
fashion looking “through” your hands. Then and bring them
back down to starting position. Do this for 4 x sets of 10.
2 sets for each side.
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Pull And Rotate Up
Tricep Extension
This helps in the finish part of all four strokes as well as the
beginning of a breast stroke race. Do this exercise with arms
to your side and rotate your triceps from the
elbows backward extending the tricep muscle on the back of
your arm. Do this 3 x sets of 10 or one set until exhaustion.
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Tricep Extension
Freestyle Pull
Here you will imitate the freestyle stroke with the stretch
cordz starting in a leaned over prone position and berform
each freestyle stroke as if you are in the water. Pull in the
fashion of freestyle sweeping wide at the beginning and in
towards your belly button then finish the stroke at the end.
Again a proper warm down after performing the exercises is
useful to the user/athlete to prevent your muscles from just
going from working to instantly relaxed. This along with
staying hydrated during workout will help prevent cramps
and other injuries from neglecting proper warm down. Here
doing some of the arm swings and stretches listed at the
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beginning of this section will suffice for warming down from
stretch cords. We do get busy but please do not forget to
warm down or you will feel the ramifications of not doing so
later on. This can especially be so the next day or so after
that workout. You may feel great the first time around but if
you do not hydrate during workout and immediately
afterward along with proper cool down you‟ll be amazed at
how you‟ll come back the next day and just totally feel lousy.
Then you‟ll wonder why you felt so good the day before and
so horrible today and why is it taking you a few days to get
back to how you felt on square one. Trust me it stinks and
it‟s better to not pay that consequence.
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CONCLUSION
Swimming as we have seen here is quite a dynamic and
versatile sport. It‟s used at every level and from every age. Every
muscle from your head to toe is used and in some fashion trained
in swimming no matter what motion you are performing in the
water. Here we have learned that total body performance can
only be enhanced with careful stretching, muscle strengthening,
and balance
.
Swimming as we can see can be use for:
Rehabiltating former injuries
Stabilizing the core and shoulder muscles for optimum
performance as well as preventing injuries from tendonitis
and over strenuation.
Developing Power And Strength from your own body
weight with jumping exercises.
Building flexibility, strength, and balance of the upper
body, shoulders, and arms for stroke efficiency.
Overall the benefit of rehabilitation is extensive in the pool.
Many different movements can be performed without risk of
injury one may see in a weight room or gym. Most indoor pools
provide ample space to move around and do which ever exercise
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regiment your doctor or physical therapist has prescribed. Plus if
you are traveling and staying at a hotel you could perform the
exercises at the pool there so it‟s versatile in usage.
Again it can not be stressed enough how important
stabilization is and especially with the core and shoulders. These
exercises listed here will help you in performing that task if done
correctly and religiously. A well balanced core makes for far
better mobility and actually provides for a strong base when
doing other exercises later on that are weight related. It helps
immensely in the strokes of butterfly and breast stroke and helps
in being able to perform the strokes longer and more efficiently in
a race as well.
Legs. Always remember these are your power houses that
can help you finish what you started in the water. Your legs
trained properly will help get you home at the end of a race too.
Top races have been decided including Olympic gold medal races
based on who could conserve energy in their legs and use them
like that last shot of nitrous oxide at the end of the race and put
the hand on the wall first. Many have swum a race with no arms
left but let their legs carry them home and blow past the
competition making all the difference.
Shoulders and arms. They may fade out before the legs but
are of the utmost importance in stabilizing a stroke and being
able to continue to swim in the first place. Blow a shoulder out
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and it‟s like a field hockey or soccer player blowing out a knee.
It‟s done. Finished. Never going to be able to do it again.
Swimmers who go through this have a very hard time emotionally
with it. It‟s easy to sympathize but also in most cases it could
have been prevented way ahead of time with proper shoulder
stability exercises and less excessive training.
Our shoulders are wrapped in a variety of muscles that all
work in conjunction to help us form one or several movements.
This is used extensively in every stroke. Butterfliers are usually
the ones who need the most work as well as people swimming
long distances of freestyle. Pulling the water is one thing but keep
doing it in a motion incorrectly, with bad form, or just plain
without cross training while pushing yourself in the pool leads to
problems. Tendons can get over warn if overused with atrophied
or weak muscles. Packing those tendons and ligaments in strong
sturdy muscles will protect them if you don„t let your exercises
go. Work them, build them, and let them show what you are
made of in the end result.
Ok last but not least please remember to stretch correctly
and perform the exercises as listed. Do not try to overstrain
yourself in stretching or in performing the exercises. Stretch to a
small pull but not to strain. When working out, if you fatigue early
then stop and learn where your limit is for that time being. Then
continue to build on it going forward. The listed sets on each
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exercise are the generally recommended one for those starting
out.
If you start out 2-3 times a week then maybe work up the
reps after 2-3 weeks or go longer on the sets that require to go
until exhaustion. Maybe you made it 30 seconds on one set. Go
for 45 on the next. Then maybe a minute afterward and so forth.
Believe in yourself, set some basic goals, achieve them, and see
the results that come forth.
Alright now thank you for reading this small tutorial/book on
how to strength train for swimming . Hopefully you have gained
some knowledge where you might have not been aware of
previously. Take what you have learned and apply it to your
swimming needs and abilities. Whether you are a fitness
swimmer, triathlete, in rehabilitation for an injury, or a competitor
these can and will be of benefit to you.
Plus it saves you time and money. These small exercises are
efficient, less time consuming, and can be done without a gym
membership in your home, backyard, garage, etc. A personal
favorite is that you don‟t have to pay the ridiculous fees for
whatever fitness club or gym you are a part of and weight forever
to get on a machine. Do these easy exercises and be on your way
to begin or finish your day and feeling good about yourself in the
process.
Performed correctly these exercises will help you grow
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stronger in your swimming skills, produce faster times, and
overall strength and stability.
Now take what you‟ve learned, share with others, and do so
for yourself. You‟ll enjoy what it will do for you.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
www.HowExpert.com
o Get more “How To” guides at our website.
62
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How To Master Freestyle Swimming
o Australian swim coach breaks his silence
and teaches backyard swimmers the secret
to Olympic freestyle technique.
Triathlon Swimming Techniques Revealed
o Swimming video instructional course
reveals how to develop a unique swimming
technique to slip past the pack leaders in a
triathlon.
Swimming Pool Maintenance Secrets
o Learn how to maintain your swimming pool
the quick, easy, clean, and affordable way
with little effort.
63

How To Dryland Train For Swimming

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