Best Exercises for Swimmers – Introduction
What are the best dry-land training exercises for swimmers besides their water workouts?
Everyone needs to do cardio.
After all, it works your heart, lungs, and circularity system.
You know, the things that are busy keeping you alive!
It doesn’t matter how big your biceps are or how much you can deadlift; if your heart is small and weak and your lung capacity is low, your long-term health could be at risk.
There are lots of cardio activities that you can do, and each one has advantages and benefits.
However, if your weary, worn joints mean that high-impact activities like running have long since lost their appeal, swimming could be your best choice.
This article lifts the lid on the ten best strength training exercises for swimmers and provides you with a dryland workout to help boost your swimming performance.
Swimming 101
Swimming is a 100% non-impact activity.
Rowing, walking, cycling, and using an elliptical are all low impact, but only swimming is truly non-impact.
The water supports your body weight which keeps joint stress to an absolute minimum.
If running hurts your feet, ankles, knees, or hips, swimming is a good alternative.
In addition, swimming is a very comfortable workout.
The water helps keep you cool so that, even if you push yourself, you won’t overheat.
That said, you’ll still sweat, and swimming can lead to dehydration, so keep a water bottle on the poolside so you can grab a drink now and then.
You can swim in an indoor pool or any body of water, including open water like the ocean, lakes, and rivers.
You can use any stroke for swimming for fitness, including front crawl (freestyle), breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly stroke.
However, for efficiency, freestyle is usually the best choice.
Swimming is not just a good solution to your cardio needs; it’s also a sport and a life skill.
Being able to swim could save your life or the life of someone else.
Everyone should know how to swim!
Main Muscles and Energy Systems Used During Swimming
Whatever stroke you use, swimming is an activity that engages your entire body.
While a lot of your power comes from your upper body, your legs will be working too.
Muscle recruitment varies from stroke to stroke, but it’s safe to say that all of your major muscle groups get in on the action.
However, the prime movers are:
- Latissimus dorsi – your upper back muscles
- Deltoids – your shoulder muscles
- Pectoralis major – your chest muscles
- Gluteus maximus – your butt
- Quadriceps – the muscles on the front of your thighs
- Hamstrings – the muscles on the back of your thighs
In terms of energy systems, swimming involves all three ¹, depending on how hard and how fast you swim:
- The ATP-CP system during very short, high-intensity bursts, e.g., 10-20 seconds
- The lactic acid system during medium to high-intensity efforts, e.g., 30-90 seconds
- The aerobic system during low to medium intensity efforts, e.g., 3-30 minutes+
The energy systems do not work independently.
Instead, they overlap, and while one is dominant, the other two are working in the background.
The Best Exercises for Swimmers
The best way to get better at swimming is to swim more.
It’s also important to work on your stroke technique to ensure that you swim as efficiently as possible and don’t waste energy.
Dryland training is also helpful because you can use it to target your swimming muscles.
Also, the better athlete you are out of the water will only help your performance in the water.
Elite swimmers spend hours training for strength in the weight room.
As one of Michael Phelps’s quotes on swimming says – “If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.”
The following exercises are ten of the best for swimmers.
#1. Straight arm pulldown
Target muscles: Lats
Straight arm pulldowns are one of the few exercises that isolate your lats, which are important muscles for swimmers.
Also, this movement mimics the arm action of freestyle swimming.
You can do this exercise using a lat pulldown machine or a resistance band.
How to do it:
- Stand behind your lat pulldown machine.
- Reach up and hold the bar with an overhand, shoulder-width grip.
- Brace your core.
- Without bending your elbows, flex your lats and push the bar down to your thighs.
- Raise your arms and repeat.
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#2. Push-up
Target muscles: Pectoral muscles, delts, triceps
Push-ups work your pecs, shoulders, and triceps, which are all important muscle groups for swimming.
Best of all, you can do push-ups anywhere and anytime as you don’t need any specialized equipment.
How to do it:
- Place your hands on the floor, shoulder-width apart, and walk your feet back until your body is straight.
- Brace your abs.
- Bend your arms and lower your chest to about an inch above the floor.
- Push yourself back up and repeat.
- Bend your legs and rest on your knees to make push-ups easier.
- Raise your feet on a bench or chair to make them more challenging.
#3. Pull-up/chin-up
Target muscles: Lats, biceps
Lack of equipment doesn’t have to mean you can’t build strong, powerful lats and biceps.
In fact, all you really need is something to hang from!
Pull-ups and chin-ups are both a great way to pump up your most important swimming muscles.
How to do it:
- Hang from an overhead bar with an overhand, slightly wider than shoulder-width grip (pull-ups) or an underhand, narrower than shoulder-width grip (pull-ups).
- Brace your abs and draw your shoulders down and back.
- Bend your arms and pull your chin up and over the bar.
- Descend under control and repeat.
#4. Alternating dumbbell shoulder press
Target muscles: Deltoids, triceps
This weight training exercise can be done seated or standing.
The alternating action simulates swimming freestyle and backstroke.
It also increases your time under tension and means you can get a challenging workout from relatively light dumbbells.
How to do it:
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand and then press them both overhead.
- This is your starting position.
- Keeping one arm stationary, lower the other dumbbell down to your shoulder, and then press it back up again.
- Lower the other dumbbell down, and press it back up.
- Continue alternating arms for the duration of your set.
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#5. Bird dog
Target muscles: Core, delts, glutes
This great exercise strengthens your hip flexors, promotes shoulder stability and a strong core.
As such, it won’t just improve your swimming performance; it could also reduce your risk of injury.
Do a few sets a day – it’s a bodyweight exercise, so you can do it anywhere and anytime.
How to do it:
- Kneel on all fours, so your knees are directly under your hips, and your hands are below your shoulders.
- Brace your abs.
- Extend your left arm and right leg until they are parallel to the floor.
- Bend them again and touch your knee with your hand.
- Repeat for the prescribed number of reps and then change sides.
- You can also do this exercise using an alternating action.
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For more workout variety, watch this video below for 20 strength and conditioning exercises for swimmers with a medicine ball.
#6. Flutter kicks
Target muscles: quads, core
As the name suggests, this exercise replicates kicking yourself through the water.
It’s a popular exercise in the Navy SEALs, who are renowned for their swimming prowess.
How to do it:
- Lie on your back with your legs straight and your hands under your lower back, palms down.
- Lift your head, shoulders, and legs a few inches off the floor.
- Brace your abs.
- Pushing your lower back into the floor, kick your legs as though you were swimming.
- Four kicks equal one rep.
- Continue for the prescribed number of repetitions.
Watch former Navy SEAL Brad McLeod do flutter kicks as part of an ab workout exercise routine to activate your core.
#7. Goblet squat
Target muscles: Quads, hamstrings, core
Strong legs can help you swim faster, and squats are hard to beat for developing lower body power.
All types of squats are good for swimmers, but goblet squats are probably the most accessible because all you need to do them is a single kettlebell or dumbbell; no squat rack is required.
How to do it:
- Hold a single dumbbell or kettlebell in front of your chest.
- Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned slightly outward.
- Brace your core.
- Push your hips back, bend your knees, and descend until your thighs are roughly parallel to the floor.
- Take care not to round your lower back.
- Stand back up and repeat.
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#8. Renegade row and push-up
Target muscles: Lats, biceps, pecs, delts, triceps, core
This combo move works all the muscles in your upper body, as well as your core muscles.
If you only have time for one dryland swimming exercise, this is an excellent choice.
How to do it:
- With a dumbbell in each hand, adopt the push-up start position with your arms and legs straight, and core braced.
- Bend one arm and row the dumbbell up into your ribs.
- Put the weight back on the floor and then repeat on the other side.
- Put that weight down.
- Do a single push-up.
- Continue this row-row-push-up sequence for the duration of your set.
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#9. Band pull-aparts
Target muscles: Upper back, shoulders
Swimming is generally considered to be a very safe, joint-friendly workout.
However, it also involves a lot of mostly forward repetitive movements.
This can lead to an overuse injury called swimmer’s shoulder, where the muscles at the front of the shoulder joint become overdeveloped and out of balance with those at the back.
Band pull-aparts will help correct this imbalance.
- Hold your resistance band with an overhand, shoulder-width grip.
- Raise your arms in front of you to shoulder height.
- Without bending your elbows, open your arms and stretch the band out across your chest.
- Bring your arms back together and repeat.
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#10. Stir the pot plank
Target muscles: Core
Swimming involves a surprising amount of core strength.
Stir the pot is a plank hold variation during which you’ll have to work extra hard to stabilize your spine and prevent rotation and lateral movements, making it more swimming-specific.
How to do it:
- Place your forearms on a stability ball, and then walk your feet back, so your body is in a straight line.
- Brace your abs.
- Without raising or lowering your hips, circle your elbows clockwise and counterclockwise.
- Make this exercise harder by lifting one leg off the floor or putting both feet on a bench or chair.
Are you Still Doing the Static Front and Side Plank? – It’s Time to “Stir the Pot”
Swimming Dryland Workout
Improve your swimming performance with this dryland workout.
Alternatively, do it any time that you can’t get to the water for a swim.
Before you start, spend a few minutes warming up by doing some light cardio, such as jump rope, and then a few dynamic mobility and stretching exercises for your major muscle groups and joints.
*AMRAP = As Many Reps as Possible – just keep repping out until you are unable to continue.
The Last Race of One of the Greatest Olympic Swimmers of All Time
Best Exercises for Swimmers – Wrapping Up
The fitness law of training specificity states that the best way to get better at something is to do it more often.
So, if you want to be a better swimmer, you need to do more swim workouts.
A swim coach may also help you iron out any technical faults that could be undermining your performance.
However, dryland exercises can also be helpful.
They allow you to preferentially target your swimming muscles to make them stronger and more enduring.
The right exercises may help strengthen those muscles not used so much when you swim, which could help ward off injuries.
Swimming is a great workout, and you can use these exercises and our training plan to get even more out of this popular, joint-friendly fitness activity.
Related Posts:
- 7 Best Cardio Exercises for Bad Knees + Low Impact Workout
- 10 Best Exercises for Over 50 and Out of Shape
- 7 Best Compound Exercises for Muscle and Strength + Workout
- Top 8 Body Composition Exercises for Body Transformation
- The Best Powerlifting Exercises for Beginners + Workout
- 7 Deadlift Muscles Worked That Will Change Your Body & Life
Footnotes:
¹ Understanding Energy Systems Used in Swimming – Staines Swimming Club
Rich is a NASM-CPT (Certified Personal Trainer),