Wondering how to spend your time in the gym to improve your performance as a swimmer? Justin Heinle and Josh Miller, Performance Coaches at the Tidewater Performance Center in Gloucester, VA provide some excellent suggestions to help you make the most of your out-of-the-water training time.
Dead Lift
Justin Heinle recommends the dead lift as a great exercise for swimmers for both the upper and lower body. It will develop the glute strength needed to kick effectively during the swim. The main job of the gluteus maximus is hip extension. When you flutter kick, you extend your hip over and over again.
Heinle points out that many swimmers will have very mobile shoulders without the stability. This may cause shoulder problems. The dead lift, when done correctly, will allow the swimmer to pack his or her shoulder girdle in place. Pulling heavy weight from the floor cannot be matched in any other exercise for shoulder girdle stability and strength.
The last major component of the dead lift that will benefit swimmers is core training. Heinle reminds us that maintaining proper posture is what our core was meant to do. Pulling heavy weight from the floor will add stress to the core that cannot be found in any other exercise. Efficient swimming requires engaging the muscles of the core to move through the water in a stream lined position.
Single Leg Dead Lift
The single leg dead lift has many of the same components that benefit swimming as the dead lift. Heinle suggests both.
The bilateral dead lift (using two legs) will benefit the athlete overall because of the load that you can put yourself under. Moving heavy things is how we get stronger. No more messing around with those light weights.
But the big downfall of that dead lift is that if an athlete has asymmetry from right to left, then it will add to that asymmetry. Heinle explains that if the right side is more dominant than the left, the dead lift using both legs simultaneously will actually make this imbalance even worse. The single leg technique does not allow as much of a load to be used, but it does enable an opportunity to focus on the asymmetries that may exist.
The single leg technique, like flutter kicking, involves kicking one leg at a time, not both. So practicing an exercise like the single leg dead lift may be considered more functional for a swimmer.
Tabata Conditioning
Conditioning is always going to be beneficial to improve open water swimming. Aerobic capacity is what will help an athlete maintain a consistent stroke that cuts through the water for an extended period of time. Steady state aerobic work is running, biking, or swimming that is sustained for an extended period of time.
When training only involves steady state work, overuse injuries may result.
Doing the same thing repetitively can play a big role in injuries when the activity is not done precisely correct. When technique is flawless, usually no harm is done, but most athletes are not moving with perfect technique.
Training in Tabata form allows athletes to improve aerobic capacity and aerobic power in a different way.
Using a cycle of 20 seconds of intense exercise and 10 seconds rest or recovery for four minutes trains the Kreb’s cycle (the body’s system for replenishing muscles with energy) to buffer and replenish our muscles faster. This will help you maintain your swim stroke during an endurance event.
Any form of exercise put into Tabata form is beneficial. Dry land training that integrates kettle bell swings, ropes, sprints, body squats, sleds, bike and row machine sprints all in the Tabata style format will likely help you in in your swim.
Salve sis. May you be well.
Karen Kovacs, PT, OCS is a physical therapist and clinical director of Tidewater Physical Therapy‘s Gloucester Point location. She is an accomplished endurance athlete and is a USAT Level 1 Coach.