Swimming is no longer a sport that is only performed in water. Nowadays there is also more and more land training or dry swimming. Even the top swimmers always supplement their water training with land training in order to achieve optimal swimming performance. Strength training swimming with lifeguard certification online is often alternated with regular training. But which muscles do you actually train with swimming? And what exercises can you do to become a better and stronger swimmer even without water?
Why is island training a good addition?
Swimming itself is of course always the most specific training to train swimming technique and strength. While swimming you always grab the right muscle groups. However, it is also important to have good core stability while swimming. The core stability is also very good to train outside the water. Better core stability can also improve your swimming technique because you are better in the water. Stretching exercises during land training are also important to prevent injuries.
Which muscles do you train with swimming?
While swimming you train several muscle groups at the same time. Which muscle groups you specifically train depends on which stroke you make. Muscles that are also important are your stomach and back muscles, these also ensure a stable position in the water and also that you can make a good rotation. The leg muscles are also very important for propulsion. In fact, it is really a full-body workout.
What materials can you use during your land training?
In principle, doing land training can be done without materials. However, it is useful to have a mat for cushioning during the exercises. If you are more advanced or further in the build-up, it is useful to use certain materials in your land training.
Swimming elastic/training cords
A swimming elastic, also called a training cord, always provides extra resistance to your exercises and is, therefore, an ideal tool to make your exercises heavier in terms of intensity. With a swimming elastic, you can practice the swimming stroke exactly on dry land. You attach it to, for example, a door handle and so you can train the front crawl through the front exactly. The elastics are available in various weights. If you know how many strokes you make at 25m, you can even calculate the number of meters you have swum on dry land. Pay close attention to the implementation. Because there is no resistance from the water, you can perform the technique very precisely.
Swimming land training exercises
You can perform many different exercises during your land training for swimming. There are exercises for every level. You can also use land exercises as a warm-up before your pool workout begins. Before you want to perform the described exercises, it is always useful to look them up on Google.
Bodyweight exercises
Bodyweight exercises are exercises that are only performed with the resistance of your own body. These exercises are therefore often well suited for both beginners and advanced training.
Below we give some exercises dry training swimming that you can perform with your bodyweight
Squat
A good exercise for the leg muscles is the squat. In this exercise you sink through your legs, you actually make a movement or you sit on a chair, but before you hit the chair you stand again. In this exercise, make sure that your knees don’t go past your toes while bending.
Do you want it heavier? Or more explosive? Then do the Jump Squat. When you come up from the squat, you jump. The explosiveness you train with this, for example, is good for pushing off the wall after a turning point.
Lunge
Another good leg exercise is the Lunge. In this exercise, the idea is to step forward with one leg and then lower through both legs. Alternate front and back legs throughout the exercise. Also in this exercise, it is important not to get the knee past the toes. To make a large range of motion with the legs, you can do the ankle stretch exercise. You can do this using a long towel and stretching your ankle while lying down. Another helpful way is to stand on the bottom step of a staircase and then lower the calves down. You can alternate this stretch with tightening by standing on the toes. In this way the exercise becomes multifunctional. You train the calf muscles and stretch the ankle.