Posted: September 15, 2022 at 8:46 pm
Whether in the pool or in the sea, swimming is one of the recreational activities that offers a full body workout. In addition to working the body as a whole, swimming has a range of other positive effects, including improving muscle tone, burning calories, reducing allergy symptoms and even strengthening the heart. But if you’re thinking of adopting this great workout as your sport, it’s not enough to buy goggles and a swim cap and jump into the water. Here are 10 tips to help you with your swim training and technique in order to reap the results.
1-Swim more often
If you don’t swim at least 3 times a week, you will lose sensitivity to the water, and your technique will start to deteriorate. No sensitivity, no technique, no speed. The tip is: if you have to choose between 2 long workouts or 3 shorter workouts, choose shorter workouts more often. Studies show that, for the same weekly volume, swimmers tend to perform better if they swim more often.
2-Always swim with good technique
Try to maintain the best technique possible throughout your workout. If you try to swim faster at the expense of your technique, you’re wasting energy. If you can condition yourself to maintain the technique even while swimming fast, you will get better results sooner.
3-Swim with fins
Swimming with fins helps you to be able to swim with a better body position, and so you will be able to know what it feels like to swim with the correct posture. Then, without the fins, it will be easier to repeat the same position.
4-Make trainings educational
It doesn’t matter at the beginning, middle, or end of your training, but including educational exercises will help to reinforce good technique. There are numerous educational exercises to improve your technique, and a good teacher will be able to help you choose the most suitable exercises to improve your technique.
5-Increase the difficulty of your workouts
If you are in the habit of always training in the same way, swimming at the same speed, you should try to include different sets in your training. After some time, the body gets used to the stimulus and no longer develops. If you always swim hard, you should do slower sets paying attention to technique. If you always swim slowly, you can greatly benefit from including a few short bursts of speed in your training program. Add variety to your training and feel the difference in your performance.
6-Swim slowly
Our body doesn’t have the capacity to withstand more than 2 or 3 strong workouts a week. If you swim hard every day, you’re on your way to stagnation and/or over-training. If you already do 2 hard workouts a week, the other days should be lighter workouts.
7-Improve your glide
Everyone can benefit from an improved glide, even open water swimmers. Pay attention whenever you hit the wall, keep your body stretched, your head down and your arms extended. This habit will translate not only into more efficient turns, but also into an improvement in body alignment during swimming.
8-Ask someone to watch you swim
If you’ve never asked anyone to critique you, you might be surprised at what you find. We all have a hard time noticing the movements we make as we make them. If you always swim alone, ask a friend or a technician to watch and correct you. Even better would be if you could get someone to film you. That way, you can become aware of your mistakes and adopt a more efficient style.
Moreover, a swimming video is a great way to share your precious moments with loved ones. You can create a swimming video in minutes using FlexClip.
9-Try swimming other styles
Humans are creatures of habit, and we tend to always swim in the same styles. Different swimming styles help balance the body’s musculature preventing overuse injuries while developing water sensitivity. Better sensitivity, better style, the faster you swim. Triathletes tend to think that because they swim crawl during competitions, they should only swim crawl in training, which is not true.
10-Try new equipment
New equipment can help you swim better, such as competition suits, wetsuits, swimming goggles, snorkels, etc. Swimmers can use numerous pieces of equipment to improve their speed during training and competition. Ask your coach for recommendations.
