Incorporating a sport specific fitness routine is the best way to get better at that sport. If you want to be a better swimmer, then you should do exercises that work the muscles necessary for movement in the water.
One way to make additional gains after you have maximized your swim time is to add dry land work. This will include flexibility exercises, polymeric work, swimming while wearing weights, and resistance training are some of the options.
One example of resistance training is weight work aimed at adding strength and speed to your stroke. Almost all muscles are used for swimming, from the top of your head through your toes.
To maximize your time, a routine should emphasize the major groups that should give your swimming some extra strength. This type of dry land work can help endurance, but other types of work, such as swim trainers or stretch cords, are better at this based on lower resistance and higher repetitions.
These are also a valuable part of any swimming program. To start out, you should use a basic plan designed to increase muscle strength.
It can be more refined based on a particular need or a season plan. It may also need to be modified based on what equipment you have available.
You will use the routine two to three times each week, progressing through each phase. The first few sessions in each phase establish starting points for the rest of the sessions.
The final phase is for the last four to five weeks before your biggest competition. You should stop lifting weights ten days before any competitions that you might be in.
To make gains, you are breaking down your muscles, then letting them rebuild. To give them the time to rebuild, do not lift two days in a row.
To help prevent injury, do not to make yourself exhausted after each set. Instead, always end feeling like you could do a few more.
Warm up before you begin any of the routines. Spend 10 to 20 minutes building your heart rate to increase blood flow, body temperature, and general range of motion.
Do your general stretching routine after completing the weight routine. You could also do a short stretch for the muscle groups just used while you recover between exercises.
Some basic warm-up ideas are stationary cycling, jogging, rowing, or jumping rope. Make sure you record the date, time, phase, lifts, amount of weight for each lift, and other comments for the day.
You will use this information throughout the program to track your progress. An additional area to be aware of is muscle balance.
Swimmers can do some simple shoulder exercises to maintain strength balance in the rotator cuff/shoulder girdle area every day with stretch cords or barbells if desired. This can help prevent shoulder injury.
The first phase is to either get you started or to build strength. The second phase is to take your strength gains and build on them.
The third phase is for the last three to four weeks before your biggest competition. You are going to maintain most of your strength gains, build more muscular power, and begin to reduce the stress to your muscles so they
are fully recovered by your big event.
Remember to start light and gradually increase the weights. Slow progress is the key to good strength gains without injury.
The first few times you do the workout, start light. Estimate a weight that you feel you can lift 15 to 20 times.
The next time you do the routine, if that weight was to light, add one unit of weight. If it was too heavy to complete the minimum number of repetitions, then decreases it by one unit for the next time.
Continue this process until you have established your lifting goal. The second part of a basic plan should be designed to increase muscle strength.
It can be more refined based on a particular need or a season plan. It may need to be modified based on what equipment you have available.
You will use the routine two to three times each week, progressing through each phase. The first few sessions establish starting points for the rest of the sessions.
Author Resource:-
Terry Daniels is an accomplished expert in health and fitness. He recommends the besttreadmill you can find in the market.
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