What Muscles Do I Use When I Swim?

When it comes to an overall workout, there is nothing that compares to swimming.  Cardio, strength, and range of motion are all vital parts of swimming.  No one has ever done a full swim workout and got out of the pool feeling great.  It tears you down, wipes you out, and downright brings you to your deathbed.  But we keep coming back for more because the long term effects are incredible.  Increased lung capacity, endurance, flexibility, willpower, and strength. So exactly what muscles are you using during a swim workout? Well let's take a look!

Cardio Muscles:
                              

Two muscles that are VERY important to your body's general function (not to mention keeping you alive...I guess that's kind of important too) are the heart and lungs.  Yes these are muscles!  They are what are called "involuntary muscles" because you cannot control whether they are working or not.  Your heart pumps blood to all different parts of your body, including your lungs.  Your lungs take in all of that air your breathe and put oxygen in your blood.  This oxygen-rich blood helps your muscles perform to their maximum capabilities.  Ever had that sprint for the finish? You just put your head down, hold your breath, and swim like crazy for the wall.  The reason that holding your breath while trying to exert maximum effort hurts so bad is that your muscles are getting deprived of that oxygenated blood that they need to thrive. But you do it anyway right? Because holding your breath=faster swimming!

Freestyle Muscles:

All of the muscles that are circled in the picture above are muscles used when you swim freestyle.  There are 24 different muscles circled in this diagram. The ones that are circle in blue are more primary muscles that are worked and the muscles circled in black are the more secondary muscles exercised. Here they are in a list form: 

Arm: Thenars (hand muscle), brachioradialis (forearm flex muscle), flexor digitorum profundus (forearm extend muscle), biceps (sometimes referred to as GUNS), triceps, deltoids (shoulder muscle)

Neck: sternocleidomastoid (neck muscle)

Trunk: pectoralis, serratus anterior (side muscles), external oblique (outer ab muscles), rectus abdominus (abs), latissimus dorsi (back muscle), trapezius, spinus erectus (muscles that support your spine), teres major, teres minor, rhomboid major, rhomboid minor (all of these "major and minor" muscles help make up the shoulder muscles), gluteus maximus (rear-end muscles), abductor magnus (groin)

Leg: quadriceps, hamstrings, gastrocnemius (calf muscle), tibialis anterior (shin muscle), flexor digitorum brevis (foot muscles)

Funny how a lot of these sound like spells straight out of a Harry Potter book, huh?

Can you imagine trying to flex all of these muscles at one time?  Or trying to use weights to try and work out these muscles?  In the pool you use each of these 24 different muscles on each freestyle stroke! And if you think about it, since these muscles are on each side of your body, you have to double the amount and you are really using 48 MUSCLES!!! Some of the muscles are used when pulling, some when kicking, some when rotating your body, some when breathing, and some extra muscles you use when doing flipturns. Below is a really amazing video created by AnyBody that shows and highlights when the different muscles are used when you swim freestyle. This is unbelievable:

Backstroke Muscles:

The backstroke muscles are identical to the freestyle muscles except they are worked during different times of the stroke.  If you think about it, backstroke is kind of like freestyle on your back.  One thing about these two strokes that is helpful to remember is that - generally - backstroke stretches out your freestyle muscles and freestyle stretches out your backstroke muscles.  That is because they are both utilizing the same muscle groups, but in a different movement.

I would suggest trying out this easy way to stretch out during a cool down. You can really tell the difference! Below is another great video of what muscles are used when during backstroke:

Breaststroke Muscles:

The muscles used are about the same for breaststroke and butterfly as freestyle.  It is just a slightly different group of primary muscles used.  The primary muscles used in breaststroke are the hand, inner forearm, biceps, pecs, lats, groin, glutes, and calf.  One difference in muscle use during breaststroke is that there is a slight relaxation point of almost all muscles when the swimmer is gliding.  The only muscles used during the glide are the ones to old a streamline position.  This is one reason why sometimes breaststroke can be known as an easier stroke sometimes.  Below is another one of these awesome videos showing when different muscles are used during breaststroke:

Butterfly Muscles:

Once again, the butterfly muscles are roughly the same as the other strokes.  There are a lot of big muscle groups used in butterfly.  That is why it is commonly considered a very powerful stroke and can wear you down in a matter of 25 yards.  Pecs, lasts, quads, hamstrings, calves, shoulders, biceps, and triceps are all big-time power muscles.  Here is one more video of what muscles are used when during butterfly: 

Now you know what muscles are used, when they are used, and how some of them are used.  It should give you a better idea what exactly you are doing when you are swimming. Now you know why swimming is a harder and more all around workout than almost anything else you can think of!

And as a bonus, here is the video of all four strokes put together:

Take Your Pick

One thing I love about the sport of swimming is that it is constantly changing.  To keep up with new techniques can often take many hours of research, reading, and analyzing.  However, the easiest way to learn what new techniques work for you often come by testing them out in the pool.  Some tips and tricks are proven to be faster or more efficient, but some of them are personal preference and may improve Mason's swimming, but not Scott's swimming.

Something that has become increasingly more popular is the straight arm recovery.  It is used primarily in sprinters, while endurance swimmers are still hanging on to the traditional "bent-arm" recovery.

Bent Elbow Recovery

Generally, this is one of the first things that competitive swimmers learn. 

Benefits: keeping a high elbow during the recovery of the freestyle stroke prevents some strain on the shoulder.  It also makes for a very smooth and quiet stroke.

Drills: finger tip drag is a great drill to practice a high elbow recovery.  Every part of your arm from your elbow to your finger tips should be very relaxed while your arm is out of the water (hence the term recovery!) The only muscle that should really be working is your shoulder muscles to help rotate your arm forward.  To check if you are doing this correctly, when you breathe you should be able to see your hand pass right in front of your face.

Uses: any freestyle swim longer than 100yards, or if you have bad shoulders or struggle with shoulder issues

Straight-Arm Recovery

Benefits: keeping a straight arm during your recovery can lead to a quicker stroke.  It also means that your arm is going into the water fully extended so that you don't wast time extending your arm after it goes into the water as in the high-elbow recovery. 

Downfalls: using a straight arm instead of a bent arm can possibly lead to more shoulder troubles as it puts extra stress on the shoulder muscles.  These are mostly muscles that don't get used near as often as the muscles you use during a traditional bent-arm recovery so it is extra easy to feel the extra strain on your shoulders.  Another downfall of this technique is that it uses more energy and cannot be used effectively over longer distances.

Uses: sprints. Anything 100yards or less.

One thing to remember when using straight-arm recoveries is that you need to make sure you rotate your body quickly with each stroke.  You don't have as much time as normal to rotate your body to get a full reach because your strokes are faster and your arm is already entering fully extended.

Tips: if you think you're going to use this, you definitely need to test it out in the pool before a race.

If you watch the video below (NCAA Division 2 Men's 50 Free Championship) from about the 3:00 mark to the end you can see elite swimmers using the newly adopted straight-arm technique.  You have to look carefully, but you can definitely see them using it.  A couple of other things to note are the fact that they don't breathe, each pull takes them a long ways but at the same time their stroke rate is very high, and the fact that their starts and turns are phenomenal.  All of these things combine to make a great race and they all broke 20 seconds in this race.

Next time you get in the pool, go ahead and try these two recovery techniques out and see what you think.  Remember that the straight-arm technique should not be used for anything more than a sprint.  See if it makes you feel like you are pulling more water and increasing your stroke rate.  Let me know what you think!

POWER!

There are so many different parts to a swimming stroke.  It can generally be broken down to a kick and a pull, but those can also be broken down.

Today, I'm going to talk about the very last part of the pulling process.  It is sometimes referred to as the "finish" or the "follow-through".  It is the part of the stroke that entails the extension of the elbow and is dominated by the triceps.  It takes place between the bent elbow (underwater - half-way through the pull) and the finished stroke (fully extended arm towards the feet).  This movement is shown in the picture below.

Why is it important?  This part of your stroke - the extension of the elbow - provides you with a great amount of power and propulsion.  By now you know that propulsion-->more yards per stroke-->more efficient swimming-->faster swimming.  Many swimmers do not focus on this part of the stroke and their arm exits the water too soon. This wastes a lot of valuable water that needs to be pulled in order to get the most out of each stroke. Don't want to do that!

What strokes is it important for?  All of them!  This technique applies to all four strokes - butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.  We talked about how it is important on freestyle already.  The finish of the pull is used every stroke in butterfly for the same purpose: propulsion. Only in butterfly it occurs with both arms on each stroke.  For backstroke, the finish of the stroke is the same movement, but you are obviously on your back.  The finish in backstroke is important for propulsion as well as to help rotate the hips.  In breaststroke, the only time that your stroke finishes all the way to the full extension of the arm is during the underwater pullouts.  If you focus on putting the majority of your energy into this part of your pullout, you will get the maximum distance without having to sacrifice any speed.

How can you work on it?  Focusing on finishing to the end of the stroke is the only way to perfect this technique.  A very good and effective drill to work on this is to think about brushing your thumb to the outside of your thigh at the end of every stroke.  This will ensure that you are finishing your stroke to the very end and not wasting any part of your pull.  It is a drill that doesn't sacrifice much speed so you can go ahead and do it whenever you swim.  After a while, like any repeated movement it will become a habit.


Here is a short workout.  It is designed to work on maximizing the effectiveness of your stroke.
Warmup: 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull
                4 x 50 build speed each 50 @ 15" rest
Drill set:  8 x 50 (2 of each stroke) @ 30" rest - focus on finishing to the end of your pull
                4 x 50 (1 of each stroke) @ 30" rest - maximum distance per stroke
Main set: 2 x 200 free @ 1' rest - count total amount of strokes; 2nd 200 take less strokes
Cooldown: 200 easy back/free
Total Yards: 2000