For the past few months, SwimSwam has been posting a daily swimming workout to help inspire swim coaches around the world who are looking for new ideas to try with their swimmers. Since most of the world’s pools are currently closed for business, we wanted to give swimmers and coaches an alternative set of dryland workouts to use to stay fit during the quarantine. These workouts will be designed to be done around the house. Some will use basic equipment, like medicine balls or stretch cords, while others will be all body-weight exercises.
Planks exploded into fitness over the last few years and have replaced the crunch as the ultimate ab workout. Among the perks of the plank is the fact that they work abs, obliques, and spinal erectors. During this time when everyone is shut out of the pool, keeping the spinal erectors fit is extra crucial during this downtime because most athletes (and people in general) are going to spend a lot more time sitting than they’re used to.
Key instructional video here shows you the proper plank form:
As with all exercises, adjust to your abilities. If you can’t hold the proper plank form for the time listed below, don’t push past your form. More videos on how to do each movement are below.
Plank Circuit (3x through)
30 second basic plank
30 seconds rest
Plank with hip flexion and extension (10 reps)
Plank with leg flexion and extension (10 reps)
30 second basic plank
30 seconds rest
Plank arm rotation (5 on each arm then switch, 3x with each arm)
Plank with arm flexion and extension (5 on each arm then switch, 3x with each arm)
30 second basic plank
30 seconds rest
Side plank with arm and leg abduction and adduction (5 on each arm then switch, 3x with each arm)
Plank with hip rotation (8 reps)
2 minutes walking with good posture (treadmill, around your living room, etc)
More Instructional Videos
All of these planks are explained in this article from equinox fitness.
