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.
See more at-home training ideas on our At Home Swim Training page here
The Streamline
These workouts aim to keep you fit while pool access is hard to come by. But why can’t we work swimming-specific skills on the dry land, too?
What is a streamline? Anyone who has swum competitively for any length of time might think they can skip this section. Don’t. A great streamline is quite possibly the most important swimming skill one can have – and it’s far more than just what you do with your arms. Streamline is a full-body exercise. When we work our streamlines in this workout, don’t just think arms – think fingers-to-toes. In an elite streamline, arms are squeezing the head tight, the head is in line with the shoulders, shoulders in line with the hips, core tight, glutes tight, legs together, feet together, and toes pointed.
Coming off yesterday’s very leg-heavy workout, we’ll focus mostly on upper body and core strength, though we’ll make sure to give your legs something to do here and there as well.
Workout
Warmup: three rounds of 10 jumping jacks and 3 pushups, no rest between
The main set: 3-5 rounds of the following, which will work your full-body streamline from top to bottom.
20-second standing streamline hold – squeeze your ears with your arms, tighten your core and keep your whole body in line
20x leg raises (lie on your back, arms in a streamline squeezing your head. Keeping your legs as straight as possible, raise them up off the ground to a 90-degree angle, then back down to about six inches off the ground. Repeat.)
20x streamline Supermans (roll over to your stomach. In a streamline position, lift your head, hands, and feet up an inch or two off the ground twenty times)
:30 seconds rest
10 pushups (keep your core and glutes tight – maintain the streamline of your core)
20-second standing streamline hold
30 seconds streamline flutter kick (on your back, arms in streamline above your head but on the ground. Lift your feet and flutter kick fast for 30 seconds)
30 seconds streamline dolphin kick (same as above, only keeping your feet together for a small, fast, dolphin kick instead of flutter)
:30 seconds rest
10 streamline squat jumps
10 pushups
20-second standing streamline hold
One fun twist: Instead of the 30-second flutter and dolpin kicks, find a race video of your choice – let’s say this historic Caeleb Dressel swim. When Dressel is underwater, you’re dolphin kicking. When he’s on the surface, you’re flutter kicking. Either way, you’re streamlining with everything you’ve got.
Every day some form of dry Land