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.
These workouts are provided for informational purposes only.
See more at-home training ideas on our At Home Swim Training page here
Recovery Day
With much of the world celebrating the Easter holiday on Sunday, we suspect that many of you reading won’t be to keen on a big workout anyway. As we’ve done every Sunday during this series, which will enter its 4th week on Sunday, this will be a recovery day.
If you’ve already had a recovery day recently, repeat workout #4 today instead.
Warmup
Always warmup. Even on recovery day.
5 Minute Leopard Crawl – No, this isn’t a joke. Corrective exercise specialists recognize that crawling can help build strength, endurance, focus, and better posture, while giving your joints a break.
- Start on all fours.
- Keeping your back flat and your butt down, lift your knees off the ground a few inches.
- Initiate the crawling movement by stepping your opposite hand and foot forward. Make sure to keep your back flat and your knees just a few inches off the ground.
- Continue alternating sides, making sure to look straight ahead the entire time.
Main Set
Just because its recovery day, doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun. Use this day to play some easter-themed games to work on balance and coordination while giving your joints some time to rest from the heavy load of the previous week.
- Egg/spoon races – 1 easter egg, 1 spoon. If you’ve got family members, split up into teams and make races out of it. Set up a course, every member of the team must complete 3 rounds of the course without dropping the egg. Winners get to ‘steal’ the losers’ eggs!
- Leapfrog (but as bunnies) – Have some leapfrog races. Don’t know what leapfrog is? Here’s a video.
- Egg Rolling – There’s a ton of ways to play this game, but in the purest form, you boil a bunch of eggs, find a (socially distanced) hill, and roll them down. Whoever’s egg travels the furthest wins! If you live in the flatlands, you could play this game with the stairs too! Make up rules as you go (bonus points if you bounce your egg off the wall, for example). Add activity as you run up and down the stairs to retrieve your egg.
- Follow the Bunny – Probably better for your younger swimmers, but maybe older swimmers could have some fun with it too. One member of the family is the bunny, and they hop and dance around the house. Others in the family have to copy what they do!
- “Egg” Toss – But with balloons! Real eggs are too expensive these days to play this game, but bop the balloon back and forth, and try not to let it hit the ground. This game can be done cooperatively (see how high you can get) or competitively (almost like SpikeBall – try and see if you can get the balloon to the ground before your opponent can get it up). Be creative with the rules!
- Chicken Run – Balloon eggs again (decorate them for bonus points), wedge it between your legs, and waddle across the room or back yard. Whoever finishes first without dropping the egg wins!
Cool Down
By enjoying your favorite Easter treat.
Enjoy your recovery day, because Monday’s workout will be a doozy.
