TheFitInstitute_Swim Smart: The Key to Your Best Summer Yet

N E W S L E T T E R

SWIM SMART THE KEY TO YOUR BEST SUMMER YET

Swimming is an amazing low-impact exercise that is able to work all of the muscles in the body. Many athletes choose the swimming pool to maintain their fitness as well as for injury rehabilitation and prevention. Whether you are an athlete in the pool or enjoying the cool water in the summer heat, practicing proper swimming technique can make all the difference. Freestyle Swimming Techniques to Help You Avoid Injury 1. Bilateral Breathing. Comfortably breathing from both sides of your body helps you achieve symmetry of motion, and even encourages more smooth and even strokes. 2. Correct Posture. Did you know that your posture outside of the pool can affect your posture inside the pool? During a freestyle stroke, your shoulders should be back and your chest should be forward. Your head should be looking forward and down, so that the water crests above the eyebrows. 3. Kick with Your Legs Rather Than Your Feet. Your kick should originate from the hips and you should keep your knees slightly bent at all times. Don’t worry about your toes – the position of your body will help them to point naturally. 4. Catch and Pull. When entering the water, your hand should be in a position as if making a catch with your third or fourth finger leading. When your arm pulls through the water to follow through with the

movement and propel your body forward, your hand and arm should enter the water as an extension of the shoulder. 5. Body Rotation. As your arm enters the water, your body should rotate slightly toward the direction of the arm that entered. Successful body rotation also aids in ease of bilateral breathing, as your body rotates left and right. In addition to these techniques, it is important to properly warm-up and cool down to reduce injury. By participating in strength training, the rotator cuff, scapular, and core muscles can enable a more powerful swimming stroke. Contact us today for your individualized swimming, strength and conditioning program! Water Strengthening and High Intensity Pool Exercises Are you a workout enthusiast looking for a new challenge? Tired of just swimming laps in the pool? Don’t know how to swim but enjoy being in the water? Then water strengthening and high intensity pool exercises could be just what you are looking for! Pool training can improve your aerobic capacity, build strength without excess stress on your joints, improve movement patterns in the upper and lower extremities, and increase recover after land based training. Examples of Water/Pool Training: 1. Seahorse: Stand in the water so that your head is above the surface, and place a 10LB

dumbbell between your thighs. Squeezing the weight to keep it in place, raise your legs straight out in front of you so you can see your toes, and swim forward across the width of the pool and back using only your arms. 2. Amno Box: hold a 10-15LB dumbbell tucked into one arm like a football, and swim underwater propelling yourself with your opposite arm and both legs across the width of the pool. 3. Dolphin Jacks: Stand in about 5-6 feet of water, fully submerged, holding a light dumbbell in each hand, arms out to sides, feet on the pool floor. Explode up, bringing arms down to your sides as you break the surface to take a big breath. Exhale, sink back under the water, and repeat. 4. Alternating Skater Hops: Stand in chest high water with a dumbbell in both hands. Squat down with one leg and then explode up out of the water to land on your opposite foot. Repeat on the other side. Contactustodayat773.799.2795andaskfor RyanLeFeverformore ideasonpooltraining and proper technique, or visit our website at thefitinstitutechicago.com to learnmore about our services. Sources: moveforwardpt.com/resources/detail/proper- swim-stroke-to-avoid-shoulder-injuries/ • ncbi.nlm. nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2953356/ • usaswimming. org/news/training•swimming.org/masters/improving- front-crawl-technique/

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