Health benefits of swimming are well known. Swimming is one of the best cardio workouts or aerobic exercises you can do. Swimming regularly helps you maintain a healthy weight, healthy heart and lungs, as well as build muscle strength. It provides an all-over body workout. You will strengthen your shoulders, back, legs, hips, abdominals, glutes and more. Moreover, water exercise is fun and relaxing. (Speaking of fun, you can also check out this Jewel Action slot overview). All this makes swimming into an excellent fitness activity!
If you want to become a better swimmer, you should make swimming your weekly routine. Commit at least three days a week. Start with 10-minute sessions, then gradually push on to 30 and more. Here are some useful tips and exercises to improve your swimming:
Practice different swimming styles. To develop backstroke, practice a simple drill of flutter kicks on your back while one arm is raised. Switch arms after a lap and then finish with a lap of normal backstroke. For strengthening your breaststroke, focus on your legs, trying to rhythmically bend them, open and then snap them together. Using a kick board to support your arms can also help. “Fingertip drag” drill is very useful for improving front crawl: instead of lifting your hand above the water, try dragging your fingertips along the surface. To learn butterfly stroke, practice dolphin kick first: your legs should be as close together as possible, kicking up and down as though starting off a wave effect. Also, if you commit a full day to just one type of stroke, you’ll sync into the rhythm of that stroke faster.
Improve core stabilisation. Having a powerful core will make you a better, stronger swimmer. A strong core keeps your body properly aligned in the water, making you more efficient as you pull, push and kick through the water. There are many great core exercises: jump and dig, stomp and push, stationary water exercises, a scissor press, etc. One of the best is the plank, in its many variations. Support yourself on forearms and toes. Keep your elbows directly below your shoulders. Squeeze your abdominals and your butt to achieve a straight, powerful spine-line. Beginners should aim for a 30-second hold. Increase in time as ability allows. Your mid-section will try to sag towards the floor – don’t allow it! The point of the exercise is to keep your body in a firm line – including your head.
Sculling: a great drill to improve feel for the water and forearm strength. There are several variations of this exercise. In the front skull, the body is aligned on the surface, arms extended forward with hands just below the surface. Hands press out just past shoulder width, but not behind the line of the shoulders. On the in the sweep, the elbows stop in line with the shoulders, but the hands come together to form an A.
Work on your breathing: Focus on both your inhales and your exhales. A lot of swimmers have the problem of not exhaling underwater. Make sure you exhale a bit when submerging back underwater to maintain breathing and prevent your nose from filling up with water. Beginner swimmers often make a mistake of holding their breath while their face is in the water, then trying to exhale and inhale very quickly when turning to breathe.