When the goal is to get faster swim times, there are a few things that you need to consider. First of all your technique must improve so you have no wasted energy.
Secondly improve your mobility. No matter what sport you do, you should spend time on this. If your range of motion is tight through your shoulders, it will affect your speed. Mobility training will have a direct and positive effect on your swimming speed so you need to be efficient or you’ll end up using more energy.
Finally, do some strength training! You want to generate output, so strength training will do just that.
There is a misconception with many swimmers on how to strength train. The focus in the weight room for many of these athletes is a high-rep scheme, lifting light-to-moderate loads with bad form.
While they are thinking logically, if I compete in an endurance sport, I must train my body in the weight room to handle the duration of these types of events. The body gets more than enough endurance work during your swim training. Simply put, to build strength and get faster you will need to increase the load that you lift and decrease the amount of reps that you do.
Here are some of the best kettlebell exercises that you can do to build strength for faster pool times.
1. Turkish Get Up
As swimmers are usually plagued with shoulder issues. Swimming involves constant shoulder rotation, and while most times all the musculature will develop appropriately to support the level of activity, the overuse and abuse of the shoulder eventually becomes evident.
So, why the Turkish get up? The Turkish get up is a highly functional movement that requires all the muscles of the kinetic chain working together in order to accomplish it. It is the mechanically correct method of coming from a position lying on the floor, to standing, while supporting a weight locked out overhead. Additionally performing a Turkish get up with a kettlebell involves a great deal of shoulder flexibility and stability. Performing these with lightweight kettlebells will prove to be a decent challenge for any swimmers’ shoulders.
2. Hang Cleans
Jamie Lloyd considers the hang clean to be the “missing piece to many swimmers’ strength and conditioning program.” The hang clean is compound, as it recruits multiple muscle groups to work synergistically. It moves the kettlebell from the low hang position to shoulder level in a dynamic and explosive fashion. The hang clean is likely the exercise that most resembles a full swimming stroke. So use 2 kettlebells the same size and do 5–10 reps resting for 30 secs and do 4–5 rounds.
3. Kettlebell Thruster
Although the thruster is the combination of a front squat with a push press, the first movement is to get the kettlebell to shoulder level, and that requires a clean.
This is a great full body exercise and it’s great at translating explosiveness of the movement into either explosion off the starting blocks or pushing off the walls during turns. It provides great leg power to breaststroke too — a primarily leg-driven stroke.
4. The Kettlebell Swing
The kettlebell swing is a popular exercise among kettlebellers but this exercise is not only for kettlebell lovers as it has swimming specific characteristics. The purpose of the swing is to learn a hip hinge, teaching an athlete to differentiate their hips and spine. Once this occurs, the kettlebell swing is used to teach hip speed. Hip speed is essential both short axis stroke.
Directions:
Stand with your feet a bit wider than shoulder width apart and your shoulders in the compact position. Next, drive your hips back, keeping your spine long, and reach the kettlebell between your legs. After driving the hips back, rapidly bring your hips forward and raise your chest to stand straight up. Make sure to tighten your glutes and keep your chest and hips moving as a unit and keep your arms relaxed, this is a lower body movement with shoulder blade stability, don’t attempt to lift the kettlebell with your arms!
Do 10–20 reps to begin with.
5. Kettlebell Snatches
Kettlebell snatches are a great exercise because they significantly increases strength using the muscles groups that every swimmer will need to workout. The core is needed for swimmers to build control for more streamlined movements; the shoulders and the back are needed for power and endurance for each stroke. The exercise will also strengthen your glutes, hamstrings, and hips. These are needed for most all swimming styles that you can think of. Snatches using a kettlebell are simple yet dynamic enough to target these muscles. All you need is at least one kettlebell to perform this exercise. You may substitute for a simple dumbbell if one is not available.
Directions:
Place the kettlebell on the floor right in front of your feet. Then lift the weight vertically till it is above your head. You must make sure that it is done in a straight vertical line from between your feet till it is just above your head. As it goes near head level, lift it upward using your palms. Remember to execute each lift while flexing the knees and the hips just as you are pulling the bell weight up. As for your arm movement, one must keep it as one smooth movement. Think of it as if you pulling an arrow on a tight bow. One needs to keep these details in mind for this dry-land swim workout to give you the best strength building results in the shortest amount of time.
Do 10–15 reps each side.
Jamie Lloyd
