These Are The Best Stretches Before Swimming

Many a morning, I've sat on the pool deck with the rest of my swim team stretching out my muscles before jumping in the water. I used to think this was a pointless activity. But of course, coach knew what she was doing. Stretching before swimming is an essential part of your routine that should never be left out. Stretching improves the mobility of the muscles and joints, ultimately improving your performance in the water. Stretching before swimming helps loosen muscles while encouraging blood flow.

The best stretches to do before swimming target the hard-to-reach muscles that are essential in swimming, increasing flexibility and mobility in the shoulders, torso, hips, legs, and chest, improving your performance overall

If your muscles are tight, it will somewhat limit your swimming potential, making you more prone to injuries in the long run. By stretching and improving mobility, you are able to reduce muscle imbalances, improve your posture, prevent injuries, and allow your muscles to recover fully.

Optimizing your stretching

Different swimming strokes also make use of different muscle groups in different ways, and so if you tend to favor a specific stroke, you will need to focus your stretching on the muscles predominantly used for that stroke.

Freestyle, for example, utilizes the large thigh muscles as well as the chest, back, and shoulder muscles. Butterfly stroke focuses on the abdominals, shoulders, and lower back. Breaststroke makes use of the glutes, chest, and thighs, while backstroke tends to focus on the leg muscles, triceps, and chest.

When looking at the stretches below, ensure that you choose those that are most applicable to you and your swimming style, with an overall focus on increasing flexibility and mobility in the shoulders, chest, hips, and legs.

Let's first take a look at the upper body stretches:

Stretches that work your shoulders, arms and chest

Goal post squeeze & goal post rotation

A goal post squeeze involves raising your arms in front of you, with elbows bent at ninety degrees. To start the stretch, move your arms slowly backward while ensuring you focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together. It's important that you maintain the original angle of ninety degrees.

Return your arms to the beginning position and then repeat the stretch up to fifteen times.

The rotation is very similar to the squeeze. You still want to keep your arms at ninety degrees. The difference is that your arms will be initially pointing a different direction.

Start by raising your arms to your sides, bending your elbows forward and lining them up with your shoulders at ninety degrees. Next, rotate your arms until they are in the goal post position, ensuring you don’t drop your elbows below the shoulders.

Return your arms to their original position and repeat the stretch up to fifteen times.

Tricep Extensions

A tricep extension helps to stretch your tricep while simultaneously warming up the muscles that surround it, including the shoulders and lats. This group of muscles is used with every stroke in the water.

In order to do a tricep extension, bend one arm up over your shoulder and behind your back. Next, place the opposite hand on your elbow. The next step is to push down on your elbow in order to create a stretch in the tricep. Hold the stretch for ten seconds before switching arms.

Now that our upper body is all warmed up, we can move to work on stretching out the torso

Torso stretches

Now that our our arms are warmed up and loose, it's time to move on to taking care of our torso. Swimming involves lots of rotation movements involving, you guessed it, the torso.

Wall Press

Stretching your chest is extremely important for swimming, especially if you are swimming a stroke that focuses on the muscles in the chest, such as backstroke or breaststroke. To start, face the wall in front of you and place the palm of your hand flat against the wall, ensuring your thumb is pointing upward.

The next step is to rotate your torso in the opposite direction to your arm. Keep rotating until you start to feel the stretch in your shoulders and chest. It’s important that you hold this stretch for 15 to 20 seconds while ensuring your palm is firmly pressed against the wall.

Ensure that you repeat this stretch with the other arm.

Straight Arm Swing

The straight arm swing is a simple stretch that requires you to bend one leg slightly further than shoulder-width distance from the other. Bend your knees slightly, lower your head, and put your forearm above the knee of the leg in front.

The next step is to rotate your opposite arm slowly in a full circle the ensure the shoulder joint moves through its entire range of motion. Repeat this exercise with both arms, with reps of around twenty-five.

Cat-Cow

Cat-Cow is a yoga position that helps to stretch out your back and shoulders. Begin the pose with your hands and knees on the floor in a tabletop position. Ensure your knees are directly under your hips and your wrists are under your shoulders.

Start with a neutral spine and ensure your back remains flat while engaging your core. Take a deep inhale. While you inhale, round your spine towards the ceiling while imagining your belly button being pulled up towards the ceiling.

Push your shoulders away from the ground while tucking your chest. Inhale a second time while curving your back inwards and allowing your belly to relax, simultaneously lifting your head and tailbone upwards.

Repeat the entire action above a minimum of ten times.

Lying Twist

The lying twist allows you to stretch out your lower back and obliques while simultaneously opening up your chest. Ensure that both shoulders are flat on the ground throughout the stretch. Extend your arms out to the sides. Take your legs and twist your legs to one side and curl them into a 90 degree position with your knees touching. Hold this position.

If the stretch is too intense, feel free to prop your knees up on a pillow.

The legs

And last but not least, let's finish up with working on stretching the legs.

The hurdler hamstring stretch

This stretch has you seated, to begin with, extending one of your legs straight while keeping the other one bent toward the opposite thigh. The extended foot should be flexed. Next, bring your arms straight and tight to your head, ensuring your position is streamlined.

Hold this position for ten seconds while ensuring you sit up completely straight. Now reach for your foot while stretching your hamstring for another ten seconds. Repeat this stretch around five times and then switch over to the other side.

Standing quad stretch

Quad pulls help stretch your legs to ensure your kick is at its best at all times. In order to perform the quad pull, stand up straight and bend one leg at the knee. Next, grab the bent leg’s foot with your hands. Now hold your foot while ensuring it is parallel with your back. Hold the stretch for ten seconds before moving on to the other side.

Summary

It’s essential not to underestimate the importance of stretching your muscles every time you swim. Not only will a proper stretching regimen boost your flexibility and mobility in the long run, but it will also improve your swimming performance.