Fitness, Health and Wellness

 Importance of Strength Training The goal of any competitive swimmer is to become the fastest you can possibility be. It is also no secret that strength training for swimmers is crucial aspect to helping you achieve that goal and be ahead of your competitors. Here are three reasons why swimmers should consider hitting the weight room: Improve Swimming Performance While swimming is done in the pool, a well-designed strength program will help you fill the potential gaps in your performance. Strength training helps with laying a foundation in strength and power that gets you pushing through the water faster. Improve Body Awareness Strength training requires focus, coordination, balance and stability.  This is likely to translate to an increase in your swimming performance. It will also help you be more in-tune with your body and move more effectively and efficiently. Reduce Injury Strength training can target underdeveloped muscles. It will help relieve the demand on those muscles that are over worked and stressed in the water. Having stronger muscles can also put less stress on the joints, tendons, and ligament areas, thereby reducing the rate of injury. Which Muscles to Work On The best strength training for swimmers involves strengthening your core, pectoral muscles, quadricep muscles and the latissimus dorsi. These are the main propulsive muscles used during swimming. When it comes to competitive swimming workouts, we want to ensure to target these muscles when deciding on a program to stick to. Core Muscles Building a strong core is essential to any swimmer. Without a strong core, you will be unable to hold yourself on top of the water, creating unwanted drag. The best swimming workouts will prioritize strengthening your core, which will help transfer strength and power from the gym floor into the pool. A strong core, you will will enable a better transfer of energy from the core to the pull, and kick, components of your stroke. Pectoral Muscles This is just another term for your chest muscles, more commonly known as your “pecs”. The muscle plays an important part in both freestyle stroke and the breaststroke. It not only helps to stabilize your strokes, but also contributes a large amount of strength to your propulsion. Latissimus Dorsi This muscle group is commonly referred to as “lats” and are your middle back muscles. They play a large role in your ability to pull, which is essential to swimmers. You will use these muscles from point of entry into the water all the way until your hand is just past your chest, at which point your pull becomes dominated by your triceps. Quadriceps Muscles Quadriceps are commonly known as your “quads” and are the group of muscles in the front upper part of your legs. Their main purpose is to jump and kick. Though kicking only plays a small role in freestyle, in other strokes such as the backstroke and butterfly kicking plays an important role. Hence, quads help you improve on the kick component. Importance of Recovery Recovery after weight training should be given an equal amount of importance; that is if you want to improve and become a better swimmer. The faster and more efficiently you recover, the stronger your body will be. During recovery, your body repairs the “damage” you’ve done during your strength workout or swim training. The recovery period is when you finally reap the benefits of all your training.  For swimmers, active recovery is especially important and is a way of keeping your blood moving to transport nutrients into muscles and waste products out of muscles. SPRYNGs active compression solution is a great investment to take your recovery routine to the next level. If you have ever wondered how to recover sore muscles, SPRYNG does the job.  The device helps to reduce lactic acid build up and increases oxygenation to your tissues. This means the recovery period needed by your body between your training sessions is shorter. To find out more about the science behind SPRYNG click here.

The global lockdown may have compelled you to stay at home. However, that does not mean you can just neglect your general health and wellbeing. Keeping fit and healthy by working out at home is imperative at a time like this, and it will benefit your immune system.   From building cardiovascular fitness to strengthening your muscles, here are four simple and practical CrossFit workouts you can try out at home. Core and Leg Burners With this workout, you are guaranteed to maintain your legs and core for any physical activity, even after the lockdown has ended. Set a mat down, fill a water bottle, and do the following set 10 times: 20 lunges 20 air squats 20 mountain climbers 20 sit-ups or crunches Experiencing CrossFit beginner soreness, where your body muscles hurt, is one great indicator to show that you have done the workout properly. If you want to take it up a notch, time the entire session and see if you can do it faster the next time. Complete Upper Body Equal importance should be given to improving your upper body strength as well. The following upper body workout is a timed workout, which totals up to 16 gruelling minutes: 8 burpees 8 push-ups 16 pull-ups 16 hanging knee tucks or sit-ups Completion of all the exercises in order amounts to one round. The objective is to complete as many rounds as possible within the 16-minute time limit. This is alternatively called an AMRAP workout (As Many Rounds As Possible). You might find it difficult to keep count of the rounds you do after a little while. A simple solution is to have a partner count it for you, or use a whiteboard to jot down each round completed. Quick Full Body The following 20-minute AMRAP workout is just the routine you need to follow for a good full-body workout. Just make sure you have plenty of water and maybe even an energy bar. 21 jumping air squats 15 push-ups 9 Burpee pull-ups (Grab the pullup bar at the top of the burpee jump and finish the pullup) Make sure you pace yourself and count the number of rounds you complete, so you can challenge yourself the next time you do it. An Aerobic Mix Perform eight rounds of the following routine as fast as you can, with a maximum rest of 10-15 seconds to hit your aerobic threshold. 10 push-ups 10 air squats 10 burpees 10 air squats You could challenge yourself by timing the routine. Once you get the hang of it, you can increase the intensity and try to finish the routine faster than the previous attempt. Recovery Recovery is an important element that has to be incorporated into any workout. If you are a beginner or have done your first major virtual CrossFit competition, chances are that you have experienced body soreness. You must have started asking questions like “why do my legs hurt so much after working out?”, “how to recover from CrossFit soreness?”, or even “what to do for recovery after CrossFit competition?”. Do not worry, many a home remedy for leg pain and body soreness can be found. The primary element for CrossFit soreness recovery at home is warm down and stretching. This is important since it helps the muscles flush out excess lactic acid, preventing any stiffness and future injury. Combine massaging techniques as well to reduce swelling in legs. Home remedies that include the use of CrossFit recovery tools can help keep the muscles loose too. SPRYNG is one such recovery tool that aids in flushing out lactic acid stored in the muscles. Its active compression helps prevent the pooling of blood in the legs, aiding in smoother blood flow and faster recovery. Remember though, the best effect of SPRYNG is used in conjunction with a good warm down stretch. All in all, you can still maintain an active and healthy lifestyle at home by following these simple CrossFit workouts. Couple that with simple warm down stretches and home remedies for recovery, and you do not have to worry about injuries either.