SAFETY TIP
Placing the exercise band below the knee can put undue stress on the tendons and ligaments surrounding the knee.
VARIATION
Band Diagonal Shuffle
Adding the diagonal movement will greatly increase the activation of the rectus femoris, which can improve kicking strength across all the strokes. This variation, however, will decrease the activation of the gluteus medius.
Standing Hip Adduction
Execution
1. Stand sideways to a backstroke flagpole with a band fixed to the pole and the ankle closer to the pole. Tighten your core muscles to stabilize your hips.
2. Allow the resistance of the band to pull your leg out to the side.
3. Keeping your knee straight, pull your leg across and in front of the stabilizing leg.
4. Slowly return to the starting position.
Muscles Involved
Primary:Adductor magnus, adductor longus, adductor brevis, pectineus, gracilis
Secondary:Transversus abdominis, external oblique, internal oblique
Swimming Focus
Direct targeting of the adductor muscle group can help the breaststroker increase the strength and stamina of the kick.
When performing the exercise, tightening the core stabilizers and holding the upper body in a tall, upright posture will help to isolate the adductor muscle group. Swimmers who are currently experiencing or have a recent history of knee pain should anchor the resistance band just above the knee.
Inversion and Eversion Ankle Band Strengthening
Execution for Inversion
1. Supporting the foot off the ground, wrap the exercise band around the forefoot so that the resistance is coming from an anchor point to the outside of the foot performing the exercise.
2. Without rotating the knee or hip, pull the toes toward the midline of the body.
3. Slowly return to the starting position.
Execution for Eversion
1. Supporting the foot off the ground, wrap the exercise band around the forefoot so that the resistance is coming from an anchor point to the inside of the foot performing the exercise.
2. Without rotating the knee or hip, pull the toes away from the midline of the body.
3. Slowly return to the starting position.
Muscles Involved
Primary:Tibialis anterior and tibialis posterior (invertors); fibularis longus and fibularis brevis (evertors)
Secondary:Flexor digitorum longus and flexor hallucis longus (invertors); fibularis tertius (evertor)
Swimming Focus
The ankle invertors (tibialis anterior and tibialis posterior) and the ankle evertors (fibularis muscle group) are important stabilizers of the ankle joint. Incorporation of exercises targeting these muscles can help protect the ankle joint by improving its dynamic stability. Strong ankle invertors provide support to the ankle during flutter and fly kicking and help maintain the foot in a slightly inverted position. Strengthening the ankle evertors helps with the positioning of the ankle and foot as the legs are being set for the whip portion of the breaststroke kick. The ankle evertors also provide lateral stability to the ankle, which can help protect against ankle sprains when performing cross-training activities such as running.
CHAPTER 8
WHOLE-BODY TRAINING
This chapter focuses on whole-body exercises that require simultaneous muscle activation from muscles of the upper extremity, core, and lower extremity. Because the previous chapters discussed the specifics of joint and muscle anatomy, muscle actions, and their role in swimming, the focus of this chapter is to describe the importance of whole-body training and the role of these exercises in enhancing swimming performance.
The focus of the previous chapters has been on exercises that isolate a single joint or, through a combination of movements, the joints of the upper extremity or lower extremity. In contrast, the exercises in this chapter integrate the upper and lower extremities during total-body movements, allowing one exercise to link these areas with the core. These exercises involve multiple joints and multiple muscle groups and are therefore very functional, or sport specific.
As the number of joints and muscle groups recruited during an exercise increases, so does the specificity of the exercise. For example, a simple triceps extension isolates one joint, the elbow, and one muscle group, the triceps brachii. Comparatively, the burpee, an exercise described later in this chapter, is a total-body exercise that incorporates movements of the lower extremity and upper extremity and, in turn, multiple muscle groups. The
