Articles and Videos
3 Myths About Butterfly
There are a lot of myths about butterfly. Here's the truth about the stroke.
Can I Swim with a Tampon?
Some people still don’t realize that it’s 100% A-OK to swim while you have your period. In fact, being physically active during menstruation may help alleviate cramps and other symptoms.
Unconventional Ways to Use Swim Equipment
Swimmers and coaches are masters of adaptation, constantly discovering creative ways to make the most out of their tools. Here are some unconventional ways to use your swim equipment. These tricks can challenge your skills, break up monotony, and might even help you nail a technique issue.
Why One-Stroke-Cycle 25s Are the Key to Swimming Faster
The subtle transition from underwater to top-of-the-water swimming is your breakout. Breakouts occur after your start and turns and are important because after your start and turns, you’re traveling as fast as you’ll ever be during your race. If you can maintain some of that speed, you can drastically improve your times. If you have bad breakouts, you’re leaving speed on the table. Remember, it’s a lot easier to maintain speed than it is to accelerate to it. One-stroke 25s can help you improve your breakouts.
Is Your Mid-Back Causing Your Shoulder Pain When Swimming?
What is thoracic mobility and why it is important for swimmers?
How to Make Your Swim Workout a Mood Booster
If you’ve been feeling stressed, anxious, or just plain down in the dumps, you’re not alone. The world is a lot right now, and many of us are fighting to just keep our heads above water when it comes to mental health.
How Swimming Shapes Your Body
If you’re looking to strengthen and tone all your muscles and perhaps even drop a few pounds, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better way to achieve those goals than by adding swimming to your fitness routine.
Why Sensory Deprivation Tanks Can Improve Your Swimming
Sensory deprivation tanks, also known as float tanks or isolation tanks, are enclosed pods filled with warm water and a high concentration of Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate), that allow you to float effortlessly.
How Swimmers Can Keep Glute Pain From Hurting Their Swimming
Ever have a literal pain in your butt?
Why Swimmers Need to Use a Logbook to Optimize Their Training and Performance
When you started swimming, personal bests came to you regularly, whether it was monthly, weekly, or even daily. You might have looked at that improvement and thought it would go on like that forever. But it didn’t. When searching for answers, you might have come across a fitness tracker to start recording your sessions, to look for some reason why those improvements don’t just keep coming with the extra work. Looking at the data for intensity (intervals) or volume (yards swum in a session) tells you some things but doesn’t paint the whole picture. Other elements go into your performance and keeping a record of not just workouts but many of the other variables can help you make sense of the data. Here are a few of the key variables that you may want to keep in a swim log to help guide you to better results.
Four Exercises to Alleviate Hip Pain
Terry (not her real name) was out for her usual weekend open water swim when her hip suddenly tightened up.
Why You Need to Buddy Up for a Sustainable Swimming Habit
It’s often said you should never swim alone, and while that’s typically intended as a safety mantra, there are other reasons that finding a partner or group to train with can help you build a more sustainable swimming habit. Here are four key ways that buddying up can improve your ability, fitness, enjoinment, and commitment to swimming.
What Muscles Are Used in a Swimming Workout?
Exercise is good for your body in many ways, but one of its biggest benefits comes from how it strengthens muscles. In fact, swimming just might be the best exercise for building strength throughout your entire body because it’s low-impact—meaning there’s less stress on your joints—while offering consistent resistance from the water.
The Skills and Drills Needed for Your Breaststroke Pullouts
Pullouts are a difference-maker. I’m sure you’ve seen a swimmer completely dominate their pullouts and beat another swimmer who was a superior breaststroker. The opposite can be true as well—great breaststrokers can lose races on inferior pullouts. Pullouts can be major advantage or disadvantage depending on your skills.
Should I Use Ice or Heat for Sore Swimming Muscles?
Here’s some of the research available on the topic, to find what works best and when.
What Are the Markings on the Bottom of the Pool For?
Competition pools have markings on the bottom and walls and in the lane lines. Most competitive swimmers learn what and where these are, but if you’ve never competed or are new to swimming, you might not know how to make best use of these markings to produce your fastest swims.
Can I Swim After a C-Section?
C-sections carry a higher risk of complications, such as infection, because they’re major surgical procedures. Loss of blood, blood clots, and injuries to the bowel, bladder, and other abdominal structures can also arise.
Use Your Head to Fix Your Body Position and Alignment
Your body position, which is affected by your head position, will determine how fast you can swim.
Busting 3 Triathlon Swim Training Myths
Many new triathletes believe that if they have a high level of fitness and endurance from another sport, that it carries over to swimming. But if you don’t have a swimming background, the experience of hopping into even a sprint triathlon swim can be quite an eye opener. Even experienced pool swimmers have had this experience and found it unsettling.
