Sos Penpals

At first, if you want to become a better swimmer, it might be enough to swim regularly and to eat a healthy diet. Once you reach a certain point and become an excellent swimmer, improving your swimming fitness becomes a bit more complicated.

A competitive swimmer needs to excel at several crucial elements: start, turn and speed. A strong start and swift turn demand a high level of power and strength, whereas the race itself requires aerobic endurance which will ensure swimmer’s consistent speed. Shorter races place more value on start and turn, while longer disciplines require superb stamina.

Improving strength

To improve in competitive swimming, your strength training should focus on specific muscle groups. When performing a start or a turn, the strength of quadriceps and gluteus maximus might make the difference that determines the race. A large percent of a swimmer’s power also depends on chest, shoulder and back muscles.

See more information on swimmers’ strength training for detailed advice and the recommended exercises.

Improving endurance

Endurance in the pool depends not only on the fitness of your muscles, but on the proper breathing techniques and ideal pacing as well. It is also very important that your swimming technique is correct. If you are doing something wrong, it is likely that your body will be under unnecessary strain and tire more quickly. Here you can read a detailed guide on how to improve your swimming endurance.

Better Nutrition

Just like other athletes, swimmers need vitamins and minerals to keep the body healthy, proteins to build muscle power, carbohydrates for energy and of course, water to stay hydrated. If your diet isn’t well balanced and healthy, your swimming performance will suffer. Also, keep in mind that even the nutrition before the race can make a difference!

Barefoot running shoes have helped spur a recent surge in the popularity of barefoot-style running. Advocates of barefoot running believe that it is more natural than wearing shoes and therefore likely to prevent many painful foot and leg injuries related to running. Other people object to this idea, pointing out that modern running shoes absorb the impact of each step, therefore reducing stress on your joints while running and doing a better job of preventing injuries. So who is right?

Recently, a study addressing this very question concluded that barefoot shoes may not deliver all the benefits they promise. In the course of the study, people who already ran 15 to 30 miles per day were gradually transitioned to wearing barefoot shoes. After 10 weeks, most of them had developed level 2 or level 3 edema (accumulation of fluid in the foot bones indicating stress and early bone injury). A few runners even had actual stress fractures (level 4 edema). By contrast, the control group for the study, wearing their regular shoes, had level 1 edema, a condition which is considered healthy and indicates that the foot is responding to training.

If you want to try barefoot running shoes, be very careful! Transition slowly, running just a mile or so at first. Also, be aware of the types of surfaces you are running on. Barefoot shoes may be better suited for cross country running on grass or earth rather than city running on hard pavement. If you experience foot pain, switch back to your regular shoes and take a break. Put your feet up and read a good book or play a round of blackjack online for a few days before you get back to running.