Improving Your Swimming on Land – 2 Land-Based Drills the Swimmer Can Do to Have Power in the Water!

I want to first grab your attention by saying that strength is the necessary trait for you to perform ANY task! Yes, swimming qualifies as a task. In order to develop strength you have to tension the body. This comes by adding some resistance to the body by you either adding an additional load such as free-weights or by you utilizing your own body-weight. Well, you may be thinking how is this done. I am giving you 2 drills that you can learn and implement with an awesome body-tensing tool known as the kettlebell!

1. The Double-Arm Swing: This is the base lift of the kettlebell. You perform this drill by picking up the weighted bell from between your feet with your stance being slightly wider than shoulder width distance apart in length. From here you will want to keep your shoulders back and your arms straight. Simply “hike” the bell between your legs much like you would do with a football. As you perform a quarter squat to swing the bell back between your legs, then continuously and rapidly snap the hips forward causing the bell to build momentum and swing up to your chest level. From here keep swinging the bell back and forth for the desired number of reps. You will build a tremendous amount of core power, hip power, and shoulder strength by including this lift into your program. All of these muscles are necessary for your success in the water!

2. The Staggered Bell Push-Up: This a simple lift to explain, but executing it is another story. Above I explained the “swing” which is more of a “pull” related movement. Now I am going to give you a “push” related movement to execute. For this exercise simply lay the kettlebell on a flat surface (the floor) and make sure the handle is pointing back at you. Next, simply get into an upright push-up position placing one hand on the round sphere of the bell and one hand on the ground. Make sure your hands are only about shoulder width distance apart. Make certain that your body is straight and rigid. From here execute about 10 to 15 good push-ups and then walk laterally over the kettlebell to place the other hand on it to perform the same drill on the other side. You will quickly feel the benefit of this upper-body and core blasting exercise!