Land Conditioning
It is recommended that all older swimmers (10+ years old) undertake land conditioning work using their own body weight with senior swimmers (14+ years old) also incorporating medicine ball activities. The recommended routines will complement your swimming and should only take around 30 minutes per day to carry out, including warm up. Note, these exercises are not intended to and will not result in you building excessive muscle and becoming "muscle bound". Rather, these exercises will improve your ability to swim with good technique as you fatigue. They will lead to you swimming faster for less effort! In addition, and probably more importantly, these exercises will be beneficial in reducing the risk of injury which can come about due to the repetitive nature of swimming. The muscles used for swimming are very specific and can, over time, lead to imbalances in strength, endurance and flexibility in certain muscle groups. These imbalances can lead to injury especially in the shoulder region. The recommended exercises will address this issue.
Senior Swimmers Aged 14 and Over
The links below take you to the recommended routine for each day. On the linked page you will find the order in which to carry out each exercise plus a short video demonstration of the exercise. Note that you will need to have the free QuickTime and Flash players installed to view the videos. If the videos fail to play you can download QuickTime from here and Flash from here. Where appropriate there are also comments to clarify any key points about the exercise. Please remember that, like swimming itself, it is extremely important to carry these exercises exactly as described/shown. You will reduce the benefits of the exercise if you cheat.
Each session should begin with a warm-up to increase blood flow etc. The recommended warm-up is included on each session page.
Please select one of the links below to view the routine for a particular day. Note that no session is given for Tuesday since all senior swimmers should attend the club session at Ulverston Leisure Centre.
Monday - Abdominal & Back Circuit
Tuesday - Land Session at the Tennis Centre 6.30 to 7.30pm
Friday - Abdominal & Back Circuit
Saturday - Medicine Ball Circuit
Junior Swimmers Aged 10 to 13
Junior Swimmers should undertake a series of reduced routines using only their own body weight and light rubber tubing, if available. The recommended routines can be found here. Directions on how to carry out the exercises is included in the videos above.