Articles and Videos
Build Your Swimming Capacity
Think of capacity as the maximum exertion level you can sustain: your level of conditioning. You can build your capacity. You can improve the physiological adaptations that occur in your body and the mental fortitude you develop. Here’s an upper-body and lower-body circuit to help you improve your capacity.
Cool Down for Longevity and Performance
After a challenging swim workout or a dryland session, cooling down your body and mind can help you avoid nagging aches and pains and help your body transition to recovery mode.
Unlock Your Ankles to Swim Faster
Although your ankles and feet have a small surface area compared to the rest of your body, they can make a large impact if you have good mobility.
Unlock Your Extra Gear in the Water With Power
Here are three upper-body exercises and three lower-body exercises geared toward helping you develop power. Start by completing two rounds of each exercise and then add a third round as you build familiarity with the exercises.
Stabilize Your Body to Swim Better and Happier
Managing your body position is critical if you’re trying to swim efficiently. You could be very strong, but your strength won’t matter much if your hips and legs are sinking.
Build Strength Like an Olympian
Keenan Robinson works closely with the top swimmers in the country in his role as USA Swimming’s director of sports medicine and science, prescribing dryland exercises that will help them reach the top of their sport.
Assess Your Shoulders, Hips, and Ankles to Maximize Your Time in the Water
The start of a year is a great time to assess your strengths and areas for improvement. You can use the information you collect to make meaningful adjustments to your training to help you build strength and prevent injuries over the coming year.
Try This Warm-Up to Maximize Your Workout
Developing an effective dryland workout requires assessing your needs and performing exercises that improve your mobility, power, strength, and stability.
How to Learn Dive Starts
If you’re new to swimming or have never competed but would like to try, you might be wondering how to learn a dive start. In Masters competitions, you’re not required to dive—you can start from in the water. But learning new skills keeps everything fun and interesting. if you decide you’d like to learn to dive in, there are some things to know first.
What Swimmers Need to Know About Paddles
If you’ve considered getting paddles, you’ve undoubtedly discovered that there are a variety of different sizes, and styles.
How Can I Get Water Out of My Ears?
There are several ways you can try to drain water that’s gotten trapped in your ear canal, and generally starting with the least invasive option is best, as the inside of the ear is a delicate place that can be injured easily.
How to Get Over a Fitness Plateau
Adopting a new workout or training routine can be exciting, especially when you first get going. If you’re new to swimming, you’ll likely see results soon after you’ve established some consistency, and before long, you’re crushing goal after goal. You’ve gotten fitter and faster, and it seems there’s no limit to how much better you can get.
3 Myths About Flip Turns (and the Truths Behind Them)
Here's what you need to know about flip turns.
Three Simple Ways To Prevent Shoulder Pain When Swimming
When it comes to preventing shoulder injuries, it’s important to nail the basics first.
Coping With Cold
Winter swimming outdoors is a chilly affair. If you’re planning to keep swimming as the mercury falls, plan ahead to help ensure you’re not getting too cold and putting yourself or your training partners in danger.
FOOSH Happens
Caroline Stanistreet had to shift her competitive focus to recovery after falling on her outstretched hand.
What to Do If You're Not Feeling It
When you're in a workout and you're just not feeling it, you're likely wondering whether you should just get out or keep pushing through. Spoiler alert: Few coaches we talked to say that packing it in is your best choice.
Ask the Coach: Jacky Merianos
Swimmers need to mimic race conditions if they want to swim well in meets.
From the Center Lanes: David Zimmerman
While swimming at a pool without a pace clock, David Zimmerman had trouble gauging his pace on hard sets. He says this led him to use a FINIS Tempo Trainer “to help me figure out how fast I was going,” something that still helps him today.
To Swim Better, Stop for a Minute
Regularly taking a moment or two in between all these things to ask yourself how you’re doing can help you stay connected to your workouts and your motivation—and maybe even yourself and your teammates.
