Swimming has long been celebrated for its myriad health benefits. People often say that it trains everything. and they’re not wrong. It is mainly a cardiovascular exercise and it improves blood circulation and endurance.
However, a common question persists among fitness enthusiasts and beginners alike: Does swimming build muscle or is it just another Olympic sport?
In this article, we will examine how swimming contributes to muscle development and how it compares to other forms of exercise.
How Swimming Promotes Muscle Growth
To swim, athletes push and pull against the force of water. This resistance creates tiny tears or micro-cuts in the muscle fibers. The body responds to this stress by activating the muscle repair and growth mechanisms. With proper nutrition, the body uses protein to fix the damaged muscle tissue and reinforce it.
There are different swimming strokes, and each targets different muscle groups.
- Butterfly stroke: It is considered the hardest stroke as it requires more muscles to engage. It uses the pectoral muscles, upper traps, biceps, triceps, hips, hamstrings, quads, glutes, calves, and abs.
- Breaststroke: Puts more tension on the chest and shoulders
- Freestyle (front crawl) swimming: It is more of an endurance type of training, putting equal tension on the whole body.
- Backstroke: It primarily hits traps and shoulders as well as hamstrings, quads, and glutes
All muscle needs to grow is resistance, progressive overload, proper nutrition, and the necessary resting. These principles are universally applicable, whether you’re lifting weights or engaging in other forms of resistance training. If any of these ingredients is missing your body will not respond as you would like it to.
So here comes the question. How can you achieve progressive overload while swimming?
Not all swimming strokes put the same stress on the muscles. For example, freestyle swimming puts far less pressure on the muscles than the butterfly stroke. The whole point of muscle building is to make the exercise gradually more difficult. Start with freestyle swimming and once you get strong enough train the butterfly stroke.
You can also use resistance fins to gradually make the exercise more difficult.
Swimming vs Weightlifting for muscle growth
As we mentioned swimming is primarily a cardiovascular exercise. From a physiological standpoint, its main purpose is to burn more calories and not to stimulate muscle growth. While it does build muscle, especially for beginners who are new to the activity, the rate of muscle development is generally slower compared to weightlifting. But that doesn’t end the debate of cardio vs weights.
Just because it doesn’t build as much muscle it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t make you look as good, or even better. To be fair, if your primary goal is to build muscle, weightlifting can’t be beaten. It’s what all the experts advise. But by using resistant tools while swimming you can get the best of both worlds. Strength and insurance combined.
Best Swimming Routine For a Full Body Workout
Before any type of exercise, you should warm up. Only beginners don’t and they face the consequences.
Warm-up
- Do some dynamic stretching to let the blood flow properly and prepare your body for the upcoming physical demands. Ease your body into the exercise, don’t rush!
Routine
- Start with a freestyle swim for 3 lengths of the pool
- 1-minute break
- Continue with 2 lengths of backstroke, to warm up your back muscles
- 1-minute break
- 4 x 2 pool lengths freestyle at a moderate pace with 20 seconds rest between intervals
- 4 x 2 pool lengths breaststroke with 20 seconds rest between intervals
- Freestyle for 2 lengths at the fastest pace you can.
Cool Down
- After resting for 40 seconds do 2 lengths at a slow pace to bring your heart rate down
- Static stretching
And off you go, until the next time.
Keep in mind, that you should pay attention to how you feel, and train at a pace that suits you. Take as long of a break as you need between sets too. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Gradually you will hit your goals.
