Swimming Diet & Extra Exercises

Supplemental exercises and attention to nutrition allow swimmers to meet their own goals, whether simply for fitness, competition or in pounding rough water events. As swim intensity increases, carbohydrates become increasingly important; the right mix of fats, proteins and carbohydrates varies depending on your swim goal. Drills will help you focus on technique and avoid injury.

  1. Identify Your Goals

    • Competitive swimmers focus on technique and increase carbohydrate intake. Rough water swimmers and surfers should emphasize protein and fat for endurance. For weight loss, focus on the intensity of workouts and take into account that many swimmers find that the sport increases tone but may not yield rapid weight loss.

    Choose the Right Fuel

    • If you are going to be performing at higher intensity, you will need to "carbohydrate load" and eat plenty of B-complex vitamins for carbohydrate metabolism. Your body makes glycogen, a carbohydrate, which is stored in liver and muscle and broken down to make glucose for energy.

      Once glycogen stores are depleted, your body will resort to burning fats and ketones, limiting your top speed and power. For endurance events, your body will burn primarily fats. Fat burns in the fire of carbohydrates, so do not avoid carbohydrates entirely.

    Exercises Before Performance

    • Whether you prefer dynamic or static stretching, you will be less likely to injure yourself and get a cramp if you warm up and stretch before swimming. The focus of stretching in swimming should be to stretch the deltoids, pectoral muscles, back, quadriceps, hamstrings and torso.

      To maximize competition performance, taper training in the week or two prior to your competition gradually so that you are doing less exercise and activity right before your training. Your muscles will rest and be primed for explosive performance when it is needed.

    During Performance

    • During performance or practice, focus on maintaining technique. If you feel that your technique is suffering, it is a sign of fatigue. Do not train or exercise with poor technique because you will build bad habits and risk injury.

      Stay hydrated. It is hard to gauge how much you sweat when you are swimming. Most swimmers should drink between 8 and 10 glasses of water a day. Take small sips of water as you train from a water bottle. Fat also requires water to be metabolized.

    After Performance

    • After a high intensity swim, glycogen stores are depleted. Eat small amounts of simple carbohydrates within 20 to 30 minutes, then again within 2 hours to avoid tissue and muscle protein breakdown. It may take days for your body to fully replete glycogen, as stores are limited and excess carbohydrate will be stored as fat. Eating a mixed diet including protein will help repair muscle breakdown.

    Drills

    • In the water or on dry land, do catch-up, high-elbow and distance-per-stroke drills, increasing the distance you take on each stroke, and alternate this with a drill where you swim with closed fists. Scull or tread water to increase hand, forearm and leg strength.

      The fingertip drag drill, in which you swim freestyle and drag your fingers along the surface of the water keeping high elbows to increase the power of each stroke, makes best use of the deltoid, pectoral and latissimus dorsii groups, avoiding the sensitive rotator cuff.

      For rough water practice, raise your head and look forward every four to six strokes to sight an object on the horizon to keep swimming in a straight line.