Why Stretching Matters

For many swimmers, the thought of stretching prior to dipping into the pool seems useless. The myth behind it, while swimming you are stretching your body out during those first few laps. But stretching is critical prior to every physical workout including swimming. Think of stretching as part of your warmup, you need to wake up your muscles before putting excessive strain on them and the only way to do that is to take a few stances on dry land. Now, before we start the motion of stances, we need to understand that there are two different categories of stretches: dynamic versus static. In a dynamic stretch, you are continuously moving your body which promotes blood flow and increase overall body temperature (especially good for us living in the northern winter hemisphere); these types of stretches can include arm & leg swinging. A static stretch is your typical muscle hold position which creates tension on the muscle strands and promotes an increase range of motion and mobility. But which is better?

According to Olivier Poirier-Leroy, NASM-CPT, a former national-level athlete, Olympic Trials qualifier and certified personal trainer the dynamic stretch category is the way for swimmers to go “pre-workout” as it puts less strain on your body. Post-workout uses the static stretch method to ease the built-up chest & shoulder tightness from the continuous strokes from the pool; vital in avoiding injuries down the line.

Click here to read the full article and to learn how you can improve your swims by including pre/post workout stretches.

— Joe Vitthuhn