Which muscles does swimming exercise?

Swimming is very helpful for muscle training. For example, when we swim, our shoulders will constantly slap the water surface, which is a very good exercise for the shoulder muscles. It can exercise the anterior deltoid muscles and enhance the strength of this part. When we do backstroke, the back sphincter is well exercised and it also has a certain buttocks lifting effect.

We know that aerobic exercise is beneficial for fat loss and body shaping, while anaerobic strength training is beneficial for muscle growth. Swimming is classified as aerobic exercise and is one of the best exercises for weight loss. But in fact, when it comes to swimming, the boundary between aerobic and anaerobic is rather vague. In addition to being one of the aerobic ways to lose weight, swimming can also exercise the muscles in the corresponding parts of the body and promote muscle growth.

The kicking method for freestyle and backstroke is to whip the thighs up and down, only breaststroke uses kicking and clamping. The former can make the legs longer, while the latter breaststroke uses the quadriceps of the thigh more, so it is very effective in strengthening leg strength.

When doing the butterfly stroke, the arms paddle inwards, similar to doing chest expansion exercises. It puts more force on the pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, and shoulders (the anterior, middle, and posterior bundles of the deltoid muscles, especially the posterior bundle), and has the best training effect.

Freestyle and backstroke rely on the thighs to drive the calves to push the water, while butterfly stroke relies on the waist and abdomen to drive the entire lower limbs to do dolphin kicks, so it requires very high waist and abdominal strength and coordination. Butterfly stroke has an immediate effect on the rectus abdominis, so butterfly stroke swimmers often have strong and beautiful abdominal muscles.

When swimming freestyle, although the leg kicking provides a lot of forward momentum, the requirements for the upper arms are higher. The biceps and triceps of the upper arms provide the direct forward force during the swimming process. Therefore, freestyle can effectively exercise the arm muscles. Every time Junyu finishes swimming 1000m freestyle, his arms aches so much that he needs a massage to relax.

Specifically speaking, when doing breaststroke exercises, the main focus is on training leg strength. If you do the butterfly stroke, your chest muscles are strengthened. If you are swimming freestyle, you will mainly train your hip strength, and the biceps and triceps in your upper arms can also be trained. The back muscles are strengthened when doing backstroke. In addition, backstroke can also stretch the back muscles and have the effect of relieving pressure.