Yoga Poses For Swimmers

It is also called dry land by swimmers, as they are exercises performed outside the water to support their work in the pool. Almost all serious swimmers incorporate weight-bearing exercises into their training routine.

Yoga provides many benefits to swimmers. It can improve a swimmer's range of motion. During a yoga practice for swimmers, one should open the front of the body, strengthen the back, and develop body awareness and breathing.

Compared to their back bodies, swimmers' front bodies tend to be overdeveloped, which can cause them to hunch forward.

A series of gentle backbends, twists, and poses that strengthen the core counteract this tightness and help rebalance the body.

5 Beneficial Yoga Poses for Swimmers

As long as you practice yoga regularly, you can improve your swimming performance and decrease your risk of injury. Swimming is similar to yoga in that the entire body is used from the fingers to the toes.

Open shoulders will aid strokes, open hips will help kicks, while the hands and feet help fine-tune the larger movements of the body.  The following yoga sequence is designed specifically for swimmers.

1. Downward Facing Dog

While Downward Dog stretches and strengthens the sides of the body, it also calms your mind and stretches the shoulders. The heart is above the head during downward dog, allowing gravity to increase blood circulation and blood flow.

The pose helps improve posture. Upward dog opens up the chest and shoulders, improving posture by allowing your spine to be aligned and your vertebrae straightened.

2. Upward Facing Dog

While stretching the front of the body and the abdomen, the Upward Facing Dog opens up the shoulders and chest. A back-bending asana in modern yoga as exercise is Upward Facing Dog.

Bhujangasana may be used instead in the widely practiced Surya Namaskar sequence. This pose opens the heart energetically.

You communicate to your body that you are safe and secure when you practice heart-opening poses. When you're feeling threatened or attacked, you may notice that your shoulders hunch and your chest collapses.

3. Bound Angle Pose

Poses like this are great for opening the hips. Swimmers benefit from hip opening poses because swimming tends to tighten the hips.

The inner thighs, groins, and knees are strengthened and made more flexible with this exercise.

Suitable for meditative seated poses that require more flexibility in hips and groins. Soothes digestive issues and menstrual discomfort.

4. Bow Pose

While opening and stretching the front of the body, Bow Pose strengthens the back. In the bow pose, your shoulders are opened from the front, allowing your muscles to release tightness and recline to be reduced, which is beneficial to posture.

Hamstrings and spine are strengthened. Performing the bow pose strengthens the spine flexors and hamstrings, preventing or reducing injuries to the lower back.

5. Hero Pose

Strengthen ankles, knees, and feet by doing the Hero Pose. Sitting on a block is more comfortable for most people.  In this comfortable sitting pose, both lower legs are felt to be balanced.

Swimming muscles need thorough stretching, which yoga can provide. Swimming works the same muscles repeatedly, so if they are not properly stretched before and after a workout, they become tired, tight, and knotty.

Yoga and swimming both aim to draw attention to the inner self. Despite their differences, swimming and yoga are very similar, and they provide great benefits to each other.

Swimming practice can be eased and counterbalanced by yoga, which brings some sweet release to the shoulders and upper back.

Yoga for swimmers concentrates on strengthening the ankles, opening the hips, and strengthening the shoulders. The shoulder blades and hips are also subjected to a lot of pressure in swimming.