Swim England Members
Posture exercises for swimmers
April 18, 2020If you find your joints are stiff or muscles tight on a day-to-day basis, try these simple posture exercises for swimmers to help your body stay healthy away from the pool.
Whether it be studying, watching TV or zoning out on our mobile phones, our daily routine usually involves prolonged times where we’re sitting down.
Spending some time every day stretching out muscles prone to tightness, and waking up our core muscles, can be really beneficial.
Three gentle curves in the spine
Our spines naturally have three gentle curves.
In the lower back you have a lordosis, where the spine curves inwards. In the middle back, there’s a curving outwards called a kyphosis. And in the neck there is another lordosis.
These curves are really important to help our spine absorb shock so simply trying to be aware of these curves and trying to imagine a lengthening spine can really help you improve your posture.
It’s a bit more difficult to maintain the spinal curves when sitting but still really important.
Make sure whatever position you’re in, that you’re trying to keep your spine in a good alignment and don’t forget to get up and move regularly. If your phone or watch is telling you stand and have a walk around, it’s for good reason!
Our joints like to move. So even if you’re in a good position, make sure you are moving frequently.
Posture exercises
Swim England zonal physiotherapist Karen Chapman has produced a video talking about the importance of the spine, and a simple exercise routine you can do at home, which will help maintain a healthy posture.
Make sure you are wearing something comfortable that you can move in, grab a small towel and, if you have them, an exercise mat and foam roller.
The exercises start at 1:09 in the video below.