This is an excellent all-around exercise for learning how to engage the abdominal muscles in a manner that will carry over to better maintenance of proper hip and low back positioning during all four strokes and when streamlining off starts and turns.
V-Up
Execution
1. Lying face up in a streamlined position, stabilize your core by tightening the abdominal musculature.
2. In unison, bring your arms forward and lift your legs until your hands are able to touch your feet.
3. Slowly reverse the movement, stopping when your hands and feet are just above the ground. Then repeat.
Muscles Involved
Primary:Rectus abdominis (upper and lower fibers)
Secondary:External oblique, internal oblique, transversus abdominis, serratus anterior, rectus femoris, iliopsoas
Swimming Focus
This exercise targets and strengthens the rectus abdominis through a wide range of motion, making it a useful exercise for freestylers or backstroke swimmers who are trying to improve the speed of their flip turns. Emphasizing the tight streamlined position after each repetition will benefit all strokes. When initiating the movement, avoid swinging your hands up and down to generate momentum; this is a form of cheating. The exercise can be made more challenging by holding the streamlined position with the hands and feet just off the ground for 3 to 4 seconds after each repetition.
Flutter Kicks
Execution
1. Lie on the floor with your arms at your sides and tighten the abdominal muscles to set your core.
2. Lift your shoulders 4 inches (10 cm) off the ground and your feet 12 inches (30 cm) off the ground, making sure to keep the low back in a neutral position.
3. Hold this position and flutter kick for 60 seconds or until you are unable to keep the low back stabilized in a neutral position.
Muscles Involved
Primary:Rectus abdominis (lower fibers), rectus femoris
Secondary:External oblique, internal oblique, transversus abdominis, iliopsoas
Swimming Focus
This is a good exercise to transition to after mastering the hollow hold. As with the hollow hold, the main emphasis should be on keeping the low back in a stable and fixed position. If the low back begins to arch, the abdominal musculature is no longer holding the low back in a stable and fixed position and is being overpowered by the hip flexors. Incorporation of the flutter-kicking motion makes this exercise particularly useful to freestyle and backstroke swimmers.
To avoid relying on the hands to hold the upper body in its curled position, perform this exercise by holding your hands 1 inch (2.5 cm) off the ground.
VARIATION
Streamlined Flutter Kicks
A variation is to hold your arms in an overhead streamlined position. This variation increases the difficulty of the exercise and makes it more specific to swimmers. Because of the increased difficulty, be sure to keep your focus on holding the core tight and maintaining the low back in a neutral position.
Physioball Crunch
Execution
1. Begin in a bridge position with the ball positioned in the middle of your back. Your fingers should be touching but not interlocked behind your head.
2. Raise your shoulders toward the ceiling and bring your chest forward in a crunching motion.
3. Slowly lower your shoulders back to the starting position.
Muscles Involved
Primary:Rectus abdominis
Secondary:External oblique, internal oblique, transversus abdominis, rectus femoris
Swimming Focus
Because the movement begins with the back in an extended position, this exercise strengthens the rectus abdominis through a range of motion not targeted by any of the other exercises listed in this chapter. This feature makes it a valuable exercise for both breaststroke and butterfly swimmers because it contributes to the undulating body movements that occur during both of these strokes.
While performing the exercise, keep your fingers loose behind your head and do not pull your head forward with your hands. Additionally, the positioning of your body on the physioball should remain constant during the entire exercise. If your hips roll back, your shoulders will rise and you will lose the isolation of the abdominal muscles. An easy way to prevent this from happening is to focus on keeping the thighs parallel to the ground.
VARIATION
Physioball Crunch With Trunk Rotation
Incorporation of the twisting motion diverts the focus of this exercise from the rectus abdominis to the internal and external obliques. This exercise is useful in linking the movement of the arms to the movement of the legs in freestyle and backstroke.
Cable Crunch
Execution
1. Kneel on the ground in front of a pulley machine. With your elbows bent, hold the separate ends of a rope pulley handle behind your head.
2. Holding your hips stationary, bend at the waist and crunch your torso downward.
3. Slowly return to the starting position.
Muscles Involved
Primary:Rectus abdominis
Secondary:Serratus anterior, internal oblique, external oblique, transversus abdominis
Swimming Focus
Use of the pulley machine allows this exercise to be performed with variable resistance. As a result, the focus of the exercise can be shifted from endurance to strength simply by altering the weight and number of repetitions performed. The variable resistance offers an advantage when compared with most of the exercises in this chapter, which depend primarily on body weight. The motion performed during the exercise closely mimics the motion performed during a flip turn, but because of the wide range of motion through which the abdominal muscles are targeted and the variable resistance, this exercise is beneficial across all four strokes.
To gain maximal benefit when performing the exercise, emphasize a curling motion, beginning with the upper torso and continuing all the way down to the waistline. When performing the exercise, resist the temptation to pull downward with the hands. Doing this shifts the focus away from the abdominal muscles and places unnecessary stress on the joints and muscles of the neck.
