Sustaining Strength

Competitive Swim | July 28, 2017

Do you often feel sluggish right in between seasons? You know you need to take a break from the pool, but you need to keep your strength for next season. What are you supposed to do? There is nothing worse than going into the upcoming season with muscle soreness and fatigue so you need to focus on maintenance!

One way to sustain your strength for next season is to hit the gym! This is the most obvious way to incorporate many strength exercises into your routine. If you are satisfied with simply maintaining, you won’t need to exert much energy to build. There are many exercises that you can complete that use only your body weight like pushups and lunges. If you are focusing on building and getting stronger, there are many compound strength training exercises such as squats, deadlifts, etc.

If you aren’t familiar with the gym and you aren’t sure what to do, stick with what you know. It’s important you do exercises you are familiar with so you can minimize any risk of injury. Performing exercises with the proper technique is one of the most important parts about training. If you aren’t, you can cause serious damage to your body and joints. I return, this could put you out for a week or more!

As always, stretching is such an important activity that everyone should be doing. It helps loosen tight muscles and increases flexibility. Remember not to stretch cold muscles and hold the stretch for about 20 seconds. This will also help your recovery time, so you don’t miss a workout!