- Why do swimmer's tend to have the same type of posture?
- What causes these posture imbalances?
- Doesn't this posture help them swim faster?
- What can swimmers do to improve their posture?
Swimming develops strong muscles of the chest, back, arms, and shoulders but not the deep postural muscles of the hips and torso. Because swimmers don't support their body weight against gravity while swimming the postural muscles and stability muscles get weaker over time.
The classic swimmer's posture of thoracic flexion, rounded shoulders, and forward head are the main cause of swimmer's shoulder and the associated rotator cuff injuries, tendonitis, and degeneration. The better a swimmer's thoracic posture, shoulder position, scapular position, and head position is, the less likely they will get swimmer's shoulder.
- Why do swimmer's tend to have the same type of posture? Swimmers spend a lot of time swimming and little time doing other workouts. This creates muscle imbalances and a swimmer's classic poor posture.
- What causes these posture imbalances? Swimming develops the muscles of the chest, back, shoulders, and arms without developing the deep posture and stability muscles of the pelvis, hips, and spine.
- Doesn't this posture help them swim faster? No. This posture makes swimmers slower and increases their chance of injury.
- What can swimmers do to improve their posture? Get out of the pool, work on specific posture exercises to correct imbalances, and spend more time running, jumping, and building hip and spine strength.