Swimming with Kettlebells

Evolution tells us that during the Devonian period, approximately 400 million years ago, we left the water.

Now, in modern times, a lot of us have returned. Swimming is Australia's national sport. It would be "un-Australian" to not know who Dawn, Thorpedo and the Missile are.

As much as I hate to admit it, as an Osteopath, I see issues with endless squad swimming.

We are now land-based mammals. Swimming is a step backward movement-wise. We left the water. Human swimmers are returning to it.

The benefits of hydro activity - warmth, low impaction, whole body exercise and breathing against pressure are fantastic – but walking is a more sophisticated form of locomotion.

Swimmers present to my clinic with unusual postures. Modern humans are best with standing, squatting or lying down. Swimming requires prone or supine positions for extended periods of time, doing repetitive actions. It’s not how we have evolved to be. Kyphotic thoracic cages and hypermobile shoulders appear to be the norm for many squad swimmers.

Overuse syndromes
All of the swimming strokes employ repetitive shoulder activity. Repetition can lead to overuse injuries.

Butterfly swimmers tend to have lumbar and sacral issues from a dolphin style kick.

Breaststrokers are notorious for medial knee ligament strains from doing a frog leg kick that is knee dominant over hip dominant.

Front Crawl swimmers are famous for shoulder problems. The glenohumeral joint sacrifices stability for mobility.

Freaky athletes produce freaky results by doing something different to the rest – and if it’s an unorthodox technique – sometimes their body pays the price. I’ve treated many amazing athletes who can generate incredible power from their limbs – but if it’s biomechanically straining on the body, they can eventually find themselves booked-in for surgery.

Outer Space and the spine
I see a lot of similarities between squad swimmers and astronauts! Both spend extended periods of time in a gravity-free or micro-gravity environment. When astronauts return to Earth after a prolonged time in space they are literally carried from the capsule. What’s more most astronauts get crippling back pain and even intervertebral disc herniations after extended time in space.

The human body is now adapted to be in terrestrial environment, and our bodies require the constant presence of gravity to exist. Science has shown us that our small interspinal muscles waste away in a micro or gravity free environment. Atrophy these and you get back pain. Other research has shown these small muscles act "dormant" in subjects with chronic back pain.

Because swimmers do the bulk of their training in microgravity environment I find their small interspinal muscles can be unusually weak. This is an issue for several reasons:

1. There is the potential for musculoskeletal pain. The body responds to pain first and foremost. You can’t compete at your best if you are in constant pain.
2. Poor interspinal spinal stability affects power generation. The arms and legs work off the body. A weak torso means you cannot generate the same amount of repetitive forces required to swim fast and win.

A leak in the pool
Swimming is more than just moving forward. A huge part of the events is the turning. If you have a weak torso, especially a weak lateral core, you will get strength leakages every time you turn. These slow you down, waste energy and result in lower amounts of force being maintained.

Kettlebell training builds a strong corset assisting the appendages, which work off the body.

The kettlebell solution
I have been training a squad of junior swimmers with a thirty-minute group kettlebell session once a week. Kettlebells are great. They allow for novel movements that are performed in a gravity environment. With kettlebells you can move joints through full ranges of movement.

I use kettlebell training with my swimmers to:

1. Promote evolved human motion
2. Strengthen bones and soft tissue structures in a load-bearing environment (difficult to do in an aqua environment)
3. Mitigate repetition based kinetic issues
4. Strengthen spinal musculature
5. Promote hip mobility and strength in the three planes of movement (often limited with specialist swimmers)
6. Restore better standing, squatting and lying down posture
7. Develop spatial strength
8. Develop dynamic strength
9. Develop strength endurance

As already mentioned, you may be a great swimmer, but if your turns are poor, you’ll get left behind. If you don’t explode from the blocks at the start you’ll be playing catch-up. I use kettlebells to strengthen the lower body (goblet squats), develop lateral core strength (bottoms-up kettlebell carries) and even promote balance and spatial awareness with Turkish get-ups.  Just doing these three exercises alone will make you a better swimmer.

Kettlebell training programs can be structured to be highly aerobic – so there are no worries about bulking up. Or you can use heavier poundages to build strong real-world strength.

Kettlebell training also works well in a squad-type training environment: each athlete has their own two Pro Grade kettlebells and methodically works through the session with their teammates.

To be a better, injury free athlete and swimmer - look to add at least one kettlebell training session to your training per week.  Swim hard, smart and as a modern primitive!

Dr. Aaron Anderson
Sport Scientist
Osteopath
www.movementsquared.com