Top 10 Types of Cross Training for Swimmers to Boost Speed & Stamina

Swimming is a challenging sport that demands a lot from an athlete's body physically and mentally. Swimmers often face intense competition at meets. Between races, they must stay focused and calm while preparing their bodies for the next event. It's no wonder that many swimmers suffer from performance anxiety. The good news is that a strategic cross-training routine for swimmers can help. If you're wondering how to increase athleticism in the water, cross-training offers a powerful way to build strength, flexibility, and endurance outside the pool. In this article, we'll explore how cross-training for swimmers can help reduce performance anxiety, allowing them to stay more relaxed and perform better when it matters most.
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Why Should Swimmers Cross-Train?

Swimming is an excellent form of exercise. It offers a full-body workout that builds strength, endurance, and cardiovascular fitness. To reach peak performance and avoid injury, swimmers can benefit significantly from incorporating cross-training into their routines. 

To improve swimming performance, cross-training involves engaging in different exercises to: 

• Enhance overall fitness
• Prevent overuse injuries
• Improve specific aspects of swimming performance

Correct Muscle Imbalances With Cross-Training

Swimming utilizes a wide range of muscles, but certain groups are used more consistently than others, and different strokes require strength in various muscle groups. Cross-training can be used to isolate specific muscle groups within an athlete. 

For example:

• Surfing improves core strength for swimmers. Abdominal strength gained through surfing benefits swimmers in maintaining their body line in all strokes and strengthening dolphin kicks off walls and in butterfly. 
• Dryland training can help isolate muscle groups, including the lats used heavily in freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly, through exercises like pull-ups. 
• Taking up boxing to complement swim practices or incorporate it into a dryland workout can help isolate swimmers’ shoulders. Boxing motions, including roundhouse, uppercuts, and windmills, can help gain shoulder strength and mobility, and imitate arm rotation in swimming.

Cross-Training Helps Swimmers Prevent Injuries

Swimming can sometimes be a monotonous endeavor that wears down muscle groups. Cross-training can help create variety within swimmers’ routines and strengthen frequently used muscles like shoulders and lats. 

Yoga is one form of cross-training that is particularly useful in preventing injuries. Stretching out muscles and joints before or outside practices can lower swimmers’ chances of experiencing: 

• Muscle strain
• Pulled muscles
• Muscle tears

Train Around Pain: How Cross-Training Aids Injury Recovery Without Sacrificing Fitness

Cross-training can also lead athletes to use different muscles than those frequently used in swimming, lowering the wear and tear of these tissues and the chances of a repetitive strain injury resulting from overuse. 

Injured athletes can also use cross-training to maintain their physical fitness while unable to swim a full practice. Swimmers with a shoulder or upper body injury might benefit from alternative training like running or biking. Still, an athletic trainer or coach should always be consulted when using cross-training while injured.

Using Cross-Training For Recovery

Cross-training methods can be helpful to swimmers who are recovering from hard practices. Surfing, running, and yoga allow swimmers to recover and drain lactic acid after a workout. These activities can be taken at an athlete’s desired pace, and can therefore be used as a type of extended warm-up. 

In a 2019 interview with Swimming World magazine, Olympic hopeful Michael Andrew said he picked up surfing as an additional workout and form of liberation from the pool. Participation in cross-training can help swimmers to wind down from intense practices and meets and find a form of exercise that isn’t as mentally taxing as their primary sport.

Improve Overall Fitness

Cross-training offers swimmers a range of physical benefits when complementing, rather than replacing, regular swim practices. Activities like yoga and surfing build core strength; boxing enhances rotation and mobility; and running or biking improves cardiovascular endurance. Team sports such as soccer and water polo can develop mobility and reinforce commonly used muscle groups. 

Dryland training and weightlifting are among the most popular methods due to their: 

• Adaptability
• Supporting aerobic capacity in younger swimmers
• Building targeted power in older athletes

Weight training, particularly beneficial for swimmers over 15 or 16, allows muscle group isolation to support stroke-specific performance. When integrated mindfully, cross-training boosts fitness, supports recovery, and prevents burnout, helping swimmers stay strong in and out of the water.

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Top 10 Types of Cross-Training for Swimmers

Many types of cross-training can benefit a swimmer’s performance. Listed below are some of our favorites.

1. Land and Dry-Land Training: The Basics of Cross-Training for Swimmers

Land and dry-land training is one of the most basic and effective forms of cross-training for swimmers. Cross-training allows swimmers to target specific muscle groups and develop strength, flexibility, and endurance. Land or dry-land training encompasses many different forms of exercise, including: 

• Body-weight exercises
• Stretching
• Circuit training

These are especially useful for introducing younger swimmers to cross-training. As the swimmer matures and strengthens, equipment such as resistance bands can be added to their land/dry-land training program. Only when swimmers become older, post-puberty, should they be encouraged to perform weight training.

2. Weight Training for Swimmers: Do’s and Don’ts

Weight training is the most common form of cross-training for swimmers to increase their strength and power for swimming. Weight training should only be performed with care. Swimmers should ensure they only perform weight training with the correct technique, as poor weight training techniques could lead to injury. They should also ensure that before weight training, they warm up correctly. 

Swimmers should only start weight training at 14 to 15, ideally with a qualified coach or instructor. Focus on the main swimming muscles. A swimmer’s land/dry-land and weight training programs should focus on developing the five main muscle groups used during swimming, which are listed below. 

Latissimus dorsi (Lats)

The latissimus dorsi muscles (‘lats’) are in the middle of the swimmer’s back. Their primary swimming function is to enable the swimmer to pull effectively during the front end of the arm stroke, from the hand entry until it is level with their chest.

Lats Development Exercises

Pull-ups are the most common and one of the most effective exercises for building a swimmer’s lats. Swimmers should perform pull-ups using a bar high enough to reach with their feet off the floor.

They then grasp the bar with both hands and pull themselves up until their chin is above the bar's level.

Triceps muscles (‘Tri’)

The triceps muscles (‘tri’) are the muscles in the back part of the swimmer’s upper arm, opposite their bicep. Their primary swimming function is to finish the pull during the freestyle stroke, backstroke, and butterfly, allowing the swimmer to effectively push the hands and arms from the chest to the hips.

Tri Development Exercises

There are several practical tri-development exercises.

• One of the best bodyweight exercises is an arm dip, in which participants use a chair for support as they lower themselves toward the floor.
• The swimmer grasps the front corners of the chair, one in each hand, behind them.
• They then position themselves so that their arms are vertical and straight.
• The swimmer then performs a series of dips by bending their elbows at a ninety-degree angle.
• They should lower their body until they are almost touching the floor with their buttocks.
• The best weight training exercise is a seated dumbbell press.

Pectoral muscles (‘Pecs’)

The pectoral muscles (pecs) are the muscles in the swimmer’s chest. They are essential in both freestyle and breaststroke, helping to provide a stable platform for an effective stroke.

Pec Development Exercises

There are several effective pecs development exercises.

• One of the best bodyweight exercises is the standard press-up.
• A great weight training exercise is the bench press.

Core muscles (‘abs’)

The core muscles (abs) are the muscles in the swimmer’s abdomen. They ensure the swimmer’s body is supported and stabilised, to help enable the swimmer’s body to be correctly aligned and to perform specific swimming drills and skills effectively.

Core Development Exercises

Swimmers should perform core development training exercises like crunches and planks in their dryland/land training programme.

Related Article on Developing Your Swimming Core

We have produced a related article on developing your swimming core. You can view it by clicking this link: developing your swimming core.

Quadriceps Muscles (‘Quads’)

The quadriceps (quads) are the group of muscles in the front upper part of the swimmer’s legs.

They Provide Power to a Swimmer’s Legs

• The quads perform an essential function in the propulsion generated from the leg kick
• They also perform an essential function during the starts and turns.

Quads Development Exercises

There are several exercises for effectively developing a swimmer’s quadriceps. These include: 

• Lunges
• Squats
• Box jumps 
• Jumping squats

3. Water Polo: The Sport That Benefits Swimmers

Water polo is a natural complement to swimming, offering unique benefits beyond traditional lap training. While it builds endurance through constant movement and treading, one of its key advantages is simply maintaining time in the water. Unlike other forms of exercise, swimming occurs in a distinct environment that alters body mechanics and perception. 

Staying familiar with this aquatic setting, even through play, helps swimmers stay attuned to the feel of the water. Engaging in water-based sports like water polo can reduce mental fatigue by reinforcing a positive, playful association with the pool.

4. Rowing: Why It’s Great Cross-Training for Swimmers

You might not think of putting rowing and swimming in the same exercise category, but the movements and techniques are similar. You’re moving your arms in a comparable motion against a similar resistance (though you can up the resistance level on the rowing machine). 

You can row at a fast speed on your own accord, just as you can swim faster on your own accord, or row more slowly as you’d swim more slowly. Just warm up before hitting the rowing machine, as you’d warm up before setting out to master your laps.

5. High Intensity Interval Training for Swimmers

This fitness trend doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. HIIT, or high-intensity interval training, combines short, intense bursts of exercise with moderate, sometimes low, recovery periods. 

You're burning more fat in shorter periods by keeping your heart rate up high for longer than you’d experience from a more moderate exercise, like light jogging or on the elliptical. This is great for someone used to the bursts of energy expelled during swimming sprints, since it’s a similar aerobic activity.

6. Barre: The Benefits of Dance for Swimmers

You're missing out if you’re a swimmer who hasn’t tried barre. The balance-oriented, resistance training exercise incorporates the movements of classically trained ballet dancers. Why would a swimmer need to take ballet? Well, it's complicated stuff for anyone who hasn’t tried ballet before! 

The movements are tiny and fine-tuned, focusing on smaller muscles you hardly use daily, similar to swimming. Barre can also help loosen your muscles and enhance flexibility, which naturally occurs for swimmers the longer they train in the water.

7. Gymnastics: Why Swimmers Should Take Up This Sport

Believe it or not, gymnastics is the number one sport/activity that benefits swimmers. Like distance runners and dancers, gymnasts have a low body-fat percentage and lean, muscular frames. Gymnasts have excellent core strength from twisting and flipping, which is essential for rotation through the water. Not to mention, ankle and shoulder flexibility are very important for stroke power. Core strength also helps with flip turns, slowing you down more than any part of the lap and giving you a speed boost if done well. 

The tiniest change in body position can make all the difference in a jump or vault. Wouldn’t it be great if your coach said, “Raise your hips and rotate them 20 degrees more with each stroke”, and you could just tell your body to di it? Try gymnastics or dance to understand better where each part of your body is, versus where you think it is. 

8. Football/Soccer Benefits Swimmers

Soccer provides a great full-body workout, focusing primarily on lower body strength. Lower body strength is the key to a powerful kick in the water. It also helps develop quick reflexes, since you are constantly shifting and adjusting position to follow the ball. Quick reaction time is important in swimming for the start of a race and performing efficient flip turns. 

A slow reaction time off the diving board can cost you the race! One massive benefit of using soccer to cross-train is that it puts no strain on your shoulders. Swimming strains the shoulders because of the constant arm rotation, so giving your arms a break while you train is a bonus of soccer.

9. Running: The Benefits of Distance Training for Swimmers

Distance, interval, or hill training is a great way to train for mental and aerobic stamina. Runners tend to have lean, muscular bodies with a low body-fat percentage. This is also ideal for swimming, since both sports require efficiency over bulky muscle mass. 

Running also fosters mental stamina, since it is physically grueling and repetitive, much like swimming. Building mental strength and choosing to keep going after exhaustion will generate discipline in the pool. 

‍Caution: Running can also decrease ankle flexibility, which is essential to kicking well in the water. If your ankles are getting less flexible due to running (or cycling), it may be time to explore other options since this will mess up your swimming!

10. Yoga: Why Swimmers Should Stretch It Out

There are yoga poses and exercises designated specifically for swimmers (to increase flexibility in ankles, shoulders, etc.). But more broadly, consistently practicing yoga a few times a week will increase:

• Overall flexibility
• Bone density
• Body alignment

Bone density and body alignment can become disrupted if you spend too much time in the pool. No gravity impacts your bones (which lets them weaken), and you use your pectoral muscles way more than your back (and legs), so your body is thrown off balance. 

Backstroke helps a little, but yoga can be the key to developing overall body symmetry and restoring that natural balance you’ve been missing. Skeptical? What about breathing? A huge part of yoga is learning to breathe rhythmically. Sound familiar? It’s essential in swimming, too! Like swimming, yoga teaches you to breathe deeply and regularly even when your body is contorted or moving in unnatural positions.

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