Why freestyle swimming

As your arms sweep forward in the water, all your shoulders to drop and take your head under the water once again. If you are looking for swim stroke advantages, there is a lot to love with breaststroke.

For every 30 minutes of swimming breaststroke, you wil l burn approximately calories. Breastroke is considered the easiest stroke to learn, which means you can concentrate on the workout without worrying too much if you are getting your movements just right.

Plus, if you aren't comfortable putting your face in the water, you can still swim this stroke. Like all swim strokes, breaststroke works multiple different muscle groups. This swimming style is a particularly good option for working your chest muscles and your hamstrings.

Your thigh muscles, core muscles and arm muscles will also benefit from breaststroke. Breastroke is also a great cardio workout. Breaststroke is the slowest swimming stroke, which may be a con for people who prefer speed. Yet, this can be considered positive. Because it is so slow, breaststroke can be done for longer periods of time, serving as an endurance workout. Unlike with most other swimming strokes, your face will not be in the water during the backstroke.

Instead, you will be on your back in the water, just as the name suggests. Here are some tips on perfecting your backstroke technique and reaping the benefits of this stroke:.

You can think of backstroke as almost the mirror image of freestyle. Instead of facing downward, you will face upward in the water. You will remain in this horizontal position, looking upward, as you move your arms and legs. Your arms will propel you forward with a windmill-like motion. One arm will come up out of the water and go overhead, while the other sweeps forward beneath you in the water.

You will move by alternating this motion — one arm comes up and the other goes down. Keep your arms close to your ears as they come back down into the water. Additionally, you will want to keep your arms as straight as possible and your fingers close together to minimize resistance.

Try to keep your hips from dropping into the water. Too much sag in your hips will slow your forward momentum. As your arms pull you through the water, your legs will be using the same flutter kick performed during freestyle. Your legs will be slightly bent as you kick in a flurry of alternating motion. You can decide on the frequency of kicks depending on how fast you want to move. The beauty of backstroke is that you only need to concentrate on your arm and leg movements.

There is no breathing technique to worry about because your face is always above the water. Swimming backstroke will burn approximately calories in 30 minutes. The pros and cons to swim strokes can often depend on what you are looking to get out of your time in the water.

Backstroke offers plenty of benefits distinct from other strokes. For example, backstroke can help improve your posture since your muscles need to work to keep your back straight in the water. It can also help improve your hip flexibility.

Just like other swimming strokes, it will also work your arm, leg and core muscles. The position of your head is one small downside of backstroke to consider.

Since your line of sight is directed upwards, rather than in front of you, some people feel slightly nervous not being able to see where they are going in the water. You can overcome this by counting how many strokes it takes to complete a lap. Sidestroke can be done on your own or with the help of a kickboard. Shop Prescription Swim Goggles. There are well over a dozen different swimming styles, but the most popular and widely used is freestyle. It's the fastest of the four primary strokes, using a combination of alternating arm strokes and leg flutter-kicks to achieve a superior level of speed.

Technically, freestyle refers to a style of swimming in which the swimmer has the freedom to choose his or her own stroke hence the name, freestyle. This level of freedom is one of the many reasons why so many amateur and seasoned swimmers prefer freestyle over other types of swimming. While freestyle allows swimmers to choose their own stroke, the most commonly used stroke is the front crawl. Lactate makes your muscles feel heavy and weak. So what is neat about the Freestyle stroke is depending on the set or race distance—swimmers have the ability to use both or either one of these energy systems while racing.

Within this, it also allows swimmers to create different training 'zones'. Ever heard of your threshold zone or fat-burning zone? The Backstroke stroke elongates your chest muscles as you are swimming, and shortens your upper back muscles. This is the opposite of Freestyle, where you contract your chest muscles and lengthen your upper back muscles.

It can prove tricky. In the World Championships, one swimmer began the fourth leg of the Individual Medley with a series of dolphin butterfly kicks on his back. Such kicks are allowable now only for backstroke push-offs or in a freestyle event, but not on the final IM leg. Swimming the crawl is fastest because it involves a continuous propulsive force from alternating arms and simultaneous kicking. In the butterfly stroke, which is essentially a double-arm crawl, there is a slight period of non-propulsion while both arms are recovering over the water.