I am ramping up my swimming - I've been slowly improving my skills in the water all this year. Now I'm sort of ready to move to the next level with drills, etc. I've had some breakthrough on my technique recently and I want to start looking at what I can do about laxity in my shoulders. My shoulders are really clicky and "lax" and I'm wondering if anyone who else swims could recommend strengthening exercises to tighten the muscles around the joints. I already work on pullups (just jumping pullups right now because I am not that strong).

Thanks,

Janine

Janinie you probably want to start doing sets of front, side and rear delt exercises. Maybe some over head lifts (military press).

http://exercise.about.com/cs/weight...blshoulders.htm

Hope this helps. The stuff I've been reading lately says not to stretch because it loosens the joints, so you may to quit any stretching your doing. Best of luck...Bru

Here's some things that might be of benefit to you.

http://usswim.com/USASWeb/ViewMiscA...=702&ItemId=700

http://www.alobravo.com/2008/08/25/...ready-for-2012/

My 12 year old daughter is a USA sanctioned swimmer and these are some of the things we do. I also incorporate some kettlebell swings into her dryland training and we are starting to work on the kettlebell windmill and will advance to the kettlebell/dumbbell snatch. We vary the reps from very low (heavier weight, low volume), to very light weight for higher repetition using low to moderate volume. A fairly new exercise that I am having her work on now is holding a kettlebell overhead with one arm and walk around for 1-2 minutes per side. The majority of our weight training is on the days she does not swim. We take these days off intentionally to balance out the swim training. On swim days, she does around 3k meters in a 1.75 hour time frame.

Be sure to spend a fair amount of time in the water on your back instead of always face down. Unless you backstroke all the time, your posterior chain muscles will lag behind. It's important to keep them balanced as they are equally important on the recovery phase of all your strokes.

Thank you, guys. I am a total novice so this is all very helpful. I am hoping to do a multisport event next year (run/swim) so I need to get more serious!

Janine

Good luck with the training.

I second the recommendation for delt exercises. I'll tell you from experience that it's easy to mess up your shoulders from swimming. It helps to have strong shoulder muscles, but more important is technique. If you're going to swim a lot, have a coach look at your stroke and make sure that your arm position is correct. I find that if I get tired and let my freestyle stroke fall apart, I'll damage my shoulders. Done correctly, swimming is mostly about the large muscles in the back and trunk.

The second link didn't work. I looked at the first set and they look good. It turns out I've been doing some chiro-recommended exercises that are similar to some of these. I think they've been helping alot.

Try this one. http://www.innovativebodysolutions....-like-dara.html

Might be more informational than anything, but there's some good info there too.