Up Your Pool Game

Think beyond steady laps. Our dynamic way of swimming will transform your body and wake up your indoor workouts. Everybody in!

- Sara Angle

Many people assume swimming means just going back and forth. But that’s only if you don’t know all your options, says Sue Chen, swim coach at Nation’s Capital Swim Club in the US. A pool workout can be dynamic and involve challenging intervals and muscle-sculpting strength exercises. Plus the environment offers a vibe in which you can decompress, says Gerry Rodrigues, the founder of California-based elite open-water training programme Tower 26. Here are all the reasons that will inspire you to finally take the plunge.

IT’S A TOTAL-BODY WORKOUT

Water is resistance, and to move through it (and not sink), every major muscle group in your body – especially your core – has to pitch in, says CeCe Marizu, a New York instructor who teaches in-pool classes that incorporate speed, power and strength.

To work more muscles from more angles, switch up your strokes during workouts, says Rachel Stratton-Mills, the head coach at Cleveland Swim Institute. Freestyle (the classic front crawl) tends to be the easiest stroke to ace, and it results in a big calorie burn (30 minutes of vigorous freestyle burns 322 calories; only the butterfly gives you a better burn, at 354 calories).

Backstroke (the flip side to freestyle with a windmill-like stroke) especially targets your core and hip flexors because it requires you to intensely tighten your torso and keep your hips in line with your upper body as you swim, Rachel says. For even more leg firming, do the breaststroke (where arms and legs sweep out in wide arcs), which requires bigger, more powerful kicks that, unlike other strokes, work muscles in your outer and inner thighs.