Improve your Swimming with Yoga

Swimming may seem like one of the more serene competitive sports, but it takes a major amount of muscle power to endure an exhaustive repertoire of repetitive movements in order to perfect each seemingly simple stroke. Like any exercise that involves such recurring motions, to experience more improvement while suffering from less sport-related injury, it's important to stretch the major muscle groups that power the moves, and strengthen the opposing muscles supporting those muscles. By staying in the game, injury-free, you can avoid ending up in the doctor's office, on meds, and wrapped in bandages—all very un-green things. After all, staying healthy is the greenest way to live, and yoga just might be your natural, low impact way to stay healthy.

As with any sport, swimming included, yoga is an ideal practice often employed by trainers and sports injury specialists to help athletes keep their bodies in balance. The fact that it's a completely green, no-equipment-necessary, human energy-powered exercise makes it even more ideal. When it comes to swimming, Desi Bartlett M.S., CPT, who holds advanced certifications in Yoga, Personal Training, and Group Fitness, a degree in Kinesiology, a Master's degree in Corporate Fitness, and a continuing education provider through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the National Council for Personal Trainers suggests Sun Salutations.

Deis says that "Surya Namaskar A, also known as Sun Salutation, is fantastic for swimmers as it addresses all of the primary movers (major muscle groups) in all front swim strokes." The series of 7 poses practiced in sequential order as a constant flow of movements is often how yoga classes begin. The sequence as a whole helps to warm the muscles and lubricate the joints, while strengthening the entire body. Individually, each pose has a specific purpose:

1. Mountain Pose

To reconnect with earth energy.

2. Arms Overhead

To lengthen the muscles used for butterfly stroke.

3. Forward Fold

To elongate the low back muscles also used for butterfly.

4. Half Forward Fold

Strengthens the low back muscles used in swimming (front and back strokes).

5. Chaturanga

Strengthens the pecs and the triceps used for all forward strokes.

6. Up dog

A great stretch for chest, shoulders and belly (primary movers in all forward strokes).

7. Down Dog

Strengthens the hip flexors and stretches the hamstrings, calves and low back (also a similar position to the dive into the pool).