Tip #1: Never Underestimate the Band Pull Apart

Regardless of if our swimmers are just doing a short warm-up, like our Champion Complex, or a more lengthy workout, I always encourage our athletes to do at least a handful of band pull aparts. For athletes that I’m fortunate enough to work with throughout the year, the amount of pull aparts is undulated throughout the season; perhaps from 150x / wk during the start of the regular swim season to 300x / wk by the end of the season.

The Band Pull Apart provides a great deal of upside to most populations, but for a group like swimmers who rely so heavily on the trapezius muscle group, this exercise is perfect. When you combine a stroke like freestyle, which has so much lat recruitment, amplified by poor resting posture, the likelihood of sports injury and stroke inefficiency is amplified.

What I like most about the Band Pull Apart is its stimulation of the Trap 2 (or the middle innervation of the traps). This helps bring about a healthier shoulder posture while increasing scapular control–and therefore stroke economy. Adding this as a warm-up exercise is even more efficacious because then the traps are already engaged as soon as the swimmer hits the water.

A good total to work towards on this is around 250x / wk, which averages to around 50x per day. Though this is significantly lower than some of our athletes who can do up to 250x during the course of a single workout. For resistance bands, I either recommend EliteFTS or Westside Barbell bands.