You have worked your tail off! You’re stronger than you have ever been. You even did the “extra credit” dryland work on the weekends. Yet, your performance doesn’t meet your expectations. 

What is going wrong?

 I thought dryland was supposed to help your swimming performance? 

Good news! You might be in the right room but in the wrong seat. I’m giving a full webinar on this topic on 5/3, but here’s some tips to get you started! 

Regardless of team or 1:1 athlete, I rarely see a plank held correctly at first. There’s some simple corrections that need to be made to clean this up and transfer more of your power and strength to the water. Plankpose.com did a nice job showing some of the common faults I see during planks. 

This is the most common position I see with swimmers. What is wrong with this? 

• Let’s start at the head. Is this the head positioning you want to mimic in the water? NO! Stop doing it during planks. Your neck should be in alignment and you should be looking down at the ground with eyes gazing slightly ahead of the hands. 
• Look at the low back. The low back is supposed to be a stable joint that handles force. Unfortunately, many swimmers end up getting locked up in their thoracic spine and their low back becomes mobile. Think about pushing off the wall into your streamline. Do you want this arch? Negative ghost rider. Talk about drag. Engage your glutes to help get out of this position. 

CLICK HERE to read the full article from our friends at Ritter Sports Performance