“Posture influences strength, injury risk, and performance. Learn why swimmers have poor posture and even the term “Swimmers Posture” named after them.”
A rounded spine and forward head posture are common on pool decks. Everyone in the swimming community knows a swimmer (or many swimmers) with a forward head, rounded spine, raised shoulders, hands facing backwards, and hips positioned forward. Often this posture is not discussed or even joked about.
“Bobby has the worst posture, hahaha.”
Although this position may provide a quick chuckle, it causes big problems in and out of the pool. Here are 3 main problems with swimmer’s poor posture.
1. INJURY RISK
If a swimmer stands, sits, or moves with poor posture, then some structures are placed under more stress. More stress upon an area increases the load on the tissue and risk of injury. Many swimmers have great posture and get injured; many swimmers have horrible posture and don’t get injured. Many factors are involved with pain, but the majority of sporting injuries are related to an overloaded tissue. An overload takes a long time and the small additional stress of poor posture increases over a long period of time.
2. STROKE MECHANICS
Many of you are reading this for swimming…
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