Jumps Squats

One of the easiest exercised to learn yet one of the most important exercises for swimmers. Jump squats are designed to build strength in swimmers legs and also work on reaction time. Two of the most important parts of a swimmers race are the start and turns, these points will break or make a race.

The squat jump consists of combining the traditional squat exercise, bending knees at a 90 degree angle while pressing your butt out and not letting your knees go over your feet, with the exercise of quick jumps to work calf muscles. For this exercise you will have a bar with whatever weight you feel comfortable with , for me it 20 lbs. on each side of the bar. You will put the bar on the top of your back and then go into the squat position. From this position you will jump up from your toes and then come back down into the squat position. Do three sets of 15 and you will be able to feel the burn and get in a good workout.

When it comes to swimming being able to power off your start and turn will be highly beneficial to your races. This exercise is designed to build up your legs strength so when you are completely exhausted on the last 50 a a 200 Free you will still be able to have fast and powerful turns to finish the race.

This is personally one of my favorite exercises to do for swimming. It's fast and you defiantly feel the burn. I have also noticed in most of my races that my turns are getting more powerful and for the beginning of the season that is very important.