As the 2024 Summer Olympics get underway in Paris, we want to draw your attention to one sport that stands head and shoulders above all the others when it comes to engaging the most muscles of the human body.
Stands? More floats head and shoulders above.
The sport is swimming.
And if you see a male or female swimmer competing in the individual 200 meter or 400 meter individual medley, it’s a stunning level of whole-body engagement that you are witnessing. And, of course, the cardiovascular workout is spectacular. Swimming can improve lung capacity and oxygen consumption more than running, largely due to the breath control required.
But let’s focus on the muscles. Some strokes use more than others (we really appreciate this breakdown online).
Muscles used for the breaststroke: latissimus dorsi, pectoralis major, biceps, triceps, brachialis, brachioradialis, and deltoids. Some of the leg muscles get involved, too, including glutes, quads, gastrocnemius, and soleus.
Photo by Brian Matangelo on Unsplash
For the freestyle? A.K.A., “the front crawl”? Of course all the arm muscles plus the quadriceps and hamstrings (yes, the hamstrings are a group of three muscles). The freestyle has so many components to one cycle.
Kicking. The Reach. The Pull. The Push. And Recovery.
It’s a coordinated thing of beauty and speed. Michael Phelps reached nearly 5 miles per hour in the 200 meter freestyle. (The average adult walks around 3 miles per hour!) But the majority of propulsion comes from your arms. Watch a great overview of freestyle here.
But the freestyle involves kicking as well, which means swimmers are engaging the quadriceps, tibialis anterior, and the gastrocnemius.
The reach requires heavy use of obliques, triceps brachii, latissimus dorsi, and the rotator cuff. The catch involves the deltoid, extensor digitorum, triceps brachii, brachioradialis, among others. And The Pull also fires up the trapezius and The Reach engages the rectus abdominus.
Backstroke? The reverse arm movement means the deltoids and latissimus dorsi get more involved and the laying-on-your-back flutter kicks means more engagement from glutes, quads, hamstrings and anterior tibialis. The backstroke and freestyle, however, have a lot in common when in comes to the muscles required.
Have you ever tried the butterfly? In our humble opinion, it’s a challenge. The timing of the pull and push of the arms coordinated with the dolphin kick going on with the legs doesn’t feel natural. Yet watching it is a thing of beauty! (What’s up with that?). You’ll need your abdominals, quads, pecs, hamstrings, glutes, deltoids, and lats. If you’re looking for some tips on perfecting your butterfly, here’s a good overview.
Unrelated but interesting—we haven’t been swimming as long as we’ve been walking. And there’s a bit of debate, according to Wikipedia about this history, but most credible evidence goes back to about 4000 BC. In 1538, Nikolaus Wynmann, a Swiss–German professor of languages, wrote the earliest known complete book about swimming, The Swimmer, or A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming and Joyful and Pleasant to Read).
Oh, and if you need us for the next couple weeks (the Olympics run through August 11), we’ll be watching those swimmers and thinking about all those muscles at work.
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