Strength Training for Swimmers: What Dryland Work Improves

Most swimmers have room for two or three dryland sessions a week, and the pool gets everything else. The question is what to put in those sessions so they help in the water instead of just adding fatigue. The research is more specific than most exercise lists suggest: dryland strength work most consistently improves the parts of a race spent off the wall and the block, and its effect on free swimming speed is smaller and less consistent.

What the research shows

A systematic review by Fone and van den Tillaar (2022) pooled 27 studies of 518 competitive swimmers aged 13 to 24, with programs lasting 3 to 16 weeks. Swimmers who added strength work to their pool training improved by roughly 2 to 3% on average. Plyometrics averaged 3.6%, maximal strength 2.7%, hypertrophy work 2.6% and core training 1.9%, but the authors found no clear winner between methods. What held across them was that combining swimming with strength training beat swimming alone.

A 2025 network meta analysis of 36 randomized trials and 844 swimmers, Wang and colleagues in Frontiers in Physiology, reached the same conclusion: pool training plus dryland resistance training ranked highest for 50 m and 100 m times, swimming velocity and stroke rate.

The gains are not universal. In an older trial by Tanaka and colleagues (1993), college swimmers training with weights three days a week for eight weeks raised their training loads by 25 to 35% and swam no faster than teammates who only swam. In Aspenes and colleagues (2009), eleven weeks of heavy, explosive pulldowns twice a week, alongside two weekly interval sessions, improved tethered swimming force and 400 m freestyle, while 50 m and 100 m times, stroke length and stroke rate did not change. Getting stronger on land does not guarantee a faster swim; it raises the force available, and pool training decides whether the stroke uses it.

The most consistent transfer is off the block and the wall. A review of swim start research (Thng, Pearson and Keogh, 2019) found jump height closely related to start performance and supported plyometrics for improving it. A review of turn studies (Hermosilla and colleagues, 2021) found that strength, ballistic and plyometric training improved push off impulse, glide speed and time to 5 m. The evidence for core training on turns was inconclusive. Starts and turns make up a larger share of short races and short course events, so sprinters have the most to gain.

What to train, by where it shows up in the pool

Dryland sessions have limited room, so rank exercises by the part of the race they affect and the strength of the evidence behind them.

	Where it shows up	Evidence	Examples
Jumps and explosive lower body	Starts, push offs, glide speed	Strongest: start and turn reviews	Countermovement jumps, box jumps, broad jumps
Heavy lower body strength	Push off force at each wall	Moderate: turn impulse gains	Squats, trap bar deadlifts, split squats
Heavy pulling	Force per stroke, 400 m in one trial	Mixed: sprint times unchanged	Pulldowns, pull ups, rows
Trunk stability	Holding body line under fatigue	Weak: turn data inconclusive	Dead bugs, side planks, Pallof presses
Rotator cuff and scapula	Shoulder strength balance	Moderate for balance; injury rates not measured	External rotations, Y and T raises, scapular punches

Jumps and heavy lower body work come first. A start and every turn is a single explosive push, and it is the part of swimming that jump training and heavy squats improve most directly. Keep jump sets short, three to five jumps with full rest, so each rep is fast.

Pulling strength is worth training heavy. The Aspenes trial used three sets of five pulldowns, paired with interval training, at the heaviest load the swimmers could move explosively. That raised tethered force, which is the force a swimmer produces against a fixed line in the water. High rep, light pulling mostly duplicates what pool sets already provide.

Trunk work supports the rest. Anti extension and anti rotation drills hold the rib cage and pelvis in line, which is the position a streamline and a strong kick depend on. The direct performance evidence is thin, so a few sets at the end of a session is enough.

Shoulder work: what it does and what it does not prove

Shoulder pain is common in competitive swimmers, and a season of overhead strokes tends to strengthen the internal rotators more than the external rotators. Dryland shoulder programs aim to correct that imbalance.

The evidence supports the balance goal. In a 12 week trial of national team swimmers (Tavares, Vilas Boas and Castro, 2025), five exercises twice a week, done with light dumbbells or bands, limited the rotator imbalance that built up over the season in swimmers doing only sham mobility work. The exercises were internal and external rotation at 90 degrees, scapular punches, and T and Y raises. That trial did not count injuries, and a direct link between these programs and fewer injured shoulders has not been shown. Treat shoulder work as low cost maintenance: it takes about ten minutes, and a program that keeps the rotator cuff balanced is a reasonable bet.

A week of dryland around pool training

Two dryland sessions a week is the dose used in the Aspenes trial and fits most swim schedules. The priority is the pool, so dryland is placed where it costs the least swim quality:

• Lift on hard swim days, after the swim. Stacking the hard work on the same day leaves the easy days easy. If both happen in one day, swim first so the pool set gets full effort.
• Leave a day before the hardest pool set. Heavy legs and sore lats make race pace work worse.
• Keep sessions under an hour. Five or six exercises cover the priorities above.

Example

1. Mon
   Swim: threshold set

   Dryland A
2. Tue
   Swim: technique, easy aerobic
3. Wed
   Swim: race pace set
4. Thu
   Swim: easy aerobic
5. Fri
   Swim: sprints, starts and turns

   Dryland B
6. Sat
   Swim: long aerobic
7. Sun
   Rest

Hard day Easy swim

The week above is an example for a swimmer training six days in the pool. With fewer swims, keep the two dryland days and keep them on the harder pool days. Triathletes fitting runs into the same week can use the scheduling rules in combining running and weight training.

Two example sessions

Both sessions start with ten minutes of easy cardio, band pull aparts and a few bodyweight squats and lunges. Rest two to three minutes between heavy sets and between jump sets.

Dryland A: power and pulling

• Countermovement jumps or box jumps: 4 × 4
• Back squat or goblet squat: 4 × 4 to 6, heavy
• Lat pulldown or weighted pull up: 3 × 5, heavy, pulling fast
• Single arm dumbbell row: 3 × 8 per side
• Side plank: 3 × 30 seconds per side

Dryland B: strength and shoulders

• Broad jumps: 4 × 3
• Trap bar deadlift or Romanian deadlift: 3 × 5
• Rear foot elevated split squat: 3 × 6 per leg
• Push ups: 3 × 10 to 15
• Shoulder circuit, 2 rounds of 12 to 15: external rotation at 90 degrees, Y raises, T raises, scapular punches
• Dead bug: 3 × 8 per side

Heavy here means a load you could lift one or two more times at the end of the set, moved with good speed. When every set reaches the top of its rep range with that margin, add weight at the next session. Swimmers new to lifting should spend the first few weeks at moderate loads to learn the squat, hinge and pulling patterns.

In the Help Center How LiftTrack progressions work Add a progression to an exercise and LiftTrack proposes the next weight or reps after a session where every working set hits its target.

Adjusting across the season

Heavy volume in the gym competes with heavy volume in the pool. During the highest yardage weeks, cut the dryland sessions to the jumps, the main lift and the shoulder circuit. In the final one to two weeks before a key meet, reduce sets further and keep a small amount of fast, heavy work so the legs stay sharp without adding fatigue. After the season, a block with more gym volume is the easiest place to build strength for the next one.

Common questions

Should I lift before or after swimming? After, when both are on the same day. The research programs added dryland to full pool training, and the pool session is the one that most needs fresh legs and shoulders.

Will lifting make me slower or too bulky? The trials above found performance gains or no change, not losses, when strength work was added to normal swim training. Heavy sets of four to six reps build strength mainly through better force production, with less muscle gain than high volume bodybuilding work.

Is strength training safe for youth swimmers? The reviews above included swimmers from 13 years old. Younger or less experienced swimmers should start with bodyweight and light loads, learn technique under a coach’s supervision, and progress gradually.