Strength Training for Swimmers: What Dryland Work Improves

Strength training for swimmers works, but the gains are smaller and more specific than most exercise lists suggest. Added to normal pool training, dryland work takes under a second off races of 100 m or shorter. Its clearest link is to the start, where jumping power carries over. Most swimmers have room for two or three dryland sessions a week. The job is to fill them with work that helps in the water instead of just adding fatigue.

Does strength training make swimmers faster?

Yes, by a small margin that matters in a sport decided by tenths of a second. Swimmers who add strength work to their pool training typically improve by 2 to 3% over programs that averaged eight weeks, more than swimmers who only swim. Jumps, heavy lifting, muscle building work and core training all helped, and no method clearly beat the others. Pick the work you can do well and recover from.

The gain from dryland work itself is smaller. Lifting, jumps, core work and land intervals, added to regular swim training, take about 0.4 seconds off a 50 m and 0.8 seconds off a 100 m. Pairing dryland work with resisted work in the pool, such as tethered swimming, drag suits or paddles, ranked best overall.

Strength gained on land does not turn into speed in the water by itself. College swimmers who lifted three days a week for eight weeks raised their training weights by 25 to 35% and swam no faster than teammates who only swam. Competitive swimmers who added heavy pulldowns and interval sets twice a week for 11 weeks gained pulling force in the water and swam a faster 400 m. Their 50 m and 100 m times and their stroke rate did not change.

The gym raises the force you can produce, and the pool decides whether your stroke uses it, so keep your hardest swim sets fresh.

Starts and turns

Starts have the clearest link to dryland work. Start performance tracks closely with how high a swimmer can jump, and jump training raises take off speed and improves starts, at least on the older blocks most of the testing used.

Turns have thinner support. Leg strength work and plyometrics improved turn time or glide speed in a few small groups of swimmers and made no clear difference in others. Whether core training helps turns is unclear.

Turns take about a fifth of the race time in a 100 m swum in a 50 m pool. In a 25 m pool they take far more, up to 45% of a 100 m breaststroke. The start is a bigger share of a shorter race, so sprinters and short course swimmers have the most race time riding on these explosive pushes.

Which dryland exercises carry over to the pool?

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

	Where it shows up	Evidence	Examples
Jumps and explosive lower body	Starts, push offs, glide speed	Good for starts on older blocks; thin for turns	Countermovement jumps, box jumps, broad jumps
Heavy lower body strength	Push off at each wall	Limited: small turn studies, mixed results	Squats, trap bar deadlifts, split squats
Heavy pulling	Pulling force in the water, 400 m pace	Limited: one trial; sprint times unchanged	Straight arm pulldowns, lat 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; weak for injury	Internal and external rotations, Y and T raises, scapular punches

Jumps and heavy leg work for the push off

A start and every turn is a single explosive push off the legs, and jumps and leg strength are the dryland work that targets it. Keep jump sets short, three to five jumps with full rest, so every rep is fast. Keep squats and deadlifts heavy, in sets of four to six.

Train pulling heavy and fast

Three sets of five on a cable pulldown that copies the butterfly pull raised pulling force in the water, measured as tethered force: what a swimmer produces against a fixed line. For this lift, use a true five rep max, the heaviest weight you can pull five times. Pull each rep as fast as you can and lower it slowly. Add a little weight each time you complete a full set of five. Light, high repetition pulling mostly duplicates the endurance work that pool sets already provide.

Trunk work supports the rest

Anti extension and anti rotation drills hold the rib cage and pelvis in line, the position a streamline and a strong kick depend on. The direct evidence for speed is thin, so a few sets at the end of a session are enough.

Does shoulder work prevent swimmer’s shoulder?

It helps keep the rotator cuff balanced, but whether it prevents injury is less certain.

Swimmer’s shoulder, pain at the front of the shoulder from repeated overhead strokes, is the most common injury in the sport. The strength balance between the inward and outward rotators of the shoulder tends to drift over a season, and that imbalance is one of the strongest predictors of swimmer’s shoulder.

Five exercises twice a week for 12 weeks, with light dumbbells or bands, limited the loss of rotator cuff strength over a season in competitive swimmers and kept the inward and outward rotators closer to balance. Swimmers who did only mobility drills lost more strength and drifted further out of balance. The shoulder circuit below uses the same five exercises, plus a chest stretch.

Programs that pair external rotator and upper back work with chest stretches have lowered how often swimmers develop shoulder pain, but the evidence behind that is weak. Treat the circuit as cheap insurance for your shoulders, not a guarantee against injury. If your shoulder already hurts, see a physiotherapist before you add load.

How do you fit dryland around pool training?

Lift twice a week, after the swim on your harder pool days. The pool stays the priority, so place each session where it costs the least swim quality:

• Pair lifting with hard swim days, so the hard work stacks up and the easy days stay easy. When both fall on one day, swim first so the pool set gets your full effort.
• Leave a day before your hardest pool set, because heavy legs and sore lats make race pace work worse.
• Keep lifting sessions under an hour, with five or six exercises. The slow shoulder circuit takes about half an hour, so give it its own slot after two easy swims.

Example

1. Mon
   Swim: threshold set

   Dryland A
2. Tue
   Swim: technique, easy aerobic

   Shoulder circuit
3. Wed
   Swim: race pace set
4. Thu
   Swim: easy aerobic

   Shoulder circuit
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 both lifting days on your harder pool days and do the shoulder circuit after two easier sessions. Triathletes fitting runs into the same week can use the scheduling rules in combining running and weight training.

What should the two sessions include?

Start both sessions 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
• Straight arm cable pulldown or lat pulldown: 3 × 5 at a true five rep max, pulling fast
• Single arm dumbbell row: 3 × 8 per side
• Side plank: 3 × 30 seconds per side

Dryland B: strength and trunk

• Broad jumps: 4 × 3
• Trap bar deadlift or Romanian deadlift: 3 × 5, heavy
• Rear foot elevated split squat: 3 × 6 per leg
• Push ups: 3 × 10 to 15
• Dead bug: 3 × 8 per side

Shoulder circuit: twice a week

• Internal rotation and external rotation at shoulder height: 2 × 10 slow reps each
• Scapular punches: 2 × 10 slow reps
• T raises and Y raises: 2 × 10 slow reps each
• Doorway chest stretch: 2 × 30 seconds per side

Take about five seconds to lift and five to lower. Use dumbbells of 1 to 5 kg or a band, heavy enough that the last slow reps of each set are hard but your form holds.

Apart from the pulldown, 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.

How should dryland change across the season?

Heavy volume in the gym competes with heavy volume in the pool for the same recovery. During the highest yardage weeks, cut each lifting session to the jumps and the main lift, and keep the shoulder circuit. In the final one to two weeks before a key meet, reduce sets further. 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

Will lifting make me slower or too bulky? Almost never when it is added to normal swim training: nearly every program behind the 2 to 3% figure left swimmers faster or unchanged. Heavy sets of four to six reps build strength mainly through better force production, with less muscle gain than high volume bodybuilding work.

How long before dryland shows up in the pool? Give it a full block of about eight weeks, the average length of the programs behind the 2 to 3% figure, before judging it by race times. For turns, researchers suggest plyometric blocks of two to four short sessions a week, about 20 to 25 minutes each, for six to ten weeks.

Is strength training safe for youth swimmers? The speed research above included swimmers as young as 10, but it measured performance, not injuries. Age group swimmers new to lifting should do fewer and shorter dryland sessions. Start with bodyweight and light loads, learn technique under a coach’s supervision, and progress gradually.

Sources

• Fone and van den Tillaar, 2022, Sports Medicine Open: systematic review of 27 studies of strength training in competitive swimmers; most interventions improved performance by 2 to 3%.
• Wang and colleagues, 2025, Frontiers in Physiology: network meta analysis of 36 randomized trials and 844 swimmers comparing pool, dryland and combined training.
• Tanaka and colleagues, 1993, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise: college swimmers lifted 25 to 35% more after eight weeks and swam no faster.
• Aspenes and colleagues, 2009, Journal of Sports Science and Medicine: heavy cable pulldowns and interval sets raised tethered force and 400 m speed.
• Thng, Pearson and Keogh, 2019, Sports Medicine: systematic review of dryland resistance training and swim starts.
• Hermosilla and colleagues, 2021, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: systematic review of dryland training and swim turns.
• Tavares, Vilas Boas and Castro, 2025, Healthcare: randomized trial of a 12 week shoulder program in competitive swimmers.
• Yoma, Herrington and Mackenzie, 2022, Journal of Sport Rehabilitation: scoping review of exercise therapy for shoulder pain in competitive swimmers.