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For you, the crawl is the reference and the breaststroke would only be the assistant to the pattern of freestyle swimming! Think again ! Breaststroke is excellent for your physical condition and has many benefits for your joint and cardiovascular health with lifeguard training near me.
We swim faster in front crawl, that's undeniable! This is
why this technique is chosen in "freestyle" competitions, especially
in triathlon. To optimize the time, it is true that the breaststroke has some
disadvantages compared to the crawl.
The arm return is done against the resistance of the water.
In a comparable way, the thighs move apart and oppose the advance of the body.
While the crawl benefits from a continuous propulsion thanks to the alternating
action of the right and left arms, the breaststroke is at the origin of a jerky
advance in a very dense aqueous medium where inertia is very costly. . But
these faults could well become qualities if your goal is to keep in shape
without injury!
Swimming is
great for fitness!
The poor performance of the breaststroke is excellent for
working your heart and burning calories! It is an ideal endurance sport! These
beneficial activities for cardiovascular health are defined by the use of a
voluminous muscular mass at medium intensity responsible for prolonged cardiac
work.
Jogging and cycling are the emblematic disciplines. The
breaststroke is even more interesting because it involves the lower and upper
limbs. Unlike the front crawl, the movement of the legs is particularly ample
and solicits much more the dedicated muscle masses.
In this, it is closer to the rowing machine, the elliptical,
the air bike or cross-country skiing. Not to mention that the undulations
involve all the muscles along the spine. Many of us swim the breaststroke
better than the front crawl. When I invite my patients to swim, they often tell
me: “In front crawl, I don't last very long, but in breaststroke I have no problem
prolonging my training. »
Without correct technique, the front crawl is akin to
interval training, while the breaststroke meets the definition of endurance. In
short, the breaststroke is an excellent cardio training session to integrate
into your weekly program with Lifeguard Class Near Me.
Breaststroke
is good for the back!
You've heard that to reduce lower back pain you have to swim
on your back. The effectiveness of this practice would come from the
strengthening of the abdominals essential to the rise of the pelvis. But this
dogma does not stand up to recent knowledge.
Indeed, this statement comes from an old notion considering
that the contraction of the abdominals would increase the pressure in the belly
and loosen the vertebrae. This concept is only theoretical and a numerical
analysis has shown that the pressure reducing the stresses on the spine would
cause the spleen and liver to burst!
In the same spirit, another study showed that, in
individuals free from back pain, the strength of the muscles along the spine
was 30% higher than that of the abdominals. Conversely, it was equivalent in
those who suffered from lower back pain.
Thus, it seems logical to think that the pain comes rather
from a deconditioning of the posterior muscles… and why not from an inopportune
strengthening of the anterior muscles. In this context, a front swim is more
beneficial than a back swim!
For a more
muscular back!
In addition, unlike the front crawl, the properly practiced
breaststroke includes undulations. This type of movement generates a gentle
mobilization of the intervertebral discs. The pressure variations within these
structures are at the origin of the reabsorption of blood plasma. The latter
comes to rehydrate the center of the disc and reconstitutes damping gelatin.
The discs find more flexibility and the pain decreases when you solicit them in
the gestures of daily life. This reasoning remains valid at the cervical level,
if you perform a cast breaststroke associated with a straightening of the bust
during inspiration. This gesture is more natural than that of the forced
rotation inherent in the crawl, especially when this one is laborious!
The breaststroke
is better for the shoulders!
6 million years ago, our ancestors acquired bipedalism. In
fact, our upper limbs have become mobile at the cost of relative shoulder
instability! Indeed, the arm bone, the humerus, has a spherical apex. The
latter tries to fit together with the scapula at an almost flat surface.
A tendinous and muscular layer covers this joint in an
attempt to keep it in place. It is called the "rotator cuff" because
it looks like a well-combed head of hair surrounding the head of the numerus.
By contracting, it creates a center of rotation and large muscles such as the
latissimus dorsi and the pectoralis major can mobilize the shoulder in 3
dimensions. Unfortunately, during large movements, the rotator cuff collides
with and rubs against the bony reliefs of the scapula.
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As for paleontologists, they think that this is the area
devoted to "arboricism", that is to say, moving in suspension from
branch to branch in our cousins the great apes. Even better, the shoulder rotations
in the physiological sector characteristic of the breaststroke strengthen the
muscles of the rotator cuff and promote the protective centering of the joint.
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