Pilates and Swimming: A Winning Combination

The greatest correlation between Pilates and swimming is the emphasis on ease and efficiency.
—Tamsen Simon, former Olympic swimmer and BASI Pilates instructor

by Julia Rigal

Swimming is one of the most popular exercise modalities in the world, and it’s arguably one of the most complex ones. Regardless of age or skill level, successful swimming is considered to require excellent body awareness, balance, control, the ability to move with ease and efficiency, as well as strong mental focus and diligence.

Sounds familiar, right? For Pilates instructors, the benefits of Pilates as cross-training for swimmers are probably a no-brainer. However, when it comes to swimmers understanding the value of cross-training in Pilates, in many countries we still have a long way to go.

We have reached out to the BASI family and found three former professional swimmers-gone-Pilates-instructors about their insights and experiences, from their favorite exercises for swimmers to how to reach this population. Meet Tamsen from Canada, Ayse from Turkey and Dorothy from Greece!

Q: What are the greatest benefits swimmers can gain from practicing Pilates?

Tamsen: For me, the greatest correlation between Pilates and swimming is the emphasis of ease and efficiency. Water and springs on Pilates apparatus work in similar ways in that they can simultaneously assist and resist a human body. As Pilates instructors we can help swimmers develop their movement strategies towards working with the deep stabilisers, freeing up their superficial muscles to react to changing forces as they propel themselves through the water. Thinking of amateurs, they usually need to learn to create movement with as little effort as possible.

Dorothy: The main benefit of Pilates for swimmers is the gain in awareness of the core, which – with the exception of the obliques – usually isn’t a strong point.

Q: What are your favorite exercises for swimmers?

Ayse: Most professional swimmers are very flexible and they need to work more on body control and coordination; my very first choice with this would be shoulder and scapular stability. In swimming, shoulders do most of the work and are therefore prone to injury. I’ve found that the Arm Sitting, Rowing and Short Box series on the Reformer, as well as the Shoulder Stretch Prone and Adduction exercises on the Cadillac, are great for swimmers. Plus, for abdominal strength and control, Mat exercises like the Single and Double Leg Stretch come to mind!

Dorothy: I simply love teaching swimmers on the Reformer and Cadillac and watching their beautiful movement! Back extension exercises are particularly helpful for developing a deeper understanding of the movement of the scapulae and the stability of the core.

Tamsen: There are so many different options depending on what swimming style you are aiming for, but the Single Arm Back Extension on the Wunda Chair – which teachers cross-body stabilization patterns – is a particular favorite of mine.

Q: What are tips for Pilates instructors who would like to reach more swimmers?

Dorothy: Here in Greece, the benefits of Pilates aren’t widely understood yet, but it’s slowly becoming more popular among all kinds of athletes. I’m observing that among the swimming population, interest is increasing especially among triathletes. It’s helpful to understand and address the needs of different populations of swimmers.

Ayse: The situation is similar in Turkey, with many swimmers preferring other training modalities or even ruling out dry-land training entirely – a huge mistake in my opinion! Once they understand the benefits of Pilates, though, they tend to spend a third or more of their dry-land training time in a Pilates studio. So it’s important to keep promoting and emphasizing the many benefits!

Tamsen: In my experience, it’s not easy to attract swimmers by emphasizing only the “core program” aspect of Pilates. Instead, I promote Pilates as a method of improving versatility in muscle patterning and training out of overuse patterns which may shorten swimmers’ careers, as it did mine.