If you’re looking to build aerobic capacity, recover faster, or stay fit through an injury, low-impact cross-training should be your best friend. Running is a high-impact activity that requires your joints, muscles, tendons, and bones to handle loads that are multiple times your bodyweight, according to Jennie Hansen, USAT Level 1-certified triathlon coach. Cross-training, while still difficult, is typically nonimpact, and comes with a smaller orthopedic cost, she explains.
Additionally, cross-training can improve strength in areas not necessarily stimulated by running alone, improving full-body health, Hansen continues. Both swimming and cycling are activities that let you rack up heart-pumping cardio hours without subjecting your joints to the constant pounding of pavement. However, despite sharing the “low-impact” label, cycling and swimming target your body in completely different ways.
We break down how they compare as cross-training methods, along with how to choose the right one for your routine. Swimming is a great full-body exercise that provides a low-impact workout, according to Laura Bruck Renzelman, NASM-CPT, USAT Level 2-certified triathlon coach. It’s especially good for recovery days or if you’re dealing with an injury that requires cutting back on impact or joint-related activities, she says.
Indeed, swimming gives your legs a break while still challenging your cardiovascular system, adds Kristen Hislop, USAT Level 1-certified triathlon coach. Another advantage of swimming is that it helps dial in your breathing technique, according to Hislop. So often, as runners fatigue, they start [taking] shallow breaths,” she says.
Plus, research shows that regular respiratory training (like with swimming) strengthens your diaphragm and the muscles in your rib cage, which reduces the amount of energy you spend on breathing. Finally, swimming builds the upper-body strength that tends to get neglected in runners, according to Hansen, like the shoulders, chest, and upper back. Swimming is highly technique dependent, meaning that runners may find themselves fighting the water and easily fatigued without proper instruction, according to Hansen.
This can limit a runner’s ability to get in enough of a central training stimulus and lead to frustration, she says. Additionally, the lack of lower-body impact can be a downside if a runner relies too much on swimming, particularly when returning from injury, as the cardiovascular system can start to outpace the ability of muscles, tendons, and bones to handle load, Hansen explains. Finally, swimming doesn’t have you moving in the same plane as running does, Hislop says.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
