Train Your INNER Muscles to Get Higher in the Water

Hello everyone, this is Natsumi. Welcome back to my channel. Today, I'm going to talk about something super important for artistic swimmers. It's inner muscles. If you want more height, better control, beautiful lines, and less tired muscles, this video is for you. Most swimmers are trying to build big outer muscles but actually inner muscles are what give you power in the water. So let's learn outer muscles and inner muscles and how to use inner muscles in the water. I will give you a few exercises too. So let's get started. Let's learn outer muscles and inner muscles first. Outer muscles are big surface muscles called deltoidus, hamstrings, biceps. They work for power, force, and speed. They are big, strong, and heavy. Like bodybuilders, powerlifters, track and field, wrestling, American football players have outer muscles. You can see them from outside. Inner muscles are deep stabilizers, abs, pelvics, multifundus, deep hip rotators. They control balance, posture, and flexibility. Like rhythm gymnastics, ballet dancers, figure skating, yoga, pilates, and artistic swimmers need inner muscles. Artistic swimmers need inner muscles much more because we need height, stability, and long lines in the water. Artistic swimmers, we need to move fast, beautiful at the same time. If you use outer muscles, you probably can move fast but not smooth or beautiful. We also need to get height for barracuda, verticals, ballet legs. Outer muscles don't help for the height. They are so heavy so you cannot get the height. We want long, nice lines of legs when we swim. Outer muscles are visible and if you have them too much, your legs might look short or not nice lines. When we swim routines like solo, duet, team, and figures, we need a lot of energies and long control. We can use inner muscles for long time but no outer muscles. Even you move fast, try to use inner muscles so looks lighter. That's why we all need deep inner muscles. I will teach you home exercises for inner muscles. Stand up straight. Bring your arms and one leg straight like this. Make a balance and then straight coming back. Try to do other side. You can do five to ten times each. Please do it slowly. Next one, standing up position. Bring your knee high. Move to the side and then coming back to straight. Same things other side. You can do five to ten times each. Don't move your body. Next one includes flexibility. Bring up your knee. Grab your foot with both hands. Straight up and next to your face. Try to do five to ten times each. Make a balance and then try to go straight up. Point toes, straight knees. Next exercise, lay on your back. When you lay back position, try to make no space between your mattress and then your back. Do exhale and bring your hip up little by little. During hip up, think about your back is always flat. Focus on your core and tilt your pelvis forward. Keep that position until the end. Try to do this bridge five to ten times. When you do abs training, if you are making a space between your mattress and your back, you are using front thigh instead of abs. So same things, no space between your back and the mattress. And then do inhale. Focus on your abs. So finally you can use your abs and then core when you do abs training. Plank training is good for inner muscles. Don't make an arch. Flat your back and then squeeze your hips. If it's possible, bring your arm and leg up. Don't shake your body. Keep your body tight. When you do ballet leg training, is your ballet leg like this? Not straight? If so, you are using front thigh. Try to focus on your inner muscle, your abs, your core, and then bring your legs straight up from your back, hips, and hamstrings. So you can bring your legs straight. Even you move faster, you should use your core instead of big muscles. Thank you for watching the video. I hope you understand which muscles you need to use for artistic swimming. Please let me know if you have any questions. Online lessons are viable. So please email me and then don't forget to subscribe my channel. I'll see you in next video.