How do you swim in such a way as to engage the lats more? Mine are never tired, nor feel any work. Instead, I feel my shoulders get tired during the pull. If I swim hard, I start to feel my pull get weaker. I don’t feel fatigued during recovery, just the pull.
Note: I get lots of rotation, perhaps even too much according to some who have watched me.
Lats are used in the part of your freestyle stroke from the catch pulling all the way down your body until you finish off your stroke through the triceps. The motion is similar to placing your hands on the pool wall and pulling yourself out of the pool (pull with lats, finish with triceps).
I’ve been a competitive swimmer for a while now (much much longer than I’ve been a triathlete), and I don’t always feel like my lats are being killed every practice. In fact, I’d probably say that I don’t feel them much except when I do a really hard freestyle set and don’t loosen out quick enough. Then I feel my lats as they’ve tightened up and I try to stretch out swimming but it hurts. I can’t remember a good example of a time where I thought “man, that was a great lat workout”.
If you feel like they’re just non-existant, not doing anything, you may (remember, I can’t see your stroke from here) be dropping your elbow. Your elbow should be above your hand, so you can use your forearm as a big paddle. If you’re dropping your elbow you may not be using your lats as much as you could.
Finally, Sheila Taormina wrote an interesting article about swimming muscles:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/mainheadings/swimcenter/freestyle.html
Make sure you rotate your hips in freestyle which will naturally rotate your torso so your lats are utilized in the catch through pull-through phase.
I get lots of rotation at the hips, no problem there.
Sry, great link, thanks.
Man, it’s really tricky trying to get better/faster, and manage shoulder problems at the same time!
Az, if you are correctly rotating your hips, your lats should naturally follow the line of your hips and extend. I coached for 7 years and noticed that problem.
I think people have been hitting at it mostly…you may not be pulling correctly to isolate your lats and work them like they should to feel sore. There’s a million ways of saying it, but you have to keep your elbows up or pull with your forearm facing the back and not the bottom of the pool, lake or ocean or pull with a straight arm or keep your elbow above your hand. When swimmers get tired they have compensate for the tired muscles and would pull much less than an ideal angle perpendicular to the ground in the middle of their stroke. It usually means their forearms will get taken out of the equation and it is just the upper arm and hand grabbing the water. But the idea is to not only grab the water with more surface area but to use larger muscles. Letting your elbows drop takes out the lats and makes you pull with the much smaller shoulder muscles that are much easier to fatigue.
I’m similar to you. I know I’m using my lats, but I never feel fatigued in my lats. I have the same problem with lifting weights. I can do exercises where my chest feels sore the next day, but rarely do I have a workout where I feel sore in my lats.
Ah, yes, that’s me exactly. Chest, shoulders, arms, legs, whatever, were easy to get sore when I lifted weights. Lats… very tough. The only time I’d feel soreness would be if I did a tough workout like pullups and high rep rows after having done none for awhile.
I see what Bosco means re: a vertical forearm. I try to think of it as swimming with my armpit open as much as possible. And you are right, as I get tired, I find it more and more challenging to keep that armpit open and swim using the whole forearm.