Articles and Videos
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Swimming for Weight Loss: Here Is What Actually Works
Here’s what the science says about how best to use swimming for weight loss.
How to Set Swim Goals That Actually Improve Your Fitness
If you swam competitively growing up, you’ve likely endured many goal-setting meetings with your coaches. Often, these sessions focused on achieving a specific time, such as a cut for a state championship or meeting a threshold to move up to a more advanced training group.
Does Swimming Make You More Attractive? Fitness, Confidence, and Social Benefits
Swimming is a lifelong sport that can actually save your life. But there’s more to it than that. Swimming is also a great way to improve health, fitness, and possibly even make you more attractive too.
Is Masters Swimming Good for Triathletes? Pros, Cons, and Training Tips
Many triathletes come to the sport from running or cycling, which can mean that swimming is their weakest link. It’s a common issue among triathletes, but one that Masters swimming can help solve.
Open Water Swim Training Plan: How to Train Year-Round in the Pool
Here’s how to use the pool for open water success.
Masters Swimming Training Plan for Former Competitive Swimmers
Returning to competitive swimming as an adult through U.S. Masters Swimming offers excellent health benefits, structured coaching, and an age-grouped competitive community. Former swimmers hold a major advantage because their muscle memory, stroke fundamentals, and familiarity with pool culture (such as pace clocks and workout lingo) make the transition much smoother, even after decades away.
How to Do a Great Backstroke Pull
Mastering the backstroke pull is essential for generating upper-body speed. This guide details how to execute a proper pull, from a pinky-first entry and a bent-arm "hook" setup to a powerful straight-back push and efficient finish, complemented by targeted technique drills.
6 Ways to Swim Fast as You Get Older
Although aging naturally declines cardiovascular fitness and muscle mass, older swimmers can maintain or even improve their speed. By implementing six key strategies: strength training, technique adjustments, high-intensity intervals, proactive injury management, proper recovery, and modern gear, athletes can flatten the performance curve.
The Sound of Swimming
Emmy-nominated composer and Masters swimmer Chad Cannon uses the pool as a vital mental escape to recharge his creativity. Swimming has not only improved his musical endurance and physical strength but also provided a supportive community and inspired his latest artistic projects.
Food for Thought
What you eat directly impacts athletic performance. This article explains how specific nutrients such as omega-3s, folate, selenium, polyphenols, vitamin B12, and nitrates boost brain health, improving a swimmer's coordination, reaction time, focus, and mood regulation while highlighting the critical role of proper hydration.
Free Diving With Jacques Francis
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Volunteer Profile: Sue Jensen
New England Masters Swim Club member Sue Jensen helps bring high-quality meets to her area by being the New England LMSC Officials Committee chair. Her biggest passion, though, is helping adults learn to swim.
Why Rest Alone Won’t Heal Your Injury
Resting removes the pain of a swim injury temporarily, but it doesn't address the underlying cause. Strength and mobility training and focusing on your technique are needed for long-term success in injury prevention.
Make-Ahead Protein Breakfast Burritos
Make-ahead protein breakfast burritos are perfect for when you’re running out the door or need a hearty breakfast after a morning swim.
The Wolf in the Pool
Lupus is one of more than 100 identified autoimmune disorders that occur when the body’s immune system becomes dysregulated and begins to attack itself. A lupus diagnosis, however, doesn’t have to mean giving up swimming, indeed swimming can help relieve some symptoms of lupus.
What Mental Performance Coaches Wish You Knew
You look around at the meet and you’re pretty sure everyone else is seriously fit, feeling confident, and ready to go for it. And you’re totally not. Big secret: Most everyone else has some worries and other mental gymnastics going on too. Here’s what mental performance coaches want you to know the next time you step up to the blocks.
Night Lights
If your open water swimming adventures start before the sun rises or continue after dusk, you should use glow sticks or waterproof lights as a commonsense safety measure. By lighting up, you make yourself visible to other waterway users as well as your swimming partners, which can keep you safer in open water.
Go Far by Building Your Postural Strength and Control
A great swimming posture starts long before you enter the water. Your ability to keep your ribs, pelvis, shoulders, and head in a straight line while you’re on land directly affects how well you hold a great body line while swimming.
From the Center Lanes: Michael Gilliam
Michael Gilliam, who has attained 32 USMS individual Top 10 times over the past six years, says he focuses on his underwater dolphin kick to improve his backstroke.
Great Glennie!
How Gary Girolimon of New England Masters Swim Club created a cherished annual event in Glen Lake in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
