3 Core Strengthening Dryland Drills for Spine Support in Swimming

When someone asks you to name a core exercise, is the first answer you come up with a crunch? Maybe you first thought of planks or side planks. Some folks who have gym experience might even say dead bugs. And all of those are good suggestions, because they’re all movements that can build core strength.

But there's also another category of core exercises that can really strengthen your core, support your spine, and also unlock some extra benefits for your swimming. Called carries, these exercises offer a lot of benefits.

Adding the following three carries to your dryland training can pay big dividends for your swimming.

Before we jump into the specific movements, for all of these exercises aim to complete three rounds of 45 seconds each. You can pick one variation and add it to your training for that week. The next week, try the second variant. During the third week, pick for the third option. During the fourth week, go back to the first variation and add time or weight to make the exercise more challenging. That’s how you’ll get stronger over time.

Farmer Carry

The first carry exercise is the traditional farmer carry. For this, you’ll need two dumbbells.

To start, pick up a dumbbell in each hand and stand up straight, with your arms at your sides and your hands hanging comfortably down by your hips.

Think about driving your shoulders back and down and keeping a strong, proud posture. Your ears should be stacked over your shoulders as you pull your belly button into your spine and brace your abs. Look straight ahead and walk forward slowly in a straight line. If you have to make a turn, make sure you're controlling the weights as you move.

If you don't have space to walk, you can make this a march by setting your shoulders with your ears stacked above them with your core engaged. And then march in place by driving one knee up to about hip height and putting the foot back down in a controlled manner and repeating on the other side, back and forth.

As you walk, keep your core tight and engaged so you don’t tip from side to side. Tipping side to side means your core isn’t strong or stable. Instead, keep the walk smooth, steady, and straight.

Complete three rounds of 45 seconds each and expand your time or weight from there.

Waiter Carry

The second variation is the waiter carry. In this variation, you’ll load one side of your body to help turn on the obliques to avoid tipping from side to side. The goal is to keep your gait steady and even on both sides, despite the loading on the one side.

To do this exercise, grab a single dumbbell and stand up straight with a long spine and feet planted hip-width apart. Engage your core and lift the hand with the dumbbell up so that it’s positioned to the side and above your ear with your wrist stacked over the elbow. Your forearm extends perpendicular to the floor at a 90-degree angle from the upper arm, which extends out in front of you from the shoulder. The idea is to mimic how a waiter might carry a heavy tray laden with food balanced on one hand.

Brace your abs and begin walking forward in a steady manner. If you have to turn, control the motion and keep everything strong and tight. Start with 45 seconds on each side, and over time you can add time and/or weight to make this more challenging.

This exercise engages the obliques and the core, but also the shoulder muscles, the forearm muscles and can even improve grip strength. Focus on controlling any sort of rotation when turning and keeping everything nice and stable. Don’t forget to keep good, tall posture and stay balanced with no wobbling from side to side.

You can also complete this as a march in place just like with the farmer carry.

High-Low Carry

For the final exercise, you’ll combine the previous two exercises.

Start by picking up a dumbbell in each hand and standing tall with a straight spine with your shoulders back and down. Then, keep one arm low in the farmer carry position and bring the other one up into the waiter carry position and commence walking forward in a slow, controlled way. Keep the core engaged and prevent any lateral movement.

Without doing any bending or twisting, you’ll be getting a whole bunch of core activation. Start with 45 seconds and switch sides. Progress with weight and time as you can. Again, you can march in place with this variation.

Sprinkle these exercises in to add variety to the more traditional crunches and planks. And if those kinds of core exercises hurt because of back issues or injuries, you can use these carries instead to get plenty of core work in without that discomfort.