After 40 years of swimming breaststroke I find that my knees won't let me swim a lot of breaststroke kick so I do most of my leg work on land. For leg strength I do squats on a machine at my gym-2 sets of 12 twice a week. This is at heavy weight but start low as it's easy to get hurt unless you build up slowly.For expolsive power I get in 5 feet of water and jump up as high as I can- 3 sets of 12 three times a week. For endurance I use the stairstep machine as I feel it most nearly mimics the kick in terms of muscles used. Exercise bikes are a good second choice but treadmills don't ude the right muscles. I also use an exercise ball to work on core muscles which are vital for streamlining and controling up & down movement. A good leg stretching exercise is to 1) lie on your stomach 2) pull your heels up as high as you can with your leg muscles 3) holding your knees still rotate the balls of your feet out as far as you can using only your leg muscles. Hold for 30 seconds This will stretch your quads knees & ankles but since you aren't applying external force you are unlikely to over stretch. I hope these ideas help.
After 40 years of swimming breaststroke I find that my knees won't let me swim a lot of breaststroke kick so I do most of my leg work on land. For leg strength I do squats on a machine at my gym-2 sets of 12 twice a week. This is at heavy weight but start low as it's easy to get hurt unless you build up slowly.For expolsive power I get in 5 feet of water and jump up as high as I can- 3 sets of 12 three times a week. For endurance I use the stairstep machine as I feel it most nearly mimics the kick in terms of muscles used. Exercise bikes are a good second choice but treadmills don't ude the right muscles. I also use an exercise ball to work on core muscles which are vital for streamlining and controling up & down movement. A good leg stretching exercise is to 1) lie on your stomach 2) pull your heels up as high as you can with your leg muscles 3) holding your knees still rotate the balls of your feet out as far as you can using only your leg muscles. Hold for 30 seconds This will stretch your quads knees & ankles but since you aren't applying external force you are unlikely to over stretch. I hope these ideas help.
