Swim Kick Exercise
2 hand support


Starting Position
  • To perform the swim kick exercise, kneel in front of your exercise ball and slide your weight forward over the ball.
  • Lie prone over the ball with chest raised.
  • Hands rest lightly on the floor in front of you.
  • Legs are raised so that your body is straight from your heels to your head.
  • Find your position of equilibrium with legs together.
Action Prime Movers
  • Glutes, hamstrings, back extensors.
Physio Tips
  • Your ideal starting position is such that you could lift your hands off the floor and remain balanced on the ball.
  • Keep your neck straight, chin tucked and looking at the floor.
  • Press the tongue to the roof of your mouth.
  • Engage deep neck flexors by pretending to have a grapefruit gripped between your chin and your chest.
Progression When you're training for sport, the ideal gym exercise will include movements involved in your sport. The more alike a movement is to your sport more carry-over in training effect there will be from the gym to the sport. For this reason I like this swim kick exercise ball exercise for my scuba diving. Kicking in the water is accompanied by resistance during both the downward and upward movements, Kicking on the ball is only accompanied by resistance in the upward movement of course, due to gravity. However, a lot of the trunk muscle activity accompanying these movements is similar.

Any scuba diver will tell you that heavy kicking, say against a heavy current, can cause some back strain that you'll feel after you get back on the boat. Make sure you also add some good abdominal strengthening to your gym program.
For more exercises for scuba divers click here.


1ballsTry small swim kicks for 1 minute each side.

2ballsTry small kicks for 2 minutes,
           followed by strong kicks for 1 minute.

3ballsTry stronger swim kicks for 2-3 minutes.
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