“How do I keep up my fitness through winter?”

Swimming coach Cassie Patten recommends a dryland programme for outdoor swimmers to maintain fitness levels through the winter months

“Despite my best efforts my outdoor swims reduce in winter, due to cold water and distance to venues. What can I do to keep my fitness levels up? I’m 73 years old.” Gill

Cassie’s answer:

Hello Gill! A dryland programme is a great addition to a swimming programme and can really assist in keeping your fitness up over the winter.

You don’t need lots of equipment to get a good workout. Exercises that use your own body weight to provide resistance are great to develop strength.

I have created a programme below that uses both weighted and body weight exercises. I have broken the exercises down into three groups: upper body, lower body and core. Watch the videos to see how to perform the exercises safely.

For the any exercises I have not filmed I have explained them below.

Upper body exercises

Tricep dips

You will need a chair placed against a wall to stop it slipping. Start by sitting with your arms by your side and your feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart. Grip the front of the chair seat with both hands.

Then slowly move forward, moving your bottom off the chair. Fully extend your arms and ensure your knees are slightly bent, feet flat on the floor.

Lower your body by bending your arms at a 90-degree angle. Finally, return to the starting position with your arms fully extended.

Press ups

Your hands should be palms-down on the floor, level with your shoulders. Keep your feet together, with the balls of your feet touching the floor.

Next, raise your body to a straight horizontal position by extending your arms. Finally, lower your body until your chest touches the floor. If that is too difficult to start with, lower your knees to the floor and do half press ups.

Watch how to do tricep pushbacks on a cable machine:

Lower body exercises

Squat in streamline position

• Stand in the streamline position, with your ankles, knees and hips in a line, hip-distance apart.

• To start the squat, think about sitting back onto a chair. You want to try and bend your knees to 90 degrees.

• It is important that your ankles, knees and hips stay in alignment and your knees do not either go out or bend closer together.

• Keeping in the streamline position makes you engage your core and therefore makes the exercise slightly harder.

Lunge in the streamline position

Starting again in the streamline position, stand with your ankles and knees both hip-distance apart. Take a step back so your leg can bend to 90 degrees behind you. Think about pressing up through that leg to return to the standing position.

Watch Cassie’s core workout for swimmers:

I would mix your sessions up by alternating one upper body, one lower body and one core workout. To make the sessions harder, you can increase the amount that you are doing per week, or increase theweights used on the lat pull downs. I hope this helps and the water will be warming up again soon!