Butterfly Stroke Benefits

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Swimming is a terrific place to start if you want to add some variety to your training routine.

It’s an excellent method to keep in shape, shed pounds, and tone up. In addition, swimming is a fun way to help you improve your cardiovascular fitness and muscle strength.

If you’re a beginner swimmer, you might be curious about which strokes to incorporate into your routine. As each stroke is different, they have different advantages. 

However, the butterfly stroke is one of the strokes that offers the most benefits to your body. In this article, let’s take a look at the many benefits of the butterfly stroke.

 

What is Butterfly Stroke Good For?

The butterfly stroke has many benefits for your body. First, it provides a whole-body workout. It is said to be the most effective stroke for building muscles and toning your body. 

Swimming butterfly stroke effectively requires a lot of core and upper body strength. It also uses a lot of energy, so it’s a very effective swimming stroke for burning calories. 

Butterfly stroke provides an intense upper-body workout. 

During the various stages of swimming butterfly stroke, the following upper-body muscles are engaged: 

 

• Chest muscles
• Upper/Middle back muscles
• Upper arm muscles

 

Another benefit of the butterfly stroke is that it’s an easy way to incorporate more strength training into your swimming practice without having to use equipment like pull buoys or paddles. 

Butterfly stroke also improves posture by increasing flexibility, suppleness, and stretching out the body.

Does Butterfly Stroke Tone Your Stomach, Legs, or Arms?

In addition to being a great workout for your upper body, butterfly stroke also tones your stomach. The undulating movement of your body is a vital element of this stroke. Your core muscles play a big part in this. 

The core muscles also help you to maintain an effective position in the water by stabilizing your body. For example, when swimming in the butterfly stroke, your core should be engaged throughout the stroke. All of this core engagement helps to tone your stomach. 

The butterfly stroke also has the benefit of toning your legs. The dolphin kick required for butterfly stroke helps engage multiple leg muscles. Swimming this stroke will tone your hip flexors, quadriceps, glutes, and calves.

Swimming in butterfly strokes can also tone your arms. This stroke requires you to raise both arms out of the water and over your head and push against the water. These actions result in an increase in arm muscle and tone.

 

How Many Calories Does the Butterfly Stroke Burn?

The butterfly stroke is the swimming stroke that burns the most calories. It is said that the average calorie burned from swimming 30 minutes of butterfly stroke is 450 calories. Although the exact number of calories burned from swimming depends on several factors: 

 

• How long do you swim for
• How much you weigh
• How fast do you choose to swim

 

Final Thoughts on Butterfly Stroke Benefits 

Although the butterfly stroke is arguably the hardest stroke to master, this stroke burns the most calories of any swimming stroke. If your main goal is to get in shape and improve your body, it’s well worth learning the butterfly stroke. 

Incorporating butterfly stroke into your regular swimming routine will allow you to start seeing the results you want quickly.