Published on May 5, 2026 at 06:00 AM
5 ways to check and fix navigation issues
Watch any swim meet, and you’ll see swimmers shaking their arms, making shoulder movements, and turning their heads until they’re loose and stretchy. While most athletes realize that a certain degree of shoulder flexibility is needed for swimming mechanics, the role of movement throughout the upper body and spine in relation to breathing can be overlooked.
Spending hours working at a desk, scrolling through a phone, or hunched over a bike handlebar can create restrictions in the thoracic spine, neck, trunk, and chest muscles that affect breathing while swimming. But it’s very easy to know if you’re affected or not, and even easier to fix mobility issues that affect your ability to Breathing when swimming.
How do movement problems affect breathing while swimming?
First, let’s take a deeper look at breathing mechanics. At rest, inhalation is accomplished primarily by contraction of two muscles: the diaphragm, which is located at the base of the thoracic cavity, and the external intercostal muscles, which is located between the ribs. The diaphragm contracts and flattens below, while the intercostals lift the ribs and breastbone above, expanding the chest and lungs. Exhalation occurs when these muscles relax.
When oxygen needs (and thus breathing) increase during exercise, additional breathing muscles are recruited to expand the chest cavity and increase the respiratory rate. These muscles include the scalene, sternocleidomastoid (SCM), pectoralis, serratus anterior, and latissimus dorsi muscles, all of which attach to the ribs and/or sternum.
These muscles have a lot of other roles as well. For example, they also attach to various locations throughout the spine, neck, shoulder blades and shoulder/upper arm, with the lats, pectoralis and serratus anterior acting as some of the main propulsive muscles in Swimming stroke. The scalenes and SCM also rotate and flex the neck laterally.
All of the accessory muscles can be susceptible to tightness, restricting their ability to expand the chest and aid breathing. It also requires expanding the rib cage Adequate mobility In the thoracic spine.
Breathing while swimming is particularly challenging due to the hydrostatic pressure of the water Moves the diaphragm upwardBreathing must be coordinated with body rotation, propulsion, and maintenance of body position, requiring movement, stability, and timing throughout the entire torso.
It’s common to feel short of breath while swimming on a Monday morning after a weekend of bike training. To understand whether physical limitations affect your breathing in the pool, it may be helpful to identify typical areas where movement is often restricted.
The following sections outline key areas of self-assessment and provide practical methods for improving movement and facilitating breathing while swimming.
5 Mobility self-checks and air purifier repairs
Decreased chest rotation
Limited thoracic rotation affects the ability of the rib cage to expand for breathing, and also affects stroke mechanics by affecting body rotation, shoulder mechanics, and shoulder motion (particularly during stroke recovery).
How to test it
Get on all fours, then sit on your heels. Place your elbows and forearms on the floor. Place one hand behind your head and rotate the shoulder and upper body toward the ceiling as far as you can.
Aim for at least 45-50 degrees of rotation, measured by the angle between your shoulders and the floor (if you’re not sure, have someone take a head-on photo to evaluate). If you cannot achieve this, you are limited in thoracic rotation.
How to fix it
Research has shown that thoracic mobility exercises performed from standing and quadruped positions are effective Very successful In easing these restrictions. In other words, the diagnostic self-test acts as a solution to the problem.
On all fours, hand behind head, rotate upper elbow toward ceiling, hold for 3-5 seconds, and repeat 10 reps total. For some additional overhead pressure, a pull-up bar (mounted from above) can be used to assist the upper elbow.
Limited thoracic extension
This can be related to sitting in a tense forward position (eg, in front of a computer) for long periods and may become a long-term skeletal problem. Limited thoracic extension affects breathing during swimming by reducing the ability of the rib cage to expand.
This also increases the overall work (and oxygen needs) of swimming by reducing shoulder and shoulder motion, causing poor posture (and sinking legs) and neck fatigue, and making it more difficult to lift the head to see in open water.
How to test it
To check for limitations in extension of the thoracic spine, ideally find a long foam roller; Pool noodles can also work. Lie lengthwise with the foam roller along your spine, supporting your entire spine from your tailbone to your head, with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Let your arms rest at your sides and support your stomach slightly to prevent your lower back from arching from the foam roller. Monitor how you feel in your upper back. Does the pressure from a foam roller cause pain? Do you feel like you need a pillow under your head because it has to stretch uncomfortably to reach the foam roller? If so, this is a sign that your thoracic spine lacks the ability to extend motion (or has a forward bend, called kyphosis).
How to fix it
For self-filling Thoracic spine In the extension, hold the foam roller again or tap two tennis balls together into a peanut shape. Lie on your back with your knees bent, hands behind your head, and place a foam roller or tennis balls under your thoracic spine perpendicular to your torso. Extend your upper back over the foam, swaying slowly slightly. Work along your thoracic spine for about 3 to 5 minutes, spending some extra time on any areas that feel particularly restricted.
Tight pecs
Shoulders hunched forward due to working on a computer or riding a bike often tightens the chest muscles. Tight chest muscles affect breathing during swimming by limiting the ability of the rib cage to expand up and out, and they also make the chest muscles (remember, accessory breathing muscles) work less efficiently than when they are short.
How to test it
Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Extend your arms straight out to your sides at a 90-degree angle, with your palms facing up, forming a T. If you feel tightness in the front of your chest and shoulders, this is a sign of significant tightness in your chest muscles.
Next, pull up the foam roller again, and assume the same position as the chest extension test, except this time, pull your arms back into a T shape. It’s okay to stretch a little, but if your forearms can’t reach the floor without feeling like your chest is underextended and painful, that’s a sign of some tightness in your chest muscles.
How to fix it
A simple way to stretch your chest muscles is through the doorway stretch. Stand facing the doorway and place your forearms on the door frame, just below shoulder height. Step through the doorway, extending your arms behind you until you feel a pull in the front of your chest and shoulders. Hold for 30 seconds, then repeat 2-3 times, adjusting arm height slightly to reach different muscle fibers.
Decreased shoulder flexion/tightness
Spend a lot of time on TT positionOr completing a difficult swimming block, or simply not getting as much overhead movement can limit movement in the back and shoulder muscles. Since latin exercises are so important for propulsion and contributing to breathing while swimming, short latin lines will make these two processes less efficient, resulting in increased breathing needs and reduced ability to do so.
How to test it
Stand with your back against a wall, feet slightly outward, keeping your head, upper back and tailbone in contact with the wall. Brace your abdomen to maintain a neutral position. With your thumbs pointing up, raise your arms straight out in front of you, lifting them as high as you can.
Can you reach the wall behind you (without your back starting to arch in compensation), or do you start to feel a pull in your armpits and the side/back of your rib cage? If so, this may indicate some movement restrictions in your muscles, which could be related to it
How to fix it
Stretching the prayer works well to lengthen the abdominal muscles. To perform, start by kneeling in front of a couch or chair. Place your elbows on the chair, bring your hands together, raise them to the back of your head, and press your chest toward the floor until you feel a stretch in the back of your arms and rib cage. Hold for 30 seconds, and repeat 2-3 times.
Decreased cervical rotation
Muscle tightness throughout SCM, scalenes, and traps often comes with desk or phone work, especially if your setup has you looking in one direction more than the other. Cyclingespecially outdoors, is also the culprit.
Latent Cervical spine Degenerative or segmental changes Mobility issues It could also be in play. The SCM and scalene brevis muscles will not be able to lift the rib cage to breathe effectively, and limited cervical rotation makes the simple mechanics of turning the head to take a breath more difficult.
How to test it
It’s simple: keep your head level and turn it (don’t cheat and spin it back!) as far as you can to the left, then right. The normal range of motion of cervical rotation is 70-90 degrees (measured by how far the nose moves from front to front).
If you cannot achieve this without tightness or discomfort in your cervical and cervical muscles, you are lacking some range of motion of cervical rotation.
How to fix it
One good exercise to rotate the cervix is a Self-packing of the towel. Wrap a hand towel around the back of your neck and cross your arms so that the left arm is holding the right side of the towel (and vice versa). Hold one end of the towel firmly, then wrap the other end around your cheek and use it to help turn your head to the affected side until you feel the stretch. Hold this position for 3-5 seconds, then return to the starting position, and repeat for 10 reps.
