Operators Association

How to Swim Like a Navy SEAL

Jun 28, 2021

Supercharge your training with these exercises from the Navy SEALs

Whether you dream of becoming a combat diver or are just looking for new ways to exercise, swimming is one of the most versatile training methods in the world. 

Not only does swimming offer an excellent resistance and cardio workout, but its low-impact nature makes it ideal if you’re trying to rehabilitate an injury. Swim training can also improve your lung capacity, balance, strength, and relaxation – making it an excellent workout for improving your general adaptability.

Unfortunately, swimming laps at a local pool for an hour might not be challenging or fast-paced enough for an Aspiring Operator. So we put together a handful of Navy SEAL swim workouts that will test your endurance, strength, and willpower!

A word of warning before we begin, make sure you’re smart with your swim training. Just because the professionals do drown-proofing doesn’t mean that you have to put yourself in distress at your local pool – know your limits. It’s okay to be out of breath during a workout, but if you start feeling dizzy or weak, exit the pool immediately. If possible, try to train with a buddy who can keep an eye on you while you swim.
 
With that out of the way, here are four Navy SEAL swim workouts and drills that you can incorporate to train like a combat diver:

EMOM Swim Sprints
EMOM training stands for Every-Minute-On-the-Minute. It involves working out in 60-second intervals. Every minute, you must do a specific amount of reps of an exercise. Then, you can rest for the remainder of that minute.

For this exercise, find a clock or stopwatch. At the start of every minute, swim as fast as you can to the other end of the pool and back. Then, rest until a new minute starts, and do the sprint-swim again. Repeat this for 15-20 rounds depending on your skill and fitness level.

This EMOM workout will feel easy at the beginning. But your rest times will become shorter as you fatigue – eventually resulting in a full-on sprint in the final rounds. After a few weeks of doing this training, you will see a significant improvement in your endurance, speed, and confidence in the water.

Swimming with Fins
Before you start this workout, take a moment to come to terms with the fact that you will be the only person at the pool with swim fins and will quickly become referred to as “that guy.” 

This exercise involves donning a pair of fins and swimming laps. You can either go for distance, speed, or a blend of both. To make your training extra challenging, you can also do over-under sprints where you swim one length of the pool regularly and the next length submerged.

Although swimming with fins looks a bit eccentric, it changes the way you do your swim training. When you wear fins while swimming, your legs take over the majority of the work. This not only leads to an improved kicking technique and increased leg endurance, but it also takes stress off your shoulders and builds ankle strength and flexibility – helping you march and run more confidently over uneven terrain.

Training with Various Strokes
This is an excellent training session for a recovery day. Instead of training strength and cardio, you’ll be working on your technique and confidence in the pool by training the different types of swimming strokes. Here’s the exercise:

  • 4x 25m Front Crawl (mix up the amount of strokes you take between each breath: 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.)
  • 4x 25m Sidestroke
  • 4x 25m Backstroke
  • 4x 25m Breaststroke (if you feel confident, you can also do this stroke submerged)
    (Repeat 4 Sets)

Not only is this exercise great for improving your competence in the water, improving your technique, training your adaptability, but you’ll also swim an entire mile throughout the training!

Amphibious Training
If there’s one thing that SEALs are known for, it’s their adaptability. From underwater demolitions to amphibious assault, Frogmen do it all. The ability to perform amphibious operations is stressed from the very beginning of BUD/S – with the majority of training happening either in water or on the beach. 

If you want to become a SEAL, or just improve your adaptability as an operator, here is an amphibious training plan that you can do at your local pool. You'll be swimming laps and then jumping out of the pool to do some calisthenics on the deck:

  • 25m Freestyle Sprint Swim
  • 25 Push-Ups
  • 25m Freestyle Sprint Swim
  • 25 Sit-Ups
  • 25m Sidestroke Sprint Swim
  • 25 Squats
  • 25m Backstroke Sprint Swim
  • 25 Lunges
    (Repeat 4 Sets)

By the end of this training, you will have completed 400m of swimming and 100 pushups, sit-ups, squats, and lunges. You can either call it a day here or add on one of the other exercises above to supercharge your training!


Now that you know a few Navy SEAL exercises for training your swimming, the only thing left to do is to hit the surf (or your local pool). You can either do these trainings separately or combine them for an extra challenge. These exercises are also a great way of finishing a workout session if you train at a gym with a swimming pool.

Learn more ways to increase your fitness and prepare for special forces selection. Become an Aspiring Operator today and chat live with Navy SEALs about your training during our livestream Q/As.

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