Best Swimming Stroke for Legs and Glutes: A Coach’s Guide

What Is the Best Swimming Stroke for Legs?

Swimming is best known for building cardiovascular endurance and upper-body strength, so many adults are surprised by how hard it can work the legs. The best swimming stroke for legs depends on how much of the stroke comes from the kick, and on how long you can keep that kick going with good form.

Breaststroke is the best swimming stroke for legs for most adults, because its kick drives the stroke and works the thighs, glutes and calves on every length. Butterfly’s dolphin kick works the legs even harder but suits confident swimmers. Freestyle and backstroke give steady, lighter leg work over longer distances.

What Your Legs Do in the Water

Your kick does two jobs. It pushes you forward, and it holds your hips and legs up so you stay flat in the water. A good kick adds speed, but a poor one mostly adds drag, which is why so many adults feel their legs sinking.

The power comes from the hips and thighs, but much of the push comes off the feet. U.S. Masters Swimming’s guide to lower-body exercises for swimmers puts it plainly: better ankle mobility gives you a more propulsive kick. Stiff ankles are one of the most common reasons an adult kicks hard and goes nowhere.

Breaststroke: The Best Swimming Stroke for Legs for Most Adults

In breaststroke, the kick does more of the driving than in any other stroke. You draw your heels up towards your seat, turn your feet out, then sweep the legs round and squeeze them together. That sweep and squeeze works the front and back of the thighs, the inner thighs, the glutes and the calves together.

It is also the stroke most adults can swim for a whole session, so the legs get far more work than in a few hard lengths of anything else. Keep the kick narrow and finish it with your feet together, rather than pushing the knees wide. Our guide to learning breaststroke covers the kick timing we teach.

Butterfly: The Hardest Leg Workout in the Pool

Butterfly uses a dolphin kick, with both legs moving together in a wave that starts at the hips. It works the glutes, the hamstrings, the thighs and the core in one movement, and it is the most demanding stroke for the legs.

Few adults can swim more than a short distance of butterfly with good form, though, and a tired dolphin kick strains the lower back. We teach it once breaststroke and freestyle are steady. Our page on learning butterfly shows how lessons build it up in parts.

Freestyle: Steady Leg Work Over Distance

Freestyle uses a flutter kick: quick, small kicks from the hip with the legs nearly straight. Each kick works the legs less than a breaststroke kick, but you keep it going for every length, so the thighs, hamstrings and calves work steadily through a session.

The arms do the other half of the work, and our guide to the best swimming stroke for chest muscles covers that side of the stroke. For the legs, kick from the hip rather than the knee, keep the ankles loose and the kicks small. Our guide to learning freestyle explains how the kick fits with the arms.

Backstroke Keeps the Legs Working Gently

Backstroke uses the same flutter kick as freestyle, upside down. Lying on your back, the kick has to work a little harder to keep the hips up, and the upward kick works the front of the thighs. It suits a gentle session or a recovery set. Our page on learning backstroke explains the body position.

Getting More From the Best Swimming Stroke for Legs

The quickest way to work the legs harder is to take the arms out. A few lengths holding a kickboard, using a breaststroke kick and then a flutter kick, puts all the work on your legs. Mixing strokes in the same session works the legs from different angles, and the legs work best when they keep time with the arms, so our article on how to coordinate hand and leg movement is worth reading too.

Be realistic about the results. Swimming tones the legs, strengthens them and builds endurance, but it will not add the bulk that heavy squats do. Many swimmers add a little leg work in the gym for that. A strong kick also needs a strong middle to connect it to the arms, so see our guide on which swimming stroke is best for your core. If losing weight is part of your goal, our guide on which swimming stroke is best for belly fat covers that side.

Learning a Kick That Works

Most adults who say they cannot kick are kicking from the knee, with stiff ankles, and getting tired without moving. A coach can see that in a few lengths and fix it with simple drills, and our guide on how to improve your swim kick walks through the drills we use. After that, the best swimming stroke for legs starts to feel like a workout rather than a struggle.

Our adult swimming lessons cover all four strokes at ActiveSG public pools or at your own condo pool, and a private swimming lesson lets your coach work on your kick alone. Tell your coach your legs are the goal, and the session can be built around breaststroke and kick sets.