Many swimmers consider butterfly to be the most challenging stroke in all of swimming. And they’re right! Butterfly burns the most calories of all 4 competitive strokes and engages every muscle in the human body.
How do you get faster in butterfly? Aside from swimming it regularly, it’s important to spend time working on your technique and building strength. Check out this sample workout, including one of our favorite drills to improve butterfly power!
Related: How to Swim Butterfly with Perfect Technique
The Drill: Butterfly Pull with Freestyle Kick
This drill will help you increase your power for butterfly! You’ll work on big, powerful pulls coupled with a steady freestyle kick, which flattens out your stroke and allows you to really focus on the strength of your stroke rather than the rhythm (there are lots of other drills for that!).
You should have lots of control in this drill. Take your time, and wear fins if you have them!
Related: How to Improve Your Underwater Dolphin Kick
The Workout
Ready to swim faster butterfly? Try this workout!
Distance: 1,600 yards
Duration: 42 minutes
Warm Up
- 4×100 Freestyle @ 1:40
- 8×50 IM @ 1:00
- 4×25 Drill (Butterfly pull w/ Freestyle kick) @ 0:45
Main Set (3x)*
- 3×50 Butterfly Best Average @ 1:10
- 1×50 Freestyle Easy @ 1:30
*Round 1: No equipment; Round 2: Add fins; Round 3: Fins & paddles
Cool Down
- 4×25 Freestyle @ 0:30
What’s your favorite butterfly drill? For more inspiration, workouts and technique tips, download the MySwimPro app! Get a personalized Training Plan and Guided Workouts designed to help you reach your goals. Save $35 on your first year of training with code SWIM35 >
