# Swimming: legs vs arms **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2010, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-legs-vs-arms/551150 "2010-08-23T13:35:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-legs-vs-arms/551150/21 "2010-08-23T19:57:30Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Doesn’t that imply that swimming with the legs is more efficient in general, at least underwater? There’s much less drag if you’re completely submerged, allowing you to go faster. But its hard to use your arms effectively without being able to recover them out of the water. So, over short distances, dolphin-kicking underwater will be faster than all the other strokes. Not because your legs are more efficient in general, but because being underwater is more efficient and it’s hard to use your arms underwater. The problem, of course, is breathing. The restrictions on how far you can go underwater are there to prevent competitive swimming from turning into a breath-holding contest. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-legs-vs-arms/551150/22 "2010-08-23T20:21:43Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > The original rules for the breaststroke were loose enough to allow you to use a dolphin kick and out-of-the-water arm recovery. This is much faster than the traditional breaststroke, so everyone started swimming that way. Faced with the extinction of the traditional breaststroke, the authorities made the rules more restrictive, and created a new event called the butterfly. Nitpick: back when butterfly was still considered a variant of breaststroke, the butterfly arm motion was allowed, but the dolphin kick was not allowed. (Competitors at the time used the butterfly arm motion with the breaststroke whip kick.) It was only after butterfly became its own stroke that the more efficient and faster dolphin kick was allowed in competition. > [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > > [@hogarth](#): > > > > Doesn’t that imply that swimming with the legs is more efficient in general, at least underwater? > > There’s much less drag if you’re completely submerged, allowing you to go faster. But its hard to use your arms effectively without being able to recover them out of the water. So, over short distances, dolphin-kicking underwater will be faster than all the other strokes. Not because your legs are more efficient in general, but because being underwater is more efficient and it’s hard to use your arms underwater. > > The problem, of course, is breathing. The restrictions on how far you can go underwater are there to prevent competitive swimming from turning into a breath-holding contest. Exactly. The same thing led to a rule change requiring breaststroke swimmers to bring their head out of the water for each stroke. In the 1956 Olympics, breaststrokers were swimming the whole length of the pool underwater. They used their arms and legs, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Dave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Great\_Dave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Dave)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-legs-vs-arms/551150/23 "2010-08-23T20:38:28Z")
Using your legs to provide power will also burn up your oxygen much quicker. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-legs-vs-arms/551150/24 "2010-08-24T02:41:10Z")
> [@Great\_Dave](#): > > Using your legs to provide power will also burn up your oxygen much quicker. Not necessarily–it depends on the stroke. The arm motion in the butterfly is much more exhausting (and uses more oxygen) than the leg motion in the breaststroke or sidestroke. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-legs-vs-arms/551150.md?page=1)