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Broad shoulders are awesome on girls, just to let you know.

You get a thin waist and big back and shoulders just because of the lack of fat, the broad shoulders and back is all down to the muscles which are used when swimming. – which you don’t need to do weights for, a few pull ups help though.

It might sound obvious that working each area individually is easier in training but also works that body part harder, because you can direct more energy to that place to burn more fat and work the muscle.
With that in mind, using a kick board and swimming legs only (crawl on front or back, breast stroke is useless) will really work the top of your things,hips, lower abdomen and butt. you can do this with fins (flippers) or without. but with fins is harder and more fun (because you go really fast). and remember you kick from you hips, not your knees.
The best thing for your stomach is dolphin kick. if you don’t know what this is look it up on youtube. it is quite hard to learn if you have never done it before, just try it a little bit everytime you go swimming and you’ll get it. do dolphin kick on your back with you arms stretched out. it’s ok not to be able to many lengths. if you can do a full length of dolphin kick, as a none swimmer, you should be very pleased. it hurts a lot. this can also be done with or without fins. and with or without a float in your hands.
If you are struggling with dolphin kick, good old front crawl is also really good for your core muscles.
The best way to work your shoulder, back and arms is to do front crawl with a float in between your legs, so you are just using your arms. it is tough on your arms but you will notice the difference very quickly.
Generally speaking, the best thing to do is crawl, unless you can swim butterfly. breaststroke: unless swam racing style burns the least calories.
Make sure when you are swimming, don’t have rest unless you really feel you have to, your heart rate should be high, and you should feel really hot, like your face is burning. at this intensity you can burn 500 calories in an hour if you keep it up. this is why pro swimmer like Phelps HAVE to eat so much. Swimming burns the most calories and uses the most energy out of all the sports per hour (obviously depending on how hard you swim, a granny in an hour won’t burn as much as a pro footballer ect.)
And just to let you know, humans are designed to run, we are naturally good at it, which means that it doesn’t use up much energy. So you can run and run and run and you won’t lose much weight. But we’re not designed for swimming.
Good luck and let me know how it goes, and also if you have any questions

“The athletic shape of the swimmers body” versus “A good body for swimming”.

If the goal is the latter then there are some great posts on here about how much time to spend in the pool. If your goal is getting the hot shape then check out The Swimmers Body.

EDIT from normalboy: The link above is an advertisement. This comment is borderline spam, but I approved it because it’s on topic. Just letting you know.

Uhmm, I wonder if Michael Phelps can dunk the ball, hit a homerun in 10 pitches, run the 400 meters in less the 60 seconds and kick a 60 yard field goal.

I want to know if those type of athletes are out there. My goal for the summer, to swim the 200 meter IM. I started training a month ago and could not even swim 100 meters without stopping in agony. Today I swam 1200 meters and stopped only three times….

I am hooked on swimming. If you care, I will keep you posted throughout the summer about my training and accomplishment in the water…

peace

I’m not sure if it’s as severe as saying everyone in the US is white, but yes, perhaps I should have been more careful with my wording. Sorry.

Thanks for the comment and the advice though!

For whoever wants to get in shape my suggestion to you would be to not go overboard on the swimming. Although swimming is less stressful on your body than other forms of exercise, it makes you hungrier and you’re more likely to overeat after a swim than a walk/run. You should do a combination of different things. Swim for about an hour twice a week, run or walk twice a week, and lift weights once a week. The more you switch up your workouts the more calories you burn. (If you just do the same thing over and over your body adjusts and burns less calories)

I am a pretty well rounded athlete- I played basketball and soccer for about 7 years and I started swimming when I was 5. (I’m a 15 year old girl) I also took up Cross Country 2 years ago. As for the whole “swimmer’s body” stereotype: THAT DOES NOT APPLY TO EVERYONE. Saying all swimmers have good bodies is like saying everyone in the U.S. is white. There are AMAZING year-round state-qualifying swimmers who don’t have great bodies. Everyone has their own body type, and its more important to be healthy (which could include less body fat) than to be super skinny.