Arms are the difficult part. So here’s a breakdown of the strokes, and which is the best swimming stroke for weight loss. Breaststroke is a bit of a slow burner in terms of calories. The butterfly style is second only to the freestyle stroke in terms of speed. Sure, the butterfly stroke is exhausting, but the breaststroke, despite its seemingly simple nature, requires a timing between the pulling and kicking motion is challenging to truly get the hang of. Based on the women’s world long-course records as of 2014, for example, the fastest stroke for 100 meters is the freestyle -- which typically means the front crawl -- followed by the butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke. Keep legs together and move them in a mermaid-like way. The Breaststroke: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know The breaststroke is one of the four swimming strokes performed in competitive swimming, and in the author’s opinion, the hardest to master. Average calorie burn: around 200 calories for 30 minutes swimming. In 1938, almost every breaststroke swimmer was using this butterfly style, yet this stroke was considered a variant of the breaststroke until 1952, when it was accepted as a separate style with its own set of rules.
In fact, it is the least beneficial stroke for burning calories. Arms in streamline, then you pull them to your sides, around, and back into streamline to glide. Butterfly: MUCH harder. Butterfly arms with a breaststroke kick were used by a few swimmers in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin for the breaststroke competitions.

Butterfly uses your chest muscles to launch your body out of the water and your hamstrings and quads to mimic a dolphin quick, in of and on intervals. The butterfly stroke is both the most beautiful and most difficult of the basic swimming strokes. They both use multiple different muscles. Best swimming stroke for weight loss 4th place: Breaststroke. Determining the fastest swimming stroke is simple when you compare competitive strokes. Breaststroke: Frog-like kick (sort of like the scissor kick). Breaststroke: Your head comes out of the water after each stroke, so it's an easier option to start with. Breaststroke is a series of movements or the legs and arms, as well as butterfly. Dolphin kick is used. Swimming Technique The body executes a wave-like undulation which starts in the arms and head, travels down the body and ends in the legs and feet which snap like whips. The breaststroke, however, is the slowest of all swimming styles. But it's the hardest stroke to do correctly because of the timing between arms and legs.

While actual figures haven’t been taken, the butterfly stroke’s peak speed often surpasses that of the freestyle stroke.