This Dog Paddle Swimming Workout Takes Real Discipline

Don’t write off the dog paddle as a swim stroke for little kids. At 52, Dean Jarvis, an above-knee amputee, uses the basic swim technique to log 20-plus miles a week in the pool.

“I don’t zip up and down the lanes like Michael Phelps,” the Maryville, Tenn.-based insurance agent says. “But it’s been a way for me to lose weight and improve my cardio fitness.”

Mr. Jarvis lost his left leg below the knee, as well as use of his left hamstring, at 19 after getting bone cancer. The former high school athlete, now cancer-free, struggled to find ways to remain competitive and keep pounds off. In his late 40s, he started to compete in ParaLong Drive competitions, where success is measured by how far you hit a golf ball. But that didn’t provide enough cardio. The stress of his nearly 265-pound frame on his prosthesis put too much pressure on the top of his leg.

Realizing he needed to find a low-impact cardio exercise, he embraced long-distance swimming. “I never dreamed I’d be a swimmer,” he says. “My original prosthetic had a computer chip in it, so I used to avoid being near water at all costs.”

Mr. Jarvis hadn’t swum since childhood and started to familiarize himself with the water again by using the dog paddle. The technique focuses on the underwater catch and the pull of the arm strokes and resembles the actions used by a dog when swimming.