My coach today told me that cooling down at the end of practice was not good for the body. He said it could rip muscles that were just worked. I have always been taught that the cool down was important, especially after working hard and getting the heart rate up.
Keep in mind that this is an USA-S practice and those I'm swimming with are teenagers.
I'm curious what others think?
Did Linn give you any recommendations for lowering your heart rate or allowing the muscles to loosen-up after the practice then?
This was actually our other coach, Marc. He's a top notch coach but makes me question my cool-down thinking now.
Jeremy always has us cool down, especially after a hard, heart rate raising set.
My coach today told me that cooling down at the end of practice was not good for the body. He said it could rip muscles that were just worked. I have always been taught that the cool down was important, especially after working hard and getting the heart rate up.
Keep in mind that this is an USA-S practice and those I'm swimming with are teenagers.
I'm curious what others think?
Did he mean cooling down in general or just a specific workout?
I always do a cool down it is needed not only for decreasing heart rate but also for relieving the muscles off lactate.
As far as I know the existence of a pool for warm up/cool down is a must for performing any important swimming competitions.
Did he mean cooling down in general or just a specific workout?
I always do a cool down it is needed not only for decreasing heart rate but also for relieving the muscles off lactate.
As far as I know the existence of a pool for warm up/cool down is a must for performing any important swimming competitions.
He said in general, mentioning the muscles being more in-shape when you don't cool down. I told him I get sick if I don't cool down and get my heart rate lower. He said I was hurting my body. He made a good point, though when he asked me what I do when I get done lifting weights. I told him I do a small stretch and that's it. But it's a tiny stretch and he said you're supposed to just finish so why do we cool down after swimming and not after other things like weights?
I don't usually cool down too much at the end of a practice. Maybe a 50, or none at all like this morning. Made use of every minute I had. :) Maybe I'm still young and can get away with this.
My coach today told me that cooling down at the end of practice was not good for the body. He said it could rip muscles that were just worked.
I need evidence otherwise I consider this complete claptrap.
My coach today told me that cooling down at the end of practice was not good for the body. He said it could rip muscles that were just worked. I have always been taught that the cool down was important, especially after working hard and getting the heart rate up.
Keep in mind that this is an USA-S practice and those I'm swimming with are teenagers.
I'm curious what others think?
Did Linn give you any recommendations for lowering your heart rate or allowing the muscles to loosen-up after the practice then?
I don't see how using muscles less is risking tearing them. Not sure if I'm on board with the weight lifting analogy either since they tend to be completely different types of exercise. I have no idea if cool down is good or bad - it might be bad - but I don't follow the logic for why.
For myself, I don't cool down after a soccer match (unless drinking a beer in the shade is considered cooling down) but I do cool down after I swim. I usually do an easy 200 IM focusing on long efficient strokes and mixing in a little bit of drill. So, even if the cool down does nothing for me physically, at least I'm working on improving my stroke in some way.
Sprint events typically produce much higher concentrations of lactate than distance events, so you may want to revisit this theory.
When swim 50 you work anaerobically very little time to be affected so much by lactate. A bit more risk when you swim 100. But the worst are 200 and 400 which are swum with a heart rate higher than anaerobic threshold and you swim it long enough to achieve very high lactate concentration.
Long distance swimmers also tend to cross anaerobic threshold when they swim events. As a result you can see swimmers who just suddenly lose their speed - lactate concentration is so high that muscles just give up. They understand they need to swim faster but they can't physically.
Example: Recently I watched Universiade - 10km running marathon. The guy who was leading entire distance suddenly stopped and started to move like a drunkard - it was obvious that he got disorientated and in couple seconds he just fell down. For me it is pretty clear that it was because of the too high lactate concentration.
