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?
I agree with what others have said here:
It's hard to see how slow swimming could tear your muscles after fast swimming.
I feel better after I cool down. Sometimes I feel a bit dizzy after a hard workout, and definitely not ready to get out of the pool.
It doesn't need to be long -- 100-200 yds seems to do it.
I'd add that if I've worked out really hard and I don't cool down, my face will be red, hot, and sweaty for the next several hours. Yuck.
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?
This sounds like a coach who knows nothing about the principles of exercise. When you train hard, blood flows primarily to working muscles and not as much to brain and organs. By gradually decreasing, you redistribute blood flow back to other parts of the body to go back to "normal." This is WISE. If you go from high intensity to no movement, blood pools in the extremities, leaving them filled with exercise byproducts and restricting blood flow to other areas, which in extreme cases (when there is insufficient blood flow to the brain), you can pass out. NOT WISE.
Could we have him give us his ideas on this subject???
Can you contact him for those thoughts?
Are you asking about the coach giving his insight? I could try. I'll see him on Monday.
This makes no sense at all. Scientific explanations aside, how would slow swimming after a hard workout cause any damage at all? Would it be worse than swimming a longer workout?
If my workout is 3000 yards and I decide to do a 200 cool-down how is that more damaging than doing a 4500 yard workout? I know # of yards is not measure of intensity, but you get my point, I'm sure. How could easy swimming of any kind be detrimental in any way? Nonsense.
I agree with you all. Especially if we're ending on a hard, lactate set, I think the body needs that time to get the lactic acid out and lower the heart rate.
This makes no sense at all. Scientific explanations aside, how would slow swimming after a hard workout cause any damage at all? Would it be worse than swimming a longer workout?
If my workout is 3000 yards and I decide to do a 200 cool-down how is that more damaging than doing a 4500 yard workout? I know # of yards is not measure of intensity, but you get my point, I'm sure. How could easy swimming of any kind be detrimental in any way? Nonsense.
This is why it seems like this coach can't possibly be saying that! It makes absolutely no sense at all.
This is why it seems like this coach can't possibly be saying that! It makes absolutely no sense at all.
I agree. And what shocks me is that I agree with almost every thing he says and does with us and then he hit me with this odd notion.
