I have been participating in Local, State and Nationals meets since 10 years ago but every time I get into a meet I am always worried about warming up too much time or just not enough and I also ask to myself how much effort to put on it.
As almost all the times during meets the pool is full for the warm ups, I do not feel that my different trainers I have had during this years had put too much attention to this issue, so I would like to ask people in this forum for your recomendations.
Alex
a 5 4 3 2 1 warm up works well
it's what eddie reese often tells his swimmers to do
500 fr
400 IM drill
300 pull
200 kick
100 4 x 25 sprints with plenty of rest
everything with perfect form
easy and relaxed
then do a little pace work for your first event
easy speed with great form
if you're doing
50's and 100's do 25's
200's do 50's
400's and up do 100's
just 2 to 3 not very many
don't work these too hard.
after that you will be warmed up
if you have to wait more than an hour and a half
maybe pop back in the water 15 - 30 minutes before you swim
after your first event is done
if you have another event
just warm down from your swim and do drills to prepare for your next.
you don't need to go through the whole routine again.
work on hitting your races as fresh as you can
it's dumb to be tired from warm up
use warm up to get ready to swim your race fast and right.
ande
Originally posted by Alex
I have been participating in Local, State and Nationals meets since 10 years ago but every time I get into a meet I am always worried about warming up too much time or just not enough and I also ask to myself how much effort to put on it.
As almost all the times during meets the pool is full for the warm ups, I do not feel that my different trainers I have had during this years had put too much attention to this issue, so I would like to ask people in this forum for your recomendations.
Alex
Warmups are a highly individual thing. And, for a given individual, what is ideal may even vary from meet to meet and from year to year.
Your warmup should probably be guided to a significant degree by what you do during your workouts. If a given warmup routine leaves you overly tired when you do it in practice, it's probably going to do the same thing at a meet. If it doesn't warm you up enough in practice, it's probably not going to warm you up enough at a meet, either.
You should also be attuned to the fact that there are particular things that you may need to do during your warmup at a meet to get ready for competition.
For example, the pool where I do my workouts doesn't allow us to use the starting blocks, so the result is that I never get to practice my forward starts. So I make a point of getting to meets early, when all the lanes are open, so I can practice my forward starts during warmup. At this point, I'd estimate that most of the forward starts I've done in my entire life have been done at meets (either during warmup or during heats). That's not a recipe for doing great starts, but it's the best I can do at the moment.
I also make a point, if I'm going to be swimming backstroke, of trying to practice backstroke turns during warmup in a lane at the pool where I'm going to be competing. I've found that the flags look a little different in different pools, so unless I actually practice my turns in a lane at the competition pool, my timing may be off, or at the very least I may not be confident of my timing (which can be almost as bad).
If there are significant delays before or between my events, I try to do a little warmup 20 or 30 minutes before each heat, and the warmup is always specific to the event.
I remember very well doing the 5-4-3-2-1 at Texas. I still follow it to some degree to this day.
Ande mentions that you should jump back in the water if there's 90 minutes between warmup and first swim. I'd cut that down to an hour at the most. You don't feel it right away, but your muscles are starting to lose the adrenaline from warmup. The more adrenaline you lose, the longer you have to be in the water again before your race.
But again, every body is different. I know that I need longer warmup than most, as well as a longer warm down.
I usually swim mid-distance, but I'll do the occasional 100. For me, no matter what the race, I do at least 1200. That includes: easy swimming, kicking, lots of drills, and either pace or sprints (depending on the race).
I really let how I feel dictate how much I'll warm up again right before the race. Rarely, I won't even warm up right before a race.
I think this question relates to the "second wind" thread.
I used to think that warmups sapped some of my strength for the meet. I used to do a couple hundred yards max, just to get wet, get a feel for the pool, etc. Then I would do a bunch of turns to get aquainted with the nuances of that particular pool's walls, and then do a bunch of starts.
But as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate the value of warmups. And even more so now that I do some distance events (500 and 1500/1650, for instance.) I recognize it in workouts. If I do a workout of long reps (such as 8x500 or 12x300) and if I start doing that cold, I notice that my very first one is always the toughest and the slowest. After the first, I do the next few at a consistent pace that's faster than the first. And then half way through the set, I seem to get that "second wind" and can do the next few at even a faster pace. (And then I finally hit a performance wall and the last one or two start to slow down.)
So I'm wondering if I shouldn't try doing 1500 yards before my next 500 event!
Ande,
If Eddie Reese says that this is a good warmup, then I will follow it because the man has a great track record. He is the one that got Hansen to be a world record holder.
Originally posted by Conniekat8
I'm pretty religious about warmdowns!
So am I. You'll often hear me mutter somthing like "thank God that's over" after a bad race or hard workout.
Whatever you decide your warm-up will be swim it in every practice for about four weeks before your meet. Get your body used to the warm-up. You can also play around with it a bit then and figure out what works for you. You don't need to do much. And it is very much dependent on your races. You don't want to swim an easy 500 for a 50 sprint. Good luck!
I've noticed that our coach often gives a little workout equivalent to about 1/3 to 1/4 of your usual workout as a warmup. With modifications depending if you're getting ready to do a mile or a fast IM or sprints...
If your usual workout is around 3000, the warmup you may want to do is 700-1000. Lot of drilling and stretching, some short sprints just to get your heart and lungs going a bit, gives them a 'streatch' too, but you don;t want to go anaerobic for long, and diminish your capacity in a race.
Also, it would depend on what kind of cardio shape you're in.
In my example, doing 1500 for a warmup before a 200 would take too much out of me. I do my best times in the 200 after about 200 worth of sprints, and a good massage about 10 min before the race.
I'm pretty religious about warmdowns!
Your warmup should be event specific, 10 to 15 miute duration. If you are in a crawl event you should do crawl, in the wu. Why? it is to wu the muscles you are going to use and get the brain to think crawl.
George www.swimdownhill.com
