There was some confusion over the previous poll "What is your favorite stroke?", as the word "favorite" can be interpreted many different ways. For example, someone may think it's his/her favorite because it's most graceful and likes to watch this stroke the most, but he/she may not necessarily swim this stroke.
So this is the new poll.
Please only select the stroke you PERSONALLY train and spend most time swimming (and thinking about).
Parents
Former Member
Originally posted by swiminton
I posed my question because others suggested that one should do 1200 and sometimes over 2000 just for warmup, at a meet or a workout.
Is that the right way to warmup?
I don't know and I know a lot of people have been doing it that way for years. However, I am not convinced simply because it doens't sound very energy efficient.
I think a lot of people let their yardage determine whether they have done enough warmup. Why don't you let your body tell you when you are ready? As soon as you feel you are ready, begin real training.
I suspect that many people go beyond what is necessary for warmup. That takes away their energy for doing more intense sets during a workout, or better time during a race.
If you had spent 10 minutes instead of 20 warming up at a moderate pace, you could have done 5 more intense sets later on.
Our warmup sometimes also consists of nearly 1800m and we ARE a sprinters group. Sure this is much and we don't do such a warm up every work out but we at least spent some 15 minutes on warm up. If you focus on already going fast in warm-up in relativity to your training pace you won't get in too much yardage but still getting your body ready to tackle even faster paces. And I don't think that we would be much faster if we cut off some warm up and added this to our main set.
In warmup the longest "leg" we swim straight are 300m at the beginning, the rest is made up of 25, 50 and some 100's focusing on perfect form and even already pushing ourselves with some kind of "fartlek" games. So we have a really fast warm up and don't spent "Much miles on 10k pace" ;) Because warm up doesn't necessarily mean that you will swim it straigt and slow.
And this kind of warmup gives me a really good feedback of what I am able to do in the main set and what not. If I don't feel too energized after the warmup, I know that today I won't become a world class swimmer and can therefor modify my workout and don't have to give up during the main set.
Nevertheless it IS important to focus on quality rather than quantity first, there you are right, but usually you have the best opportunities to focus on quality of your swimming in warm up and cool down. I personaly think that cutting off the warm up and adding it to the main set to do "more sprints" is a bit focusing on quanity (in this case of intensity) rather then on the quality. In the end you will more from a better technique than from high volume intensity training. Remember that too much intensity can even be bad for you and slow you down.
Brgds
Matthias
Originally posted by swiminton
I posed my question because others suggested that one should do 1200 and sometimes over 2000 just for warmup, at a meet or a workout.
Is that the right way to warmup?
I don't know and I know a lot of people have been doing it that way for years. However, I am not convinced simply because it doens't sound very energy efficient.
I think a lot of people let their yardage determine whether they have done enough warmup. Why don't you let your body tell you when you are ready? As soon as you feel you are ready, begin real training.
I suspect that many people go beyond what is necessary for warmup. That takes away their energy for doing more intense sets during a workout, or better time during a race.
If you had spent 10 minutes instead of 20 warming up at a moderate pace, you could have done 5 more intense sets later on.
Our warmup sometimes also consists of nearly 1800m and we ARE a sprinters group. Sure this is much and we don't do such a warm up every work out but we at least spent some 15 minutes on warm up. If you focus on already going fast in warm-up in relativity to your training pace you won't get in too much yardage but still getting your body ready to tackle even faster paces. And I don't think that we would be much faster if we cut off some warm up and added this to our main set.
In warmup the longest "leg" we swim straight are 300m at the beginning, the rest is made up of 25, 50 and some 100's focusing on perfect form and even already pushing ourselves with some kind of "fartlek" games. So we have a really fast warm up and don't spent "Much miles on 10k pace" ;) Because warm up doesn't necessarily mean that you will swim it straigt and slow.
And this kind of warmup gives me a really good feedback of what I am able to do in the main set and what not. If I don't feel too energized after the warmup, I know that today I won't become a world class swimmer and can therefor modify my workout and don't have to give up during the main set.
Nevertheless it IS important to focus on quality rather than quantity first, there you are right, but usually you have the best opportunities to focus on quality of your swimming in warm up and cool down. I personaly think that cutting off the warm up and adding it to the main set to do "more sprints" is a bit focusing on quanity (in this case of intensity) rather then on the quality. In the end you will more from a better technique than from high volume intensity training. Remember that too much intensity can even be bad for you and slow you down.
Brgds
Matthias
