warm ups??

As I understand it the general rule is that you do not want to do any serious stretching until your muscles are properly warmed up, otherwise your injury risk becomes higher. So I reckon starting off slow is a good approach (which is what I always do). In the past year or two there have been several threads on the topic of stretching that had some really good posts in them, so you might want to try the archives. Try keywords like stretch and yoga.

I suppose I must be very odd then. I will stretch first -slow, long until muscles are elongated then jump in the water and start to swim a warm up. The only part of my body that I will not stretch is the shoulders since I have a history of subluction. I need them tight.

No you are not odd, whenever I see master swimmers getting ready to swim there are many who stretch, It makes me ill when I see their contorsions but it still goes on. Here is a little piece re stretching swimming.about.com/.../stretch_before.htm

I usually warm-up about 800-1000 yards, swim, drills, kicking a little pulling. Then I stretch, then I go into my main set. This has evolved over the last 6 years since I learned to swim. At first my warm-ups were less than 500 yards because I could not swim very far. Now I need a long warm-up to feel good in my main set. The kids warm-up at meets up to 2000 yards. So warm-up is really important, just as it is in running.

I used to ignore a warmp up but have recently found it to be quite neccessary. I usually swim at least 400 yards before doing anything on the pace clock. I can feel when the time is right...my breathing gets balanced and my muscles have a different feeling to them.

Loosen up get the blood flowing, everyone thinks I am nuts, (never stretch before the muscles are warm). In fact I never stretch and just as important as a warm up do a cool down swim.

I usually swim 300-500 yards to warmup, more if I need it. I do a variety of strokes, and I sometimes include a few laps of just pulling or just kicking. If you can't swim well enough to do laps as a warmup, you may want to try walking/jogging in the pool to warm up.

The air temp was 60 this morning pool tem 74. I did not warm-up until I showered 3000 later.

That is above standard for most coaches. What does this mean? The distance is above standard? Or the coach's effort in designing the warmup is above standard? Or something else?

Originally posted by hofffam What does this mean? The distance is above standard? Or the coach's effort in designing the warmup is above standard? Or something else? It is a good warmup but most coaches say swim 200 or 300 for a warmup. I have also seen coaches who don't even allow for a warmup. 2 of them in particular, one in Qualicum Beach the other in Tsawassen.