I am new to tri-training and I have a question regarding warm-up and cool down in swimming.
I swim intervals three times a week with a fellow (49 years old) who has been competing for many years. He stresses warm-up including easy swimming, drill and kick and a thorough cool down. Warm-up is usually around 800m and cool down 300 - 400m of easy swimming or drilling down. Total workout is 3000 - 3500 m.
Another fellow who swims at the same time (but not with us) ALWAYS starts his swim with a 400 build and goes very hard after the first 100 - 150 m. He then does a main set of intervals totalling between 800 and 1000 m and his warm down is always 50m. He says 400 build as warm up and 50 m cool down is more than adequate.
I may be new to training but this seems to be inadequate for warm-up (if going hard after 100 - 150m could be called warm-up) and warm down. This seems to contradict all principles of training and athletic performance that I have read about.
Comments?
Thanks
Parents
Former Member
Thanks everyone for some good information.
Islandsox, I too would never stretch before doing some easy swimming. Fellow 1 from my orignial post always has us do some stretching after the easy swimming part of our warm-up and after our cool down.
Concho Pearl, interesting warm-up. I can see how this could be incorporated into our warm-up.
I need some clarification on some other points.
Okoban suggested to never swim more than 200 m when doing sprint sets. This seems quite short a wu, even, or should I say especially, when doing sprint sets. My understanding is that wu is to elevate the core temperature of muscles to get them ready for the stress of interval training. Would 200 m even elevate the core temperature enough, especially for sprints? I do not quite understand how 200m wu would tire someone out.
This leads me to my next point. I appreciate that wu is individual, but there must be a minimum amount of time to properly prepare muscles for training (I have read some information suggesting 10 minutes). There must also be things one should not do. In my original post, I mentioned that Fellow 2 is going hard within 150m of getting in the water. This seems to completely contradict the principles of human athletic performance that wu is based on.
Has anyone seen any information on a correlation between age and warm-up/cool-down?
Comments.
Thanks.
Thanks everyone for some good information.
Islandsox, I too would never stretch before doing some easy swimming. Fellow 1 from my orignial post always has us do some stretching after the easy swimming part of our warm-up and after our cool down.
Concho Pearl, interesting warm-up. I can see how this could be incorporated into our warm-up.
I need some clarification on some other points.
Okoban suggested to never swim more than 200 m when doing sprint sets. This seems quite short a wu, even, or should I say especially, when doing sprint sets. My understanding is that wu is to elevate the core temperature of muscles to get them ready for the stress of interval training. Would 200 m even elevate the core temperature enough, especially for sprints? I do not quite understand how 200m wu would tire someone out.
This leads me to my next point. I appreciate that wu is individual, but there must be a minimum amount of time to properly prepare muscles for training (I have read some information suggesting 10 minutes). There must also be things one should not do. In my original post, I mentioned that Fellow 2 is going hard within 150m of getting in the water. This seems to completely contradict the principles of human athletic performance that wu is based on.
Has anyone seen any information on a correlation between age and warm-up/cool-down?
Comments.
Thanks.