I learned about so-called dynamic stretching a couple years ago. The physical therapist who explained his approach said it's kind of like Tai Chi, those slow moving exercises you see a bunch of people doing in city parks in China. He said you ideally want to get your body to move through the range of motions it will be using in the specific sport you'll be performing, but to start these off very slowly.
When I play tennis now, I get to the court early and do slow motion backhands, forehands, and serves. It seems to help a bit.
But where I really feel it works, despite occasional ridicule by my raw-raw teammates, is at the pool. I will swim in slow motion for a 600 yards or so, trying to keep my form as decent as it can be when moving like refrigerated syrup. I think of it as tai chi swimming. I suspect the lifeguards think of it as sleep swimming.
I'm 56, and there definitely might be some age factors creeping in here. But this approach seems to slowly open up capillaries and ease my muscles into service in a gradual way. After the first 600, which I swim without flip turns, I finish off the 1000 "pre-warmup" going a bit faster and increasing the velocity gradually of my turns. If I do this, the rest of practice always goes much, much easier than when I get to the pool "late" and have to begin with the "official" warm up (often something like 10 x 100 on 1:25) with the rest of my lanemates.
Anyhow, I say if you haven't tried it yet, give tai chi swimming a chance.
I learned about so-called dynamic stretching a couple years ago. The physical therapist who explained his approach said it's kind of like Tai Chi, those slow moving exercises you see a bunch of people doing in city parks in China. He said you ideally want to get your body to move through the range of motions it will be using in the specific sport you'll be performing, but to start these off very slowly.
When I play tennis now, I get to the court early and do slow motion backhands, forehands, and serves. It seems to help a bit.
But where I really feel it works, despite occasional ridicule by my raw-raw teammates, is at the pool. I will swim in slow motion for a 600 yards or so, trying to keep my form as decent as it can be when moving like refrigerated syrup. I think of it as tai chi swimming. I suspect the lifeguards think of it as sleep swimming.
I'm 56, and there definitely might be some age factors creeping in here. But this approach seems to slowly open up capillaries and ease my muscles into service in a gradual way. After the first 600, which I swim without flip turns, I finish off the 1000 "pre-warmup" going a bit faster and increasing the velocity gradually of my turns. If I do this, the rest of practice always goes much, much easier than when I get to the pool "late" and have to begin with the "official" warm up (often something like 10 x 100 on 1:25) with the rest of my lanemates.
Anyhow, I say if you haven't tried it yet, give tai chi swimming a chance.
