I did a practice shave of my legs last night, to get used to it and also figure out how long it takes me for planning purposes.
Today in practice, I was faster than usual. The most obvious was in my 200 free warm-up. I dps the first 100 and then gradually speed up to about 75%. Usually I am around 3 minutes. Monday, I went 2:51. Today, I was 2:36 with the usual effort level.
My 200 *** warm-up was about 10 seconds faster than usual.
Can shaving really improve things that much? Is some of this because I am tapering?
Also, for those guys who shave your heads, do you also wear a cap? If not, is the bald head better than a cap?
www.tuftsmarathonchallenge.com/.../Why Swimmers Shave Down!.doc
forums.usms.org/attachment.php
I don't have the time right now, or know enough physiology, to be able to evaluate carefully what Megerle is claiming. But it is enough to convince me that the standard answers of "reduced friction," "hypersensitivity," and/or "it's mostly psychological" may not have much actual weight of evidence behind them. Enjoy reading, do additional research and decide for yourself. But most of what is claimed on this thread (whether true or not) are purely speculative.
Very interesting articles but I still don't buy it.
The statement that shaving doesn't reduce drag is patently wrong.Push off streamlined and see how far you glide,now shave and try it.
I don't remember the reference,but they did tests on drag by pulling swimmers and shaving reduced drag by about enough to account for all the improvement in speed.
The improvement in DPS and deceased O2 use can also be explained by reduced drag.
Also in the first paper he shows how shaving can increase sensitivity and then asserts that the decreased sensitivity is the reason it is an advantage.
He also asserts that decreased muscle recruitment is a reason for increased efficiency with really no evidence.
The author may know much more about this than I(my medical training being 37 years ago) but it looks like he has a hypothesis and bends the data to prove it.I read his data and come to a different conclusion(but then I may be the stubborn,wrong one,fitting the data to my preconceived idea,Nawww,not me:bolt:)
www.tuftsmarathonchallenge.com/.../Why Swimmers Shave Down!.doc
forums.usms.org/attachment.php
I don't have the time right now, or know enough physiology, to be able to evaluate carefully what Megerle is claiming. But it is enough to convince me that the standard answers of "reduced friction," "hypersensitivity," and/or "it's mostly psychological" may not have much actual weight of evidence behind them. Enjoy reading, do additional research and decide for yourself. But most of what is claimed on this thread (whether true or not) are purely speculative.
Very interesting articles but I still don't buy it.
The statement that shaving doesn't reduce drag is patently wrong.Push off streamlined and see how far you glide,now shave and try it.
I don't remember the reference,but they did tests on drag by pulling swimmers and shaving reduced drag by about enough to account for all the improvement in speed.
The improvement in DPS and deceased O2 use can also be explained by reduced drag.
Also in the first paper he shows how shaving can increase sensitivity and then asserts that the decreased sensitivity is the reason it is an advantage.
He also asserts that decreased muscle recruitment is a reason for increased efficiency with really no evidence.
The author may know much more about this than I(my medical training being 37 years ago) but it looks like he has a hypothesis and bends the data to prove it.I read his data and come to a different conclusion(but then I may be the stubborn,wrong one,fitting the data to my preconceived idea,Nawww,not me:bolt:)
