Warmup

If practice is a smorgasbord, the warmup is your appetizer. Starting with stretching, before you even get in the water, the warmup phase of your workout should take between ten and twenty-five percent of your workout time and distance. Many young-guns out there don't pay attention to the warming up because they feel like they get their bodies ready in the first minute or two of practice. This is only completely true if you're only doing 1000 in your entire workout. However, if you're going to be swimming for several miles during your workout, even the youngest swimmer will need a good warmup.

Everyone starts practice with stretching, and if you don't, you really should. Stretching lets the body know that physical exertion will soon be required of it. Each stretch resets the muscle in a state ready for action from a resting state where it may have built up fluids from sitting at a desk all day. Some people believe that a bouncing stretch works best for waking up a muscle, but I find that stresses the muscles, ligaments, and tendons more than is needed. Simply bring your muscle to a stretch where it starts to be painful, hold it for ten seconds, then gradually let go. For the quads, pull your ankle up to your buttocks. For your triceps, put your hand on the back of your neck with your elbow up in the air. Take your other hand and pull on that elbow in a line across the top of your shoulders. For your calves, find a wall and lean on it while keeping your heels on the ground. Lower yourself towards the wall until you feel a good stretch, hold for those ten seconds, then release slowly. In a similar fashion, stretch out your forearms, hamstrings, lats, and pectorals. You may feel it necessary to have a partner stretch you but I strongly recommend against it. The other person has no idea what you're feeling and will often overstretch your body in ways that may damage it. Better to break the stretch up into manageable bits and use a wall where you are in complete control of the stretch. For instance, if you are stretching your pectoral muscles, use a wall by putting your palm on the wall at shoulder height, and turning your body until you feel the proper stretch. Once you are done, do the other side. Now that you?re done stretching, it's time to get in the water.

Some swimmers prefer to get into the water slowly to keep their bodies loose. I've never noticed a difference in warmup effectiveness between getting in fast or slow, so I usually just dive in. Now, if you're young and impetuous, and I once was, you'll want to start swimming at top speed right away. Unfortunately, even though you feel fine, your body really isn't up to working at peak efficiency right away. Now, if you've had a hard workout the day before, and are still stiff from the previous exercise, you'll feel more of a need for a warmup. A good warmup will take your body from the stretched out state you left it in outside the pool, to a state where you can push your body to the limit, no matter what shape you started practice in.

Start by diving in and focusing intently on your stroke. You should feel the water as closely as you can while you catch, pull, and release the water. The stiffness from yesterday's workouts and from sitting at a desk all day at school should slowly leave your muscles as you clear your first 200 or so of your warmup. Once you're past this milestone, you will want to ramp up your effort so that by the end of the warmup your heartrate is somewhere near 120 beats per minute (bpm). By warming up gradually, you have brought your muscles ready to work at peak efficiency, you have gradually brought your tendons and ligaments into readiness by stressing them slightly, and you have brought your heart and lungs into readiness by letting them get used to the work they're going to need to do to support your body through the upcoming workout.

When I warm up, it generally takes me a few lengths to return my body to the feel for the water that I'm used to when I'm practicing. To start it feels like my body has that same feeling that you do when you wake up from a deep sleep and you can't close your hands all the way. Only in this case, I feel that way all over my body. Gradually as I warm up, that feeling of detachment goes away and I can interact fully with the water, as I know I should. It is no lie to say that a good warmup forestalls injury. Each part of your body that you take care of during warmup has one less reason to fail and injure you than it did before getting it ready. Warmed up muscles, don't pull and warmed up tendons don't fray (and create tendonitis). You're doing yourself a big, long-term favor by warming up well. Never abandon that advantage.