Most people know they should do a warm up before starting an exercise session and usually just start off doing some slow easy mindless swimming before doing some hard work. However, if you start to understand all the reasons why a warm up is helpful then it will mean you can make the session more useful for you and set you up for a better swim practice.
Over the Easter weekend I took part in the 2Swim4Life 24hr swim at Guilford Lido in a team of 5 awesome swimmers. This is a special swimming event which involves swimming 1 mile every hour, on the hour for 24hrs. It takes place in an outdoor pool which is heated and 50metres long.
This week running has been brought to a stand still by the biggest, most serious, life ending injury of all time. A blister. A small and annoying blister!
What is the purpose of a cool down and why do one? The main purpose of a cool down is to bring your breathing, body temperature and heart rate back to normal slowly. For land based activities that have involved a lot of exertion the cool down helps to return your circulation back to normal and avoid getting dizzy (or blood pooling). It also helps to flush out any lactic acid that has built up during a hard workout.
I recently had a few clients and triathletes complaining that swimming is boring. Here are some tips for making your swim sessions more interesting and manageable for your mind!