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Before performing any sport, it is important to prepare the body by performing an appropriate warm-up. Warming up prepares the body for the upcoming activities and can help decrease the risk of swimming injuries. The warm-up for swimming should be done before every exercise session - whether it be in the pool for competition or training, or before a gym session or other land-based workouts.

Example Swimming Warm-Up

Swimmers need to be warmed up before a race. Pool competitions usually involve a single event that can range in duration from 30 seconds to 15 minutes. To get the body prepared for such an activity, a thorough warm-up is required. The warm-up should focus on the specific actions and muscle groups that will be involved in the event, and gradually move from low to high intensity.

Here is an overview of a warm-up that can be done prior to a competition race. The specifics can be adjusted to suit the age and level of the athletes, and constraints such as limited space and time availability - we know it is often hard to find room in the pool prior to your race.

• About 30 minutes prior to your race, you need to raise your core body temperature. Out of the pool, you can do this with a slow 5-minute jog, or if there is nowhere to run, you can jump rope or similar.
• After the jog, walk around doing various loosening up exercises, such as head rolls, wrist rolls, shoulder circles, arm swings, trunk twists.
• Find some room and go through a range of stretches, starting with static stretches (quads, hamstrings, calves, torso, shoulders) followed by dynamic stretches (arm circles, leg swings etc.). Find a set of stretches that are suitable for your event, which stretch the areas of most importance.
• Finish with a warm-up in the pool, performing your swimming stroke. Build up your speed gradually.

Special Considerations

• During competition there can be extended rest periods between events, where the swimmers are not doing any exercise. In these situations they may have to go through some of the above procedures in the lead up to each event to keep the muscles and joints ready to perform when required.

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Related Pages

• What are the common injuries in swimming?
• Fitness for swimming
• Warming Up For Sports
• List of Stretches
• Fitness testing for swimming
• Anthropometry for swimming