Breaststroke swimming: not all warm-ups are created equal!

The human body is not a machine that easily can go from rest to full output in an instant, especially when you consider that during hard competition or training, you can be burning anything to 20 times more energy than you use at rest! Without some kind of preparation for this intense work in the form of a warm-up, not only will the body will be put under a large amount physiological stress, there will also be a performance penalty.

This performance penalty arises because muscles that are cold are also more inelastic, increasing the amount of internal friction (and effort) required for muscle movement. They also lack an optimum flow of oxygenated blood, which leads to higher concentrations of muscle-fatiguing lactate if you work them hard without first warming them up. In addition, the joints involved in producing movement are stiffer and require more effort to move through their natural range of movement when cold, thereby making the ligaments supporting these cold joints more prone to damage or tears, resulting in the risk of injury.

Warming up for competition

When it comes to top-level competition over shorter distances, a mere few hundredths of a second may be all that separates the winner from the also-rans. This is especially true in the shorter-distance athletics track and swimming events, where races are completed in less than a minute. Take breaststroke swimming for example; the current world record over the 50-metre distance is just 25.95 seconds, and during the 2022 World Aquatics Championships, the difference between the first and second place in the men’s 50-metre event was only 0.03 seconds⁽¹⁾.

It makes sense therefore that not only are warm-ups essential prior to these events, but also that any warm-up performed is the very best it can be and ideally matched to the demands of the event. In swimming, this is particularly true for breaststroke events, because breaststroke swimming is the least hydrodynamic of the four main strokes, which means swimmers encounter more water resistance for any given speed. This in turn makes improving key performance metrics such as range of motion, speed, and power in breaststroke absolutely crucial for enhancing competitive performance.

General warm-up principles

As we’ve explored in previous SPB articles, the old-fashioned approach to warming up involving a pulse raiser and some static stretches has long fallen out of favor. Instead, dynamic warm-ups emphasizing range of motion, speed and neuromuscular recruitment are most commonly used to enhance performance. Unlike static stretching, dynamic warm-ups can increase the range of motion of limbs without negatively affecting maximum strength and explosiveness⁽²⁾. Although they vary according to the event being prepared for, a dynamic warm-up typically consists of three components:

1.      An aerobic phase, comprising of sport-specific actions (ie jogging for running sport, swimming for swimmers etc) combined with mobility exercises as well as dynamic stretching focused on the relevant limbs. A key purpose here is to raise the pulse and core temperature, and put the limbs through their full range of motion⁽³⁾.

2.      A neuromuscular phase, which might include including resistance/loading exercises and/or balance exercises. This is to activate maximum muscle recruitment and motor skills^(4,5).

3.      A velocity phase comprising of sprints and over several distances – to help ensure all systems are primed for maximum speed and effort⁽⁶⁾.