How swimming can help you recover from a tough workout

How swimming helps you recover

Swimming lowers lactic acid levels

In 2012, scientists compared the effects of passive rest, massage, and light pool training on swimmers' recovery. The workout consisted of two repetitions of 200m crawl with 10 minutes of rest.

Scientists found that after training in the pool, the concentration of lactic acid was the lowest - 5, 72 mmol / l, after massage a little more - 7, 1 mmol / l, and after passive rest - 10, 94 mmol / l.

It turns out that active swimming helps to get rid of lactate even better than massage, not to mention passive recovery. In addition, scientists reported that massage and swimming, as opposed to passive rest, can help improve the performance of athletes in the next workout.

Swimming relieves inflammation

In 2010, the impact of swimming on the recovery of top triathletes was studied.

At first, the athletes were expected to run interval: eight times for three minutes at 85–90% of the maximum oxygen consumption. After 10 hours, they either swam for two kilometers, or simply rested lying down, and after another 14 hours they ran with high intensity until fatigue.

As a result, the athletes who visited the pool lasted two minutes longer in the final race than those who rested lying down. This significant difference proves that swimming can help you recover faster and improve your performance in future workouts.

In addition, the level of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, decreased in swimmers. And since inflammation occurs after a lot of exertion in any sport, it can be assumed that swimming is suitable for any athlete, not just triathletes.

How to swim to recover faster

For recovery training to achieve the desired result, it must be active enough (but not tiring) and last at least an hour.

Each workout should include:

warm-up;
swimming with a board in hand;
swimming with a buckle clamped between the legs;
main set;
hitch.

Here's an example of a recovery swimming workout.

Recovery training

Time: 90 minutes. Total distance: 3,000 meters.

Warm up

4 x 100 meters of quiet crawl with 20 seconds rest between runs.
4 × 100 meters of swimming with a board in hand, only legs work. The first 25 meters you swim with medium intensity, the rest 75 - with low intensity.
4 × 100 meters of swimming with a buckle sandwiched between the legs. The first 25 meters you work with your hands at medium intensity, the remaining 75 - with low intensity.

Get some rest after the warm-up and get down to the main part.

Main part

4 × 50 meters of rapid swim with 30 seconds rest between each segment. The first 25 meters you swim quickly, the other 25 - at a calm pace.
5 × 100 meters of calm swim with 30 seconds rest between each segment. Count your strokes and try to do less for the next segment.
4 × 100 meters of calm swim with 15 seconds rest. For the first 25 meters, breathe only on the right, for the next 25 meters, only on the left, and so on.
3 × 100 meters of calm swim with 15 seconds rest. Swim in the first and last 25 meters out of 100 in a different style.
2 × 100 meters of calm swim with 15 seconds rest. Count your strokes, but only 50 meters in the middle.
1 × 100 meters of swimming at different speeds. Swim fast for the first 50 meters and slow for the remaining 50 meters.

Hitch: 1 × 100 meters with a calm crawl.

Load scaling

This is a long workout and you can only complete it fully if you swim well and have enough time to spare. If you are just studying or are going to spend 45 to 60 minutes on the pool, scale the load: reduce the distance and the number of exercises.

When doing this, follow a few rules:

Do not skip warm-up and cool-down.
At the beginning of your workout, do all exercises with light to medium intensity and full concentration on the movements.
Always choose different items from the main body. For example, one day you can work on your breathing, the next day you can count your strokes, the third day you can swim with a change of style.
Stop when tired. Your goal is to help your muscles recover, rather than doing a full hard workout the day after your main load.

Exercising too vigorously will not help you recover, but relaxing swimming will not do the trick, so try to maintain a moderate intensity.

Swimming will provide you with gentle exercise, warm up stiff, sore muscles and help relieve inflammation and pain, so you will feel more alert after a workout, and the next day you can improve your performance in your main sport.