After exercise or strenuous physical activity, it is important to decrease your body temperature gradually till your normal body temperature is reached. It is just as important to include your stretching program during the cool down process to reduce soreness in your muscles the following day.
Cool-down is your recovery phase where you start to recover from the workout you just finished? It is guaranteed that if you do not cool down and stretch after a strenuous workout you will be in a lot of pain for the next couple of days. Cool-Down - the title speaks for itself, but it is still worth explaining a little more in depth. After your workout comes the cool-down; you start to breathe a little slower, lifting less weight and simply cooling down. Once you have lowered your heart rate you stretch your all your muscles - paying special attention to the muscles you've just worked. Each stretch should last for at least eight seconds and naturally you should hold the stretch a little longer and repeat it if the muscle feels particularly sore. Don't over do the stretching; stretch until you feel some mild tension in the muscle.
Like warm up you also need a proper cool down. Remember your body changes its phase from active to passive and again this should not be sudden. No doubt your swim may leave you feeling exhausted but don't just stop dead. Remember a cool down with moderate activity is better than one with very little activity. Give your body some breathing space and bring it back to normal with a gradual decrease in activity.
Always drink plenty of water BEFORE and AFTER any exercise or practice session.
Warm up actual & Cool down actual
Shoulder Roll: Lift your shoulders up. Circle them forward and down. Repeat 6-10 times.
Back Of Thigh Stretch: Put one leg in front of the other. Bend the back leg and ease back onto it - as if you were about to sit on the chair. Back straight. Feel the stretch along the back of the straight thigh. Hold for ten seconds. Repeat on the other side.
Front Of Thigh Stretch: Use chair or wall for balance. Stand on one foot with knee slightly bent and hold the other foot as shown. Ease the foot upwards until a slight stretch is felt on the front of the thigh. Hold for 10 seconds. Change legs and repeat.
Calf Stretch: Stand with one leg in front of you and bend the knee. Lean forward keeping the back leg and your back straight. Hold for 10 seconds then repeat with the other leg forward.
All Over Stretch: Stand feet shoulder width apart and knees slightly bent. Raise your arms overhead and bring hands together. Slowly begin to stretch upwards; slowly count to 10. Repeat twice
Simple stretching: While remaining at the edge of the pool put your legs on the wall and than one by one bend both knees while stretching and straightening the other knee. Hold this position for about half a minute and than repeat it with other leg.
Stretch your hamstring: is a very important part of the warm up. To do this, put one foot on the wall and the other at the bottom and straighten both knees. Hold the position again for about 30 seconds before you change the position of legs.
Quadriceps stretching: Hold the ankle of your foot with the same hand and pull it up to your butt. Remember to do it gently and hold the position for about 30 seconds before you do the same with the other ankle.
Back stretch: Your upper body is also an important area, which needs some specific stretching. Do some simple back stretching along with shoulder and arms stretching.
Remember that warm up and cool down is essential and should be done to ensure that you max your swim and fitness levels.
THE KEYS TO EFFECTIVE STRETCHING
Do some easy exercise before starting stretching
Breathe normally
Apply each stretch slowly – take it to where
Tension can be felt, but not pain
Hold each stretch for at least 15 seconds
Don’t bounce up and down while stretching
Repeat each stretch three times, on each side
Of the body if appropriate (e.g. both calves)
Every time I did any fitness I always use the stretches below for warm up and cool down.
Safety
Always take time to warm up and stretch. Research studies have shown that cold muscles are more prone to injury. Warm up with jumping jacks, stationary cycling or running or walking in place for 3 to 5 minutes. Then slowly and gently stretch, holding each stretch for 30 seconds.
Learn how to swim and do not swim alone. Swim in supervised areas where lifeguards are present. Inexperienced swimmers should wear lifejackets in the water.
Do not attempt to swim if you are too tired, too cold, or overheated.
Avoid diving into shallow water. Each year approximately 1,000 disabling neck and back injuries occur after people went headfirst into water, which was shallow or too murky to see objects.
Swim in a pool only if you can see the bottom at the deepest point; check the shape of the full diving area to make sure it is deep enough.
Dive only off the end of a diving board. Do not run on the board, try to dive far out, or bounce more than once. Swim away from the board immediately after the dive, to allow room for the next diver. Make sure there is only one person on the board at a time.
When swimming in open water, never run and enter waves headfirst. Make sure the water is free of undercurrents and other hazards.
Do not swim in a lake or river after a storm if the water seems to be rising or if there is flooding because currents may become strong. The clarity and depth of the water may have changed, and new hazards may be present.
Check weather reports before going swimming to avoid being in the water during storms, fog, or high winds. Because water conducts electricity, being in the water during an electrical storm is dangerous.
Remember that alcohol and water don't mix. Alcohol affects not only judgment, but it slows movement and impairs vision. It can reduce swimming skills and make it harder to stay warm.
Be knowledgeable about first aid and be able to administer it for minor injuries, such as facial cuts, bruises, or minor tendonitis, strains, or sprains.
Be prepared for emergency situations and have a plan to reach medical personnel to treat injuries such as concussions, dislocations, elbow contusions, wrist or finger sprains, and fractures
You may think that swimming is an injury free sport! In fact, many people take up swimming to recover from injuries. It is indeed enjoyable to float around gently, in a weightless, watery world but swimming can have its share of injuries. You may not find injuries such as a runner's stress fractured shin or a skier's torn knee cartilage but minor skirmishes are possible. In swimming, the most vulnerable part is your shoulder as it is this part that is used most vigorously. However, adequate precautions can reduce the chances of injuries significantly.
While swimming take care of your shoulder joint as it is the most frequently and vigorously used part of your body and needs special care. Your shoulders are not actually designed for swimming continuously and if you use them this way you need to take special care to avoid injuries. Your shoulder rotates 1,200 to 1,500 times per mile while swimming. That's a lot of shoulder rotation and the reason why shoulder pain is the most common swimming injury. The shoulder joint is built to allow arm movement in all possible directions but because of continuous use the muscles can fatigue and become overstretched, causing pain.
Incorrect stroke mechanics can also result in pain and injury. The body may not be prepared for many of the movements that you perform while swimming thus causing pain. In your enthusiasm, you may overuse your muscles leading to muscle fatigue. Fatigued muscles do a poor job of protecting their associated connective tissues, increasing the risk of damage to bone, cartilage, tendons and ligaments. Remember to always listen to your body. Pain and stiffness can be a good indication that you are doing something wrong.
For correct stroke mechanics the best thing you can do is to take advice from a good coach. A good coach improves your competitive skills as well as greatly enhances your fundamentals of swimming, corrects your biomechanics and keeps injuries at bay.
Proper warm up is another important precaution and is as essential as swimming itself because without proper warm up you are actually inviting injuries and pains. For older people a warm up is even more important and might take some more time. An easy warm up exercise is swinging your arms in small circles.
To prevent shoulder injuries do a good warm up with some stretching and other light flexibility exercises and remember to cool down after a swim. If you are a beginner, make sure that you use lifebelts and swim under supervision.
One of the most common injuries in swimming is swimmer's shoulder. There are many reasons for the pain. Stretching and strengthening exercises help to prevent these injuries. Some muscles of the shoulder girdle tend to become shortened and tight, others that stabilise the shoulder joint tend to be become weak and need to be strengthened (dysbalance). The stretches showed below are perhaps different than with what you are familiar. If you stress the shoulder capsule by too much or overstretching, this may cause hyperflexibility. This in turn may make you more prone to injuries (impingement).
Introduction to Swimming
Water is not their natural habitat, but most people are able to float in it. Once this phenomenon is experienced, appropriate actions of the limbs will bring about the movement know as swimming. This exhilarating activity is for all, from very young to the very old, from the frail to the strong, from the physically handicapped to the athletic.
Throughout this country there is ample provision for people to swim and there are many good reason why everyone should learn to do so, as the following aims will indicate.
Survival
There are ever-present dangers near open water to be found in this country, in sea, river, lakes, canals and disused pits. Every year deaths are caused through drowning, many occurring within a few meters of safety. It is important, therefore, that all should be able to swim, in order to save themselves in an emergency. This same open water provides opportunities for a wide range of activities such as sailing, surfing, canoeing and skiing, for which swimming is a prerequisite.
Recreation
In these days of increased leisure time, the need for involvement in some kind of recreational pursuit, preferably of a physical nature, is generally recognised. Swimming provides the means and it has many advantages: -
- Ample opportunities are available in swimming pools and leisure centres;
- Little equipment is required, simply a costume and towel.
- It is comparatively inexpensive.
- It can be enjoyed in company or alone
- Age is no barrier. Babes together with parents enjoy movement in water and old people can continue to swim when other recreative pursuits might prove too strenuous.
- It allows for family participation, including any member who might be disabled.
- Membership of swimming clubs provides social opportunities as well as facilities for training and development of swimming skills.
Therapy
Swimming can be valuable in medical treatment and in general therapy for the following reasons: -
- The supportive nature of water permits the performance of gentle movement without undue tension, thereby assisting in rehabilitation after injury or illness.
- The disable and physically handicapped may take part because weight bearing is not required. Movement and travel can take travel can take place without the use of great strength and the performer is able to experience and enjoy a freedom of movement not possible out of water.
- It is particularly suited to the overweight person whose obesity is not so noticeable in water. The condition itself assists flotation and hence the ability to swim. Through exercise, heart ad blood vessels can be strengthened and in swimming, muscles can be worked and joints taken beyond their normal range. Similar movements attempted on land would be stressful.
- Swimming is an enjoyable way of keeping fit. It improves stamina and stimulates the circulatory and respiratory systems, thereby promoting a feeling of general well being.
Competition
Most people swim for reasons already stated. Some improve their skill by means of self-imposed challenges, or by preparing for various tests. For those endowed with special abilities and aptitudes there are many opportunities for participation in swimming as competitive sport. The many clubs to be found throughout the country provide training and swimming events.
Introduction to fitness training
Introduction
- 4 key elements to fitness
- Goal Setting
- 7 Steps
4 Key Elements
- Progressive Resistance
- Cardiovascular Training
- Flexibility
- Nutrition
- Benefits: youth, shape, metabolism, injury prevention
- Key: anything is better than nothing
3 Basic Principles
- Frequency
- Intensity
- Duration
- Factors to consider: recovery of muscles, Splits, intensity vs. volume, muscular threshold, cycling
Fundamental 1
- Recovery of muscles
- Splits
- Intensity vs.. Volume
- Muscular threshold
- Cycling
Fundamental 2
- Recovery of muscles
- Splits
- Intensity vs. volume
- Muscular threshold
- Cycling
Fundamental 3
- Recovery of muscles
- Splits
- Intensity vs. volume
- Muscular threshold
- Cycling
Fundamental 4
- Recovery of muscles
- Splits
- Intensity vs. volume
- Muscular threshold
- Cycling
Fundamental 5
- Recovery of muscles
- Splits
- Intensity vs. volume
- Muscular threshold
- Cycling
Flexibility
- Benefits
- Types: static, ballistic, PNF
- Frequency
- Intensity
- Duration
The principle of training
Specificity
The law of specificity suggests that my training undertaken should be relevant and appropriate to the sport for which the individual is training. For example, it would be highly inappropriate for a swimmer to carry out the majority of their training on the land. Although there are certainly benefits gained from land-based training, the majority of the training programme should involve pool-based work.
The specificity rule does not govern just the muscles; fibre type and actions used but also the energy systems, which are predominantly stressed. The energy system used in training should replicate that predominantly used in the event. The energy systems should also be stresses isolation of each other so that high intensity work (stressing the anaerobic systems) should be done in one session, whereas more aerobic and endurance based work should be completed in a separate session.
Progressive overload
This rule considers the intensity of the training session. For improvement and adaptation to occur, the training should be at an intensity where the individual feels some kind of stress and discomfort – this signifies overload and suggests that the old adage ‘no pain, no gain’ has some truth in it, especially for the elite athlete. If exercise takes place on a regular basis the body’s systems will adapt and start to copy with these stresses that have imposed. In order for further improvement to occur, the intensity of training will need to be gradually increased – this is progression and can be done by running faster, lifting heavier weights, or training for longer.
Reversibility
Also known as ‘regression’, this explains why performance deteriorates when training ceases or the intensity of training decreases for extended periods of time. Quite simply, if you don’t use it you lose it!
Seven weeks of inactivity has been shown to have the following physiological effects. Significant decreases in maximum oxygen uptake have been recorded – up to 27%, which reflects a fall in the efficiency of the cardiovascular system. In particular, increases in both blood lactate and heart rate have been shown to increase for the same intensity of exercise. Muscle mass and therefore strength also deteriorate but at a less rapid rate.
Individual differences
These suggest that the benefits of training are optimised when programmes are set to meet the needs and abilities of an individual. What may help one athlete to improve may not be successful on another. The coach must be therefore being very sympathetic to needs of the nature.
The F.I.T.T. regime
The coach may also wish to consider the F.I.T.T. regime when designing the training programme. These letters stands for:
- F = frequency of training
- I = intensity of exercise
- T = time or duration of exercise
- T = type of training
‘F’
-The frequency of training. The elite athlete will need to do some sort of training most days, depending upon the activity being undertaken. Endurance or aerobic type activities can be performed five or six times per week, but more intense or anaerobic activities such as strength work should be performed three or four times per week, as sufficient rest days are required for the body tissues to repair themselves following this high intensity work.
‘I’
-The intensity of the exercise. This also depends upon the type of training occurring, and can be quite difficult to objectively measure. For aerobic work, exercise intensity can be measured by calculating an individual’s ‘training zone’; this is represented by the training heart rate and so involves observing heart rate values, which has become much easier with the advent of the heart rate monitor.
’T’
-The time duration that the exercise is in progress. For aerobic type activities, the athlete should be training within his/her training zone for minimum of 20-30 minutes. However duration should not be considered in isolation since intensity of training often determines the duration of the training session.
‘T”
-The type or mode of training that is undertaken.
The Fitness Test Performa
Fitness Test Proforma
Fitness Test Proforma
Fitness Test Proforma
Fitness Test Proforma
Fitness Test Proforma
Fitness Test Proforma
Fitness Test Proforma
A Layout for My Muscles Endurance Programme
In this endurance programme I have decided that I am going to do a training circuit for my swimming. The whole point of this circuit is trying to improve my arm strength so that it could give me more power in my upper body to swim quicker. I am going to do this circuit for 6 week, and I will be doing it every Tuesday afternoon from 2:00pm – 4:00pm. The exercises that involve in the circuit training are: - Press up, Quick feet, Flys, Speedball, Sit up, Punch bag, Step and Skips. All these exercise will be done three times. I will be calculating each one, how many I have done within a minute. After doing one of the 1 minute exercise, I will be allow 1 minute of rest until the next exercise. I will be doing the same circuit every time (in the same order). By doing this, I hope that it have an affect on the improvement. I will be writing every exercise result down, which means I should have three tables per week. In the table will have exercise, description of the exercise, muscles involved and number of times I did within the minute. Although some of these exercise is not relate to any arm work, but you can’t only just train your arms because in swimming you will need to use your whole body to move.
Muscle endurance
-The ability of a muscle or group of muscles to sustain repeated contractions against a resistance for an extended period of time. Slow twitch muscle fibres will ensure they receive a rich supply of blood to enable the most efficient production of aerobic energy.
A test for muscular endurance will assess the ability of one muscle or muscle group to continue working repeatedly. A simple test to measure the endurance of the abdominal muscle group is the NCF abdominal conditioning test
Final Evaluation
Sumattive evaluation
My whole aim of this programme is to improve my arm strength and also to improve fitness at the same time. Although during the 3 week of the programme I had a small injury, which affected me doing any exercise related to arms and I was happy that I had it recovered by next week. The programme did help me to improve my aims. My arm strength has improved quiet a lot. Although in the 5 week I did really bad
Although the whole aim of the project did work very well in increasing my arms strength, but it still did improve some.
If I had more time to improve what I have done already, I certainly would increase the detail of the fitness test that I did. I will also add more heading like how external factors can affect me in sporting performance.
By add on extra time of training a day will increase the efficiency of the aim that I had, because I will have more time to train per day.
By changing the fitness that I am doing will also help other muscles and it might also motivate me because the old fitness training are getting board, I will start losing motivation so by giving a change it helps.
