Effect of active warm-ups and different recovery intervals on swimming performance

The purpose of the paper was to determine the effect of active warm-ups with different recovery intervals in sport performance in 50m and 200m freestyle swimming. Seventeen athletes (13.5 +/- 2.18 years old) registered with the Costa Rican Federation of Water Sports, with training and competition experience of 4.47 +/- 1.28 years participated in this study. Before the 50m and 200m freestyle swimming tests, four experimental conditions were conducted: Control (without warm-up), Warm-up (960m) + 20 min rest, Warm-up (960m) + 10 min rest, Warm-up (960m) without rest. The order of the tests (50m and 200m freestyle) and the experimental conditions were randomly assigned. The statistical analysis used a one-way ANOVA of repeated measures, p <.05. No significant difference was found in performance in 50m or 200m freestyle swimming tests (F = 0.83, p =.48) (F = 0.88, p =.46), respectively, when using active warm-ups or not. Neither was there an effect of the different recovery times on performance in both swimming tests. Different patterns of individual responses were observed in the experimental conditions. It is concluded that, as a group, an active warm-up before 50m and 200m freestyle swimming tests does not improve the performance of young inexperienced swimmers. However, the coach is recommended to pay attention to individualized responses to select the best protocol (having warm-up or not) to improve athletes' performance.