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Over the past year I’ve learned just how important it is to warm up before you jump in the pool to warm up. Yeah, that’s a head scratcher. What’s the point of warm-up if you have to warm up for it? Think about it this way, your muscles are dormant until you begin using them. Activation drills are like a slowly brightening light waking everything up gently. Jumping in a cold pool, and probably swimming quickly because it is cold, is like an alarm clock blaring as the curtains sweep open. As the name implies, activation drills activate your muscles and turn on your nervous system, and in a sport based heavily on feel, that’s very important. It allows you to be dialed in from the very first stroke.
Our ambassadors, some of the best in the world in their events, were kind enough to share their activation routines below. Note how different all of them are. There is no right or wrong, you just have to come up with something that feels good for you.
Ali has quite a developed routine. Whereas some swimmers might focus on specific areas (see Emily below),Ali hits all the muscle groups, with an emphasis on her core. She has done a lot of work throughout her training to better engage her core in her backstroke, and that’s evident in her activation drills below:
“I start with foam rolling to kinda wake up my muscles and get them loose before I dive in the water. I usually spend about 15 seconds on each area.”
1) Upper back
2) Lower back
3) Glutes
4) Hamstrings
5) Calves
6) IT bands
7) Quads
“Then I do a mixture of static and dynamic stretching, although I pulse in a static stretch to feel a better stretch. I do this to keep loosening up what I worked on with foam rolling.”
Stretches:
1) Single leg stretch and reach
2) Double leg reach
3) Butterfly
4) Campfire pose
5) 3x
6) Hip flexor stretch
7) Arm circles
8) Money arms
9) Speed skater
“The last part of my warm-up is some jumps. I use this to activate my fast twitch fibersand get mentally and physically motivated to go fast. This also gives me anidea of how explosive my body feels that day.”
Jumps:
2x
10 little hops with shoulder shrugs
1 max tuck jump into soft landing
Emily is one of the world’s top breaststrokers, so much of her routine revolves around activating her adductors, abductors, hips and glutes. Kick is a critical part of any breaststroker’s success and those muscles are engaged in a way unique to breaststroke.
1) Donkey kick with ankle weight 2-3 sets of 10 reps
2) Leg abduction 2-3 sets of 10 reps
3) Leg adduction 2-3 sets of 10 reps
4) Easy twist
Aly’s might be the most straightforward. She spends about 5-10 minutes foam rolling before doing:
4x50 jump rope taps mixing up double leg, single leg, alternating, and high knee
“I like to do exercises that get the blood going so I’m not diving in fora meet warm-up already cold, because typically I’m cold from the pool, haha.”
