Running header: EFFECTS OF PRE-EVENT WARM UP DURATION

Effects of Pre-Event Warm Up Duration:

Performance of Collegiate 50 yard Freestyle Swimmers
Kellen M. Beckwith
Ohio University
COED 6200: Research Methods
March 20, 2015

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Table of Contents
Abstract. p. 3

Chapter 1:
Introduction...p. 4

Chapter 2:
Literature Review..p. 5

Chapter 3:
Methodology. p. 13

Conclusion p. 19

References.p. 20

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Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of two different styles of pre-event
water warm up on 50 yard freestyle swimming sprint performance. In repeated measures,
counterbalanced design, twenty (10 male and 10 female) NCAA Division III swimmers will use
two differing forms of warm up before performing a maximum effort 50 yard freestyle trial.
Based off of Arndt-Shultz law (Ivanovas, n.d.) of overload, specificity in sports, and findings
from other similar experiments in swimming and kayaking, it is hypothesized that the short
warm up will show peak performance over the traditional warm up style, which will be too much
to prepare an athlete for the short trial of 50 yards. One warm up style is a traditional warm up,
including 1,650 total yards of mostly easy swimming, kicking, drill, pace work, and starts
(Maglishco, 1993). The other warm up will include a quarter of the length, with some easy
swimming and short bursts of maximum effort 10 yard swims. Athletes will be evaluated on their
reaction time off the starting blocks, split times for each 25 yards of swimming, stroke rate per
length of the pool, perceived excretion, heart rate before and after, and blood lactate
concentration to see if there are differences between warm up durations.

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Chapter 1:
Introduction
USA Swimming (n.d), the countries larges governing body of swimming in the country,
is comprised of more the 400,000 athletes ranging from the Olympians to age group swimmers
across the country. In 2014 nearly 25,000 college students across the country participate in the
varsity swimming and diving at their institution (ORourke, 2014). In a sport that is purely based
on performance and how fast an athlete can complete the race, it is important to be as best
prepared to compete at every time they step up to the block. Preparation for an athletes race can
be both metal, knowing the environment or even visual imagery of the race, and being prepared
physically, the body is primed and ready to go (Maglishco, 1993, p. 626). Typically, an athletes
performance warm up will resemble their regular routine when it comes to practice. Swim
coaches describe warm up as the opportunity to increase the bodies temperature, get a feel for the
water, and finally to mentally prepare focus and relax nerves (McGowan, Rattray, Thompson,
Pyne, & Raglin, 2014). A generic warm up routine might include 400 yards of stretching out easy
effort swimming and kicking, couple that with another few hundred yards of drill work and
technique, another 200 yards starting to get the heart rate up a little more, race pace work of
speed over short distance (10-15 yards), and a start. This is how practices are structured; why not
continue the same cycle when an athlete goes to compete. It is done in practice to translate over
to prepare for competition.
However, are coaches setting up athletes for the best chance at success with this current
method of warming up? There have been coaches and studies in past to challenge the norm of
traditional warm ups. Over the past few years, it has been observed that some of the top athletes
in the country in NCAA Division I and III are shifting to a completely different form of warm

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up. Swimmers have been seen doing 200 yards of easy swimming, followed by three or so laps
of ten yards of sprint burst and the rest of the 40 yards easy swimming, all done on their own
interval of when they are ready and feel good. This is typically concluded by the athlete
swimming down another 50 yards easy before exiting the warm up pool before competing. This
poses the question then, is there a better way of warming up from the way it has always been
done? This study will examine the effects of the condensed version of warm up and compare the
results to the outcome of a traditional warm up.

Chapter 2:
Literature Review
In almost every sport and before personal exercising, it can universally accepted and
observed people warming up before they begin their activity. Some people stretch the parts of
their body they will be using during exercise, some do sport specific warm ups, while some do
whole body exercises or even run to get ready. Baechle and Earle (2008) mentions the purpose of
warming up is to, prepare an athlete for training or competition and can improve subsequent
performance and less the risk of injury (p. 295). So if a warm up is used, then an athletes
performance should be improved compared to an athletes performance if they have not
performed a warm up prior to activity.
Fradkin, Zazryn, and Smoliga (2010) took a holistic approach by looking at a collection
of studies dealing with a human individuals performance based on doing a warm up to
determine if other studies showed that warming up showed improvement in performance across
activities and proved that the majority (79%) of studies they looked at showed gains following

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warming up. The study shows warming up has the potential to increase a humans performance
when preforming an athletic activity. Additionally, warm up has displayed faster muscular
reaction and speed, higher levels of power, improved oxygen distribution, and an increased blood
flow throughout the muscles the body is using (Beachle & Earle, 2008, p. 296). More speed and
power in and athlete can translate into better performances. The more oxygen moving through an
athletes body, the more oxygen for the body to use during exercise, then there is more fuel
available for the muscles of the body to use (Beachle & Earle, 2008).
In the field of swimming there have been limited studies done differing in procedures to
determine the importance of warming up prior to performance. In swimming, warm up can take
up almost a quarter of the time in practice to prepare for the other sets of the work out.
Traditionally, swimmers preform sets ranging from 1,000 yards up to 2,500 yards before they
begin the core pieces of the work out. When it comes to performing and competition,
traditionally swimmers will keep a similar style of warm up and around 1,600 yards before they
compete. Maglishco (1996) mentions a warm up protocol should include 10 to 20 minutes of
easy swimming, starts, turn work, pacing of sprints to get up to speed before competition, and a
short 2 to 5 minute easy swim to conclude warm up (p. 628). Swimmers need to be ready and
have their body primed and ready to go when the horn sounds for the start of the race.
Neiva, Marques, Fernandes, Viana, Barbosa, & Marinho (2014) showed through their
study of 100 meter swim race trials, that warm up prior to a maximum effort racing produced
faster performances then if an athlete did not do any warm up at all. This supports the general
consensus that performing an athletes traditional warm up prior to racing is beneficial and better
than not warming up at all. However, this study does not test the effects of a condensed warm up.
They were able to show that the absence of a warm up was not able to help an athletes

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performance. Interestingly enough, further investigation of the data collected during the the 100
meter trials showed that the trials performed with warm ups had a faster first 50 than the nonwarm up trials, but the second 50 of both experiments were similar (Neiva et al. 2014). While the
study was directed towards gathering information on 100 meter races, these conclusions bring in
formation towards warming up and how it aids 50 meter speed compared to no warm up trials.
While Neiva et al. had studied the effects of a swimmers performance over a distance of
100 meters; other studies came before examining the potential of a difference with the shortest
competitive distance, 50 yards. It was Balilionis, Nepocatych, Ellis, Richardson, Neggers,
Bishop (n.d) who studied the comparison of effects for trials with traditional warm up, a short
warm up of 100 yards (50 ez and 50 fast), and with no warm up at all which produced the
majority of their participants fastest times with the traditional approach. At the same time, they
still noted that nearly 20% of the participants studied, were able to achieve their fastest 50 yard
time during the shortened warm up of 50 yards easy coupled with a near maximum effort 50
yard freestyle swim (Balilionis et al., n.d). While it may not be the traditional form of warming
up, it still is a warm up and more than no warm up at all. Maglishco (1996) mentions one of the
important pieces of warming up is to allow the swimmer the opportunity to become acquainted
with the water, both physically with the feel, but also with the surrounding of the pool. This
possibility of success with a short warm up leaves the door open to alternatives other than the
traditional styles of warm ups and that these alternatives could potentially work for some
individuals.
Al-Nawaiseh, Albiero, & Bishop (2013) did a similar testing with a comparison of
standard warm up, a 50 yard swim at just shy of max effort (90%) to warm up, and a
combination warm up of swimming and plyometric and discovered some of the participants

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achieved faster times during their trials of the short warm up near max effort. Their open ended
findings, supported traditional warm up, but also showed that some individuals exceled under the
short warm up and even no warm up (Al-Nawaisehet al., 2013). Since the 50 yard race is the
shortest event in swimming, there might not be a need for as great of a warm up as some of the
other events. The researchers mentioned their findings leave doubt to the notion of traditional
warmups being the best course of action and the possibility that the short style of warm up has
been seen to show similar results (Al-Nawaisehet al., 2013). They take the discussion further and
mention that a warm up could be an individualized form of preparation and that coaches need to
be able to learn what form of warm up their athletes would perform best under (Al-Nawaisehet
al., 2013). One downside to the study was the lack of discussion of what happened during the 5
minutes from the end of the warm ups to the start of the trial. During this period athletes could
have done on land stretching or movements to keep warm and ready. If they could have specified
that it was 5 minutes of rest, better faith would be entrusted to the findings.
To contradict the findings of a short burst of speed warm up, it is important for an
athletes warm up be a progressive activity to an adequate effort level that will not cause an
athlete to be exhausted (Beachle & Earle, 2008, p. 297). The proceeding warm up structures had
swimmers complete at most a 50 yards, or none at all, of easy swimming prior to a near
maximum effort 50 yards of warm up, which is not gradual at all. Maglishco (1996) adds that
some speed work is necessary in a swimmers warm up prior to competition; however it needs to
remain minimal and no closer than 20 minutes prior to the start of racing. Some form of speed is
needed in a swimmers warm up for competition, but not too close to the start of the race.
Maglischo (2003) states the duration of an optimum warm up should be between 15 to 30
minutes. MacGown et al. (2014) reaffirms the traditional styles and length of warm up being

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done by current swim coaches of elite athletes, including a large portion of low intensity
swimming and then to progressing to some more moderate work and finally ending with pace
work. These statements would discount the possibility of peak performance with a short speed
oriented warm up.
Additionally, all of the aforementioned studies allow 10 or fewer minutes from the
completion of the athletes warm up to the start of the time trial. This is a hitch in the studies
which allow their findings to be impractical and inapplicable to elite level swimming
applications. West, Dietzig, Cunningham, Crewther, Cook, & Kilduff (2013) discounted previous
work in the field of optimal rest time before maximum swimming performance, due to athletes
being required to be in the ready room 20 minutes prior to the start of the race. Other studies
reviewed in their literature review showed that the optimal time to conclude a swimmers warm
up was 10 minutes, but many competitions, including international meets, mandated that the
athletes be in the holding room 20 minutes (West et al. 2013). To try a more practical application,
West et al. (2013) did research on the difference between completing a traditional warm up 20
minutes or 45 minutes before the start of competition. The research concluded that 20 minutes
allowed for better performance results than 45 minutes of rest before trials, due to the
participants core temperature returning to the baseline taken prior to the start of the warm up
(West et al., 2013). If meets require swimmers to be waiting 20 minutes before they compete,
then studies should try and follow suit to add to the practicality of the studies. Additionally, while
20 minutes before the race was able to show better performance over the 45 minutes, it may have
been the lesser of two evils. It was recommended that concluding warm up 5 to 15-20 prior to
competition would give athletes optimal conditions for optimal performance (West et al. 2013).
In other swimming research, high intensity warming up was show to have negative effects on

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performance if it was done too close to the performance of a maximum effort trial (Maglishco,
2003). In an ideal situation, swimmers should have their warm up completed roughly 5-15
minutes prior to racing; however they are not always allowed that amount of time at competition.
While these previously stated studies support traditional warm up and hinted at the
possible premise of a shorter warm up being beneficial, none of these shorten warm up styles
aligned with Maglishos (1996) guidelines of warming up for swim competition. At the same
time, warm up has been shown to detract from performances too. While Fradkin et al. (2010) had
results showing that the majority of studies showed warming up improved performances; there
still were a few studies in their findings that showed some variation of warming up had an
adverse effect on the resulting performance. Additionally, some of the studies had positive
outcomes for minorities of their participants with their short warm up styles (Balilionis et al.,
n.d ). All of this information leaves the mind to wonder about the possibility of a combination of
a shortened traditional warm up that could continue to meet the majority of protocol for a
successful swim warm up. A potential warm up that includes some easy swimming, more than 50
or 100 total yards used in other studies, and includes speed pace work too. A warm up of this
format could meet the majority of a traditional warm up, but it would just be condensed in the
realm of easy swimming.
The study done by Bishop, Bonetti, & Spencer (2003) looked at the effects of high
intensity warm up for kayakers and then their performance on a 2 minute all out row and saw
better results than their control of traditional warm up. The traditional warm up included
continuous moderate rowing on an ergometer, while the high intensity warm up included a
shortened amount of easy rowing and five 10 second maximum effort busts followed by 50
seconds of easy rowing (Bishop et al., 2003). The study was able to show with a shortened

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amount of easy warm up coupled with speed busts as a warm up protocol, then higher
performance was able to be obtained in a maximum effort trial (Bishop et al., 2003). If a kayaker
is able to obtain these sorts of results with a condensed traditional warm up, would it be possible
for a swimmer to see similar results from a shortened warm up including high intensity bursts?
Allow a swimmer to warm up prior to maximum effort trial with some easy swimming, but add
to it short bursts of maximum exertion and easy swimming. The possibility stands that similar
effect of this style of warm up may results in similar performance with swimmers.
One of the frameworks behind this thought of shortened warm ups comes from the
medical overload ideal of Arndt-Schulz Rule and the sport concept of specificity with the
specific adaptation to imposed demands (SAID) principle. Arndt-Schultz rule states, a small
stimulus stimulates, a strong stimulus blocks or damages (Ivanovas, n.d.). The thought behind
this deals with overload the body, a little will be helpful, but too much will have an adverse
effect on the potential perks of the treatment. Too much of a good thing is not always a good
thing. A swimmers warm up needs to be just right, easy swimming, pace sprint work, and some
more easy swimming to get them physically and mentally prepared to race (Maglishco, 1996).
This reiterates the point of possibility of warming up too much or too hard. An athlete does not
want to warm up too much to fatigue their body to then detract from their performance (Beachle
& Earle, 2008). The traditional forms of swimming warm up would include a surplus of easy
yards during for a swimmer to compete in a 50 yard freestyle trial. The longer warm up is an
over stimulus for the body and could potentially yield a block or damage on the performance of
their 50 yard freestyle trial. Intensity and duration must be controlled to have an effective warm
up. While the majority of trials supported that traditional was the most successful, research was

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not able to full discount that short warm ups could produce greater performances in swimming
(Al-Nawaisehet al., 2013; Balilionis et al., n.d).
In a similar manner of framework lies the concept of specificity or also known as specific
adaptation to imposed demands (SAID) principle. The SAID principle in sports is defined as the
training as close to the actual sport movement desired has the higher likelihood that there will be
a positive transfer to that sport (Beachle & Earle, 2008, p. 386). The closer to replicating a
desired action, the better the opportunity an athlete will have to creating a successful athletic
performance. Specificity philologically includes the use of muscles involved during
performance, speed of contraction of the muscles being used, and duration of use of the part of
the body being used (Howley & Powers, 2009). It is the principle to train the body for exactly
what you hope to use it for. If this principle is applied to the 50 yard freestyle maximum effort
trial, the likelihood for positive results will happen with the replication of similar training and
warm up leading up to the event. The 50 yard free style is the shortest competitive event in
swimming and significantly shorter than a typical main set an athlete will complete in practice.
Thus the traditional warm up would be more than the specified for the event. To be as event
specific as possible, an athletes warm up should follow in similar manner to the event they will
compete in. The short warm up correlates directly to the specific event to be tested in the
experiment. The short warm up includes maximum speed work, similar to a 50 free in
preparation to race, but not enough to fatigue the participant, and some easy swimming to loosen
up to . The traditional warm up includes some speed and pace work for the specific event,
however is significantly longer than the short warm up and would not be specifically focused on
swimmers 50 freestyle maximum effort race. The majority of the traditional warm up uses long
slow or moderate sets in preparation. This includes the use of drill work, easy swimming, and

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build sets to prepare for 50 yard trial. To best prepare under the SAID principle, swimmers will
need to use a warm up of speed and not large amounts of slow moderate warm up.
Using the findings of Bishop et al. (2003) work with high intensity kayakers, ArndtSchulz rule, the SAID principle, and the other studies findings of some short warm ups showing
higher levels of performance this study will to apply similar warm up protocol to swimmers to
attempt to see similar findings. There has not been any swimming study to perform a condensed
version of a traditional warm up, only ones to do little to no warm up. The extra easy swimming
and drill work could be unnecessary in the preparation for a swimmers peak performance in a 50
yard freestyle trial. With the findings from all aforementioned studies and frameworks, it is
hypothesized that a condensed traditional warm up comprised of small amounts easy swimming
and short bursts of maximum effort for swimmers will produce better 50 yard freestyle
performances in college swimmers than traditional warm up duration and procedures.

Chapter 3:
Methodology
Participants:
20 (10 men and 10 women) NCAA Division III swimmers, who have represented there
university at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) National Championship meet,
volunteered to participate in this study. The participants in the study range between 18 and 22
years of age at the time of participation. All participants have been involved in swimming for at
least the past 6 years, with some having been in the sport for upwards of the past 13 years. Prior
to taking part in the study, participants will be asked to avoid alcohol, caffeine, and other

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physical activity outside of designated practices. This would include participants avoiding the
use of pre-work out beverages to enhance performance during the two weeks of the study.
Additionally, participants will be encouraged to maintain the same sleep pattern and eating habits
during the week leading up to their first trial through the conclusion of the second trial.
Before the testing sessions, participants will be informed of the study design and
procedures. All participants will complete and sign a form of consent prior to the start of the
study. All participants will perform the trial swims in their regular in season meet suit, brief for
men and one piece training suit for women. No competition suits will be used during the trials.
Prior to the start of the first trial, all participants will record their weight, measured for height,
record best swimming stroke, and their fastest 50 yard freestyle time.

Design:
The experimental trials will take place during the swimmers competitive season training
10 times a week, including two weight sessions and eight in water training sessions. All
participants will have completed similar workouts in volume and intensity leading up to the first
trial. The training workouts average between 4,500 and 7,000 yards per practice and in the
weight room the lifts are directed in a power phase. Each swimmer will perform two 50 yard
freestyle trials, a week apart, one with the short warm up and one with the long warm up, random
assignment to order and counterbalanced. After 20 minutes of passive rest after the warm up,
swimmers will perform the 50 yard maximum effort trial. Swimmers performance will be
measured by overall time, the first 25 yard split, the second 25 yard split, stroke rate over both
lengths of the pool, the athletes perceived exertion, heart rate, and blood lactate concentration

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post-race. Data will be gathered and concluded to see which warm up allowed the athletes to best
perform their 50 yard maximum effort trial.

Procedures:
Since the premise of the study is to determine the possibility of effects from the in water
warm up, the participants will begin their water work with the typical dynamic stretch prior to
getting in the pool. The dynamic stretching is a whole body warm up done as a team which
includes the movements stretching glutes, hamstrings, shoulders, hip flexors, quadriceps, triceps,
and pectoral muscles. The movements include arm swings, kick stretch, leg swings, jumping
jacks, push-ups, down dog kick stretch, seated hip twisters, and deep squat with shoulder
mobility. All of these are done to warm up and not fatigue the body over a 10 minute period.
Following the participants regular on land stretching, they will warm up for the time trial
race. Two different types of warm up regiments will be used in the study. Participants will
perform two swimming trials, a week apart from each other, in a 25 yard competition pool. The
race day will be Wednesday, the day of the week they typically race in practice. The warm up
order will be randomly selected for each of the participants and counterbalanced between the one
week duration from trial one to trial two. The two warm up styles that will be carried out will be
the traditional and short warm up with some similar qualities only a quarter in overall length.
The prescribed warm ups for the participants can be seen in Table 1.

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Table 1
Traditional Warm Up
400 yd swim
300 yd kick
100 yd swim
6 x 75 yd (25 drill / 25 swim / 25 mod) :10 rest
6 x 50 yd build to strong turn and breakout
2 x 25 yd from the blocks
1 - 25 yd build
1 - 15 yd sprint / 10 yd easy
200 yd easy swim

Short Warm Up
200 yd swim
3 x 50 yd swim (at own rest interval)
10 yd sprint(maximum effort) / 40 yd easy
50 yd easy

At the conclusion of the participants warm up, they will be given 20 minutes of rest
before the start of their 50 yard maximal effort swim trial. During this time no additional warm
up in the pool or on deck stretching will be allowed.
The maximum effort 50 yard freestyle trials will be down in a competition pool starting
from the end with a wall and turning on bulkhead. The pool will be digitally measure prior to the
start of the trials and at the conclusion of trails each day to ensure the distance. Participants will
perform the maximum effort trials on an individual basis to prevent pacing or other outside
factors of competition. A Daktronics timing system will be used to measure each participants
times at the 25 yard split to their feet, total time of the 50 yards, and the split for the second 25
yards of the trial. There will be touch pads at both ends of the pool, turn and finish, to register
these times. Additionally, a Daktronic Relay Take-Off Pad will be placed on top of each of the
starting blocks to register the participants reaction time to the start of the trial. Each participants
reaction times and splits will be measured to the nearest hundredth of a second and recorded.
Participants will be measured on how fast they can complete the maximum effort time trial. To
start the trial each swimmer will step up on the starting block, given the command of take your

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mark, and begin the race at the sounds of the starting horn. At the start of the horn, the digital
timing system will begin the clock.
During the time trial, there will be two coaches on deck observing the swim to help
record further data. Both coaches will take down the participants stroke count per 25 and then
add up both lengths count of a total for the trial. Each race will be videotaped on an ipad to be to
revisit if discrepancies arise. In addition to the two coaches, two backup timers will be used to
manually verify the total time of trials if the timing system is to fail. Another job the backup
timers will do is hit the backup timing plungers button at the end of the lane which they will hit
when they see the participant touch the wall at the 50 yard mark. With the dual plunger in use,
each trial will end up with two back up stop watch times, in case the timing system malfunctions,
2 plunger times, and the official touch pad time. The official touch pad time will be used, unless
both coaches agree to use the plunger time due to poor finish or a malfunction with the touch
pad.
One of the other measures of the study will be the participants heart rate. Each
participant will take their own heart rate from their Carotid artery, a skill they use often in their
own practice, taking their pulse over a 10 second interval. Participants will first take their prior to
the on land warm up, before they enter the water for their warm up, after their warm up, and
before they step up on the blocks for the maximum effort trial. At the conclusion of each trial,
participants will take their own heart and then finally again three minutes after the completion of
the trial. After they take their final heart rate, participants will fill out a Likert scale of 1 to 7, of
their perceived exertion during the 50 yard freestyle. One will resemble very easy, while seven
will represent extremely difficult and could not go another yard.

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In addition to the other post trial information, the study will gather capillary blood
samples from each participant finger when the heart rate is taken in the very beginning to create
a baseline, then at minute and three minutes after the completion of the trial. This will allow the
study to gather the higher of the numbers for collection to determine blood lactate levels post
trial.

Analysis:
Following all trials, the information collected will be brought together and determined if
the warm up protocols were successful in properly warming up the swimmers and see which one
had better performances. The best indicator of performance in swimming will be the overall time
it takes to complete a trial. An athlete cannot lie to the clock; it is either fast or not. Overall 50
yard freestyle times for each individuals two trials will be compared to see which one is faster.
The same sort analysis will be carried out for each of individuals reaction times, first 25 yard
split, and second 25 yard split to see if there is a trend between the results and warm up they are
correlated with. When it comes to the heart rate information gather, both warm ups will be
compared to see if one warm up induced a higher heart rate, if it was able to maintain the
athletes the 20 minute break time, and what each participants heart rate was at the conclusion of
the trial to see if it was higher on one trial rather than the other. Similar analysis will be done on
the blood lactate and the participants perceived exercitation data to see if post trials had similar
or differing results and if they corresponded to a particular prescribed warm up. Stroke count will
be analyzed by the two coaches on deck to determine if they were similar or if there were
difference in first the first 25 yard, second 25, entire 50 for both warm ups to see if there were
any difference between lengths or warm up styles.

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Conclusion
This study takes a closer look at the possibility of higher performance levels with
swimmers in an attempt to test the norm and observations of other elite teams approach to
preparing for races. It compiles the best practices of similar studies to ensure validity and to test
the effects of a different warm up then tested previously. If easy rowing coupled with short speed
warm up works for an athlete kayaking, then these findings should be transferable to an athlete
swimming. With these findings in kayaking and the framework of specificity and Arndt-Shultz
law, the condensed warm up should produce higher performances in the swimmers 50 yard
freestyle trial. Warm up has been show to increase an athletes performance, but the components
that make up the warm up are just as important as doing a warm up (Maglishco, 1996). If too
much is done, it could have negative effects on an athletes performance (Beachle & Earle, 2008)
and similar results have been shown in studies if no enough warm up was done (Neiva et al.
2014; Balilionis et al., n.d). An athletes warm up has the ability to set their body up for a poor
performance if done improperly or conversely has to set them up for great success if done
correctly. The information from this study has the potential to challenge the traditional norm in
swimming warm up preparations.

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