Benefits of Swimming Warm-up Exercises

Most athletes (swimmers included) use a combination of controlled movement exercises and specific joint/muscle stretching to improve performance potential. The proposed benefits of pre-training (or competition) warm-up and stretching activities include:

• Increased blood flow to the active muscles — heart rate is increased during the warm-up activity.
• Decreased "stiffness" due to increased stretch tolerance of the nerve receptors in the muscle. This allows for an increased range of motion.
• Decrease in reflex inhibition of opposing muscles or muscle groups; once again, this improves range of motion.

A combination of the above activities may reduce the risk of muscle or joint injury when more vigorous physical activity begins.