Cristiano Ronaldo is probably the most obsessed person in the world
when it comes to high sports performance. It is well known that he uses swimming as one of
his recovery methods. So, I thought this was going to be an easy video. I thought I would
recommend swimming to athletes of every sport to improve their performance. But
things on the water are never easy. As I read more and more research,
things got more and more complicated. Now I'm not sure if I recommend swimming to all athletes.
Initially, the reasons I wanted to recommend swimming to non-swimmer athletes were:
Recovery Resistance
Focus
Rehab Core strength
I thought swimming was the best recovery method. It makes the blood flow faster.
This provides nutrients and protein to damaged muscles to speed up the recovery
and adaptation process. Easy swimming is a great example of active recovery. But,
a meta-analysis comparing various methods found that active recovery improved muscle
soreness and recovery, but found no benefit on perceived fatigue.
It makes sense if you think about it. If you are "working hard on recovery",
as Cristiano Ronaldo said, you are using physical and mental energy that could get you tired.
That study found that the best recovery method was massage therapy. But that can be expensive,
especially over many sessions. What was missing from the study,
and what is actually the most well-known but underrated method of recovery, is sleep.
If a basketball player has a day off to recover from a tough week, I would suggest at least 8
hours of sleep, a long nap, an easy walk, and a cold shower. Swimming, especially if he is
inexperienced, will only make him more tired and maybe sore. But if he already has a little
experience and certain muscles are very exhausted, swimming is a great way to incorporate variety.
Swimming is a very good way to improve endurance. There is a lot of talk about altitude training. At
altitude, there is less oxygen. So if you train at 3,000 meters (9842 feet) above sea level,
your body has to adapt to using less oxygen. That's what increases your stamina. Well,
swimming does exactly that by forcing you to breathe in a controlled manner. You're actually
moving with effort while holding your breath most of the time, so you're inhaling less oxygen.
But not all athletes need more endurance in swimming. Runners and cyclists have
some of the lowest resting heart rates. That's a good indicator of their excellent
cardiovascular endurance. Swimming would not be of great benefit to their endurance.
Breathing through the nose while exercising would have a greater benefit.
At advanced levels, endurance is very sport-specific. When you run, for example,
endurance is developed in certain muscles. But if you switch to rowing, you may run out
of breathe faster than someone who is in worse shape than you but with more experience rowing.
So I wouldn't recommend swimming to a cyclist to improve his endurance. They would just get tired
and build upper body endurance, which doesn't help their cycling. If they are triathletes,
obviously swimming should be a fundamental part of their preparation.
At this point you might think that swimming is not good for
many athletes. But there is a concept called beginner's mind. The problem with becoming an
expert at something is that you can also become more closed-minded. If the only tool you have
is a hammer, everything problem looks like a nail. Tony Hawk says that he always tries to
swim because it helps him skate. Laird Hamilton, the big wave surfer, uses weights in the pool,
paddleboards, does breathing exercises and is always trying new and crazy things. Those are
just two examples out of many that train their beginner’s mind. Doing something you're not an
expert at keeps you open to new possibilities and helps you transfer learning and innovation to your
area of expertise. So in that sense, swimming could be great for athletes in other sports.
Many athletes come to swimming after an injury. Swimming
is an excellent rehabilitation method but we will talk about that in future videos.
Building strength is very important. The strength of the core muscles are probably the most
important for any sport. Swimming could be a great way to strengthen those muscles. Kicking fast with
a board is a great way to build core strength for non-swimmers. Not a lot of swimming experience
is required. In fact, the worse their technique, the more difficult it is over a shorter distance.
There is a reason why Cristiano Ronaldo swims. It probably helps him recover, stay creative in his
game and maintain strength in his core and arms. But notice that he doesn’t kick. He might even be
wearing floating ankle braces. That is probably a very deliberate way of conserving his leg energy.
If you are new to swimming and want to learn faster,
click on this playlist. Do you have to be tall to swim fast? We
will talk about that in the next video. Click here if it is already available.
If you want to visit our website click here. See you there! Nothing fast!