8 Tips for Winter Swim Training
Its the most wonderful time of the year…unless you’re in the middle of a two-hour swim practice that will start and end before the sun comes up. Winter training can be rough, so we here at tweak have put together a list of eight things that will help get you through these next few months of training!
1. Moisturize
Starting out the list with a simple but often forgotten tip – MOISTURIZE.
You’ll thank us.
2. Stretch More
Colder weather leads to tighter muscles, so be sure to loosen up properly before training hard on too-tight muscles.
Stretch for five to ten minutes longer than you would before warm-weather practices.
3. Moisturize
This one is important so we’ve included it twice. Itchy, dry skin + dry winter winds = painful.
Get some lotion.
4. Recover Correctly
Resting and eating properly are just as important as the training you will be doing in these winter months. If you are not building yourself back up after the sets you are doing, you may start your next practice tired and out of energy, and nobody wants that!
5. Don’t Prolong Injury
If you are feeling that something isn’t quite right with your stroke, don’t continue training on it. Injuries during the winter season are more prevalent and can take longer to heal than during the warmer months.
6. Moisturize
Okay, one more time to show you we mean it. Seriously-moisturize. Winter winds are not forgiving when they hit chlorine-dried skin.
Imagine the final scene of ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’.
7. Technique, technique, technique
In order to get the most of your training and keep yourself injury-free, technique is important during the intense winter training period. Not only will the correct technique allow you to train more effectively, but if you are using your stroke correctly there is a much, much lower chance of training-related injuries. Here at tweak, proper technique is what we do, and our professional staff of coaches are in the business of technique correction and ‘tweaks’ in our in-line swim analysis tanks.
8. MOISTURIZE.
If you’re not going to take it from us, take it from the worlds’ most famous and really-really-really-really ridiculously good-looking male model.
“Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty.”
(Okay so its not exactly about protecting your skin from being flaky and windburnt, but you get the point.)
Swim fast this winter! Good luck to all swimmers in your training and meets, and be sure to remember these tips! And if you are looking to book an analysis, appointments are open to get tweaked all through the season, so you can schedule one online today!
