Swimming economy: determinant factors and assessment issues

Abstract

Swimming economy is an important parameter in the control of the training process, since it has been demonstrated that this concept is related to the swimming performance. Swimming economy is affected by physiological and biomechanical constraints, therefore being a concept that reflects the swimmers´ adaptation to the liquid environment in those two domains. A review of the literature about swimming economy is presented, focusing some of the most relevant studies that have been conducted on this issue. Other than the biomechanical and physiological constraints, the swimming economy is influenced by other factors such as: swimming velocity, technical ability, training status, gender, age and anthropometric characteristics. Therefore a multitude of aspects are pertinent in the assessment of swimming economy and in the application of this concept in the control of the swimmers’ training process. A proper assessment of the swimming economy requires the direct measurement of the oxygen uptake. The choice of the protocol to assess the swimming economy must be carefully done. Particular attention must be paid to the oxygen uptake kinetics across the different levels of exercise intensity. Therefore, both exercise intensity and duration are to be considered. The attainment of swimming velocities as close as possible to the competition velocity is also an important issue. Although few studies have measured directly the oxygen uptake of top-level performers during swimming, the literature shows that a discontinuous protocol, with increasing exercise bouts of duration between three and six minutes seem appropriate to assess the swimming economy.