How much rest should I take?

[Admin Mediterra]

That depends on what the purpose of the challenge and the purpose of the rest is. In our practice we have two main purposes for rest:

1) To refresh the heart rate, which allows energy to catch back up.
2) To refresh the attention, which allows concentration to catch back up.

In the first stages of developing a new level of swimming skill you may use generous rest intervals – 15 to 30 seconds, or 6 to 10 deep breaths – so that you can give your muscles and heart rate plenty of time to refresh so that you are challenging your concentration and neuro-muscular control more than your metabolic abilities. The goal of this step is to train the body to use already-available power better, rather than provoke the body to produce more power (though that will happen naturally).

You may also use Active Rest in place of Passive Rest to further improve your ability to recover.

Passive Rest = standing or floating at the wall, no movement.
Active Rest = continuing to swim or drill at lower intensity, but keeping the body moving and the mind focused.

In the first stages of training a new level of swimming skill you don’t want to push the heart rate really high, because that also puts stress on the brain and limits concentration. The practice sets in the early stages of Pace Improvement are meant to improve your concentration, your focus on specific streamline improving details. So use the rest to ‘recover your attention’. Between repeats you can stop or slow down while you keep your mind on what you just did in the previous length and what you intend to do better on the next length.

Between sets you may use 2x 25m ‘Active Rest’ activities like a simple drill, fist swimming, slide-and-glide, skate position with interrupted breathing, etc. This way you switch your concentration to a more simple movement pattern, giving the brain a moment to rest one area, while training your body to recover at lower-effort levels instead of at no-effort level.

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