A MODEL OF SWIMMING ECONOMY DURING INCREMENTAL EXERCISE

Abstract

The responses of swimming economy (distance stroke-' (DPS) and stroke rate (SR)) to incremental exercise were examined in 20 highly trained competitive swimmers to derive parameter estimates to model swimming economy during incremental exercise. As the swimmer's velocity increased, DPS was first steady at a maximal value, and then decreased linearly beyond a breakpoint. Conversely, we observed a constant linear increase in SR that did not exhibit a breakpoint or steady state. We defined the maximal DPS as DPS max (m' stroke-'),t he breakpoint as DPSthrehold(m' stroke-'),and the linear decrease as DPSd,, (m' stroke-'velocity-').These results were incorporated into a two segment linear fit of the individual responses. The SR response was described by a regression line and was defined as SR,,, (strokes°minˉ1'~velocityˉ1).