Do you swim faster in hot or cold water? Why?

Answer 1

Warm water relaxes your muscles so you go slower and are lazier, but if the water is too cold you can show signs of hypothermia. However, cold water helps me because then you swim faster to get warm.

Answer 2

The answer depends a little on the distance you are required to swim ... eg.. 25 metres or 1500 metres because the body needs some time to react to the environmental circumstances..

Alex Popov swims 50m in around 21 seconds... he takes about one breath - in terms of speed you probably wouldn't notice the difference between a pool that was 25 degrees or a pool that was 28 degrees C. However, Grant Hackett does 1500 in a bit over 14 minutes... and those great big back muscles of his start to glow around the 1000m mark because of the heat his body has generated ... I therefore have very high suspicions that he will swim slower of the pool is 28 degrees than if it were 26 degrees C.

However, the human body tends to perceive changes in temperature quite dramatically if the environment temperature varies suddenly by more than about 3 degrees..... for example if you are working in an office at 24 degrees and the air temperature drops to 21 degrees you will feel very cold... .even though 21 degrees c is not really very cold.

During a race, your body will normally be desperately trying to regulate body temperature to reduce fatigue.... but if the water is too cold your body will shut down the flow of blood to external muscles to try and keep vital organs warm.... so the temperature of the water is a very important consideration.

Either way, too warm or too cold... you will suffer from lack of oxegen, you will quickly fatigue, and you will slow down.

Answer 3

In the winter you swim faster in cold water; in the summer you swim faster in hot water. The reason is actually psychosomatic, if you are cold and you dive into cold water, you just want to get done and get out and get warn, if you dive into hot water in the winter you actually want to stay in the water so you swim slower. The same thing except opposite happens in the summer.

Answer 4

Well, in my ymca theres a cold pool with lap lanes, and a warm pool with no lanes. Obviously, the swim team uses the cold pool, because the warm water makes you lazy. It makes you wanna just float around and do nothing. Also, cold water gets you moving because you want to warm up. So, I swim faster in cold water, and so do most other ppl.

Answer 5

Actually its better to swim in cold water like for practice and hten get out and dry off and keep yourself warm and then when its time for your event you dive in your so cold all you think about is getting out of the water as fast as possible so it makes your siwm a ton faster and you may be like well thats just freezing and your going to get like hypothermia but it actually helps and your body gets used to it after the first few laps.

Answer 6

Cold water! Because you're body wants to get out of the cold water as fast as you can! While, if the water is warm, you can relax and go slow because it's warm, and you enjoy it!

Answer 7

I believe you swim better in warm water than cool water, but that only really matters in longer races. Personally, I would rather swim a race in warm water so I wouldn't have the outside thought of the water on my thoughts.

Answer 8

Cold, definitely. Sometimes we have practice at the Y, and the water there is usually 88 degrees. I am always the slowest person when we practice there.

Answer 9

cold hot water relaxes me way to much

Answer 10

cold water because in hot water your muscles are more relaxed, so its like you have less energy