This study investigated the effects of triathlon wet suits on drag, physiological responses, stroke parameters and performance during swimming as compared with swim suits, additionally, the benefits with triathlon wet suits. METHODS The subjects were 8 male college triathletes. All testing were conducted with swim suits (SS) and wet suits (WS) respectively. Passive drag were measured by towing in a swimming flume. Measurements of active drag were using the perturbation method (Kolmogorov et al. 1992). To determine physiological responses, stroke parameters and swimming performance, each subjects completed continuous progressive swimming tests up to exhaustion in a swimming flume and maximal 400 m swimming trials in a 25 m pool. Oxygen uptake (VO2), stroke parameters, exhaustion time, blood lactate accumulation (La) and RPE were measured in the progressive tests. Total time, each 50 m's time and stroke parameters, La and RPE were measured in the 400 m trials. RESULTS Passive drag with WS were decreased by 26.7 % at 0.8m•s-1 (P<.001) and 4.3 % at 1.7m•s-1 compared with SS. As for active drag, there was no significant difference between SS and WS, however, higher (P<.001) velocity with WS were observed than that with SS. VO2 and stroke rate with WS tended to be lower than with SS during the progressive tests. Total time were reduced by 6.8 % (P<.001) with WS in comparison with SS during the 400m trials. These results suggested that the benefits with WS were to decrease drag and to improve submaximal swimming performance by increasing in stroke length and to improve maximal swimming performance by increasing in both stroke length and stroke rate.
© Copyright 2003 Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming IX. Published by University of Saint-Etienne. All rights reserved.