Effect of wearing clothes on oxygen uptake and ratings of perceived exertion while swimming

Abstract

For a comparative study between swimming in swimwear (control-sw) and swimming in clothes (clothes-sw), oxygen uptake (V̇O2) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were measured. The subjects were six male members of a university swimming team. Three swimming strokes - the breaststroke, the front crawl stroke and the elementary backstroke - were applied. With regards to clothes-sw, swimmers wore T-shirts, sportswear (shirt and pants) over swimwear and running shoes. In both cases of control-sw and clothes-sw, the V̇O2 was increased exponentially with increased swimming speed. The V̇O2 of the subjects during the clothed tests did not exceed 1.4 times of that in the case of control-sw at swimming speeds below 0.3 m/s. As swimming speeds increased, V̇O2 difference in both cases increased. Consequently, V̇O2 in the clothed tests was equal to 1.5-1.6 times and 1.5-1.8 times of that in the swimwear tests at speeds of 0.5 and 0.7 m/ s, respectively. At speeds below 0.6 m/s in clothes-sw, the breaststroke showed lower V̇O2 than the front crawl stroke, and the elementary backstroke showed higher V̇O2 than the other two swimming strokes. RPE increased linearly with %peak V̇O2. In addition, any RPE differences among the three swimming strokes were not shown in the control-sw tests. At an exercise intensity above 60%peak V̇O2, clothed swimmers showed slightly higher RPE in the front crawl stroke compared to that in the two other swimming strokes.