Warm-Up to Swim?
For years, the warm-up set was the warm-up. That's just how it was done. Swimmers sleepwalking through 800 yards, bodies half-asleep, going through the motions until something finally clicked fifteen minutes in. Nobody questioned it because nobody had to — it was just the way things had always been.
When I got back into coaching swimming I knew there had to be a better way. I knew we were leaving a lot on the table. To me this was outdated thinking dressed up as tradition.
The shift
My thinking solidified when I was introduced to the work being done inside the Gambetta Athletic Improvement Network — GAIN. Vern Gambetta has spent decades developing some of the top athletes in the U.S. and Canada, and one of the principles running through everything he does is this: consistent, daily touches on athletic development produce far better results than isolated, occasional training days.
At the GAINSwim Clinic I was taught the Warm-Up To Swim system, or WUTS — and I saw what that looked like in practice. Athletic movement prep before every single session. Not when the pool was closed. Not as a special add-on. Every day, without exception.
The idea was simple: get the body ready before it's asked to work. Movement prep, hip activation, shoulder prep, core connection — fifteen minutes of intentional preparation that meant swimmers arrived at the blocks warm, activated, and ready from the jump.
I bought in. We built it into our program and didn't look back.
What happened
The results were hard to ignore. We cut out a huge chunk of junk yardage — those sleepy, purposeless laps that were really just expensive warm-up time. In their place, swimmers were showing up to the water already ready to work.
Meet after meet, everyone improved. Not just one or two standout athletes. Everyone.
That part caught me off guard. I expected the stronger swimmers to benefit most. Instead, the gains were across the board. Consistent preparation, done daily, was lifting the whole team.
Here's an example of what our WUTS dryland looks like:
Coordination series
- Forward / backward jog
- Side shuffle
- Carioca
- Forward / backward skip or super mario jumps
- Bunny hops
- Broad jumps
Mini band legs — 2 rounds
- 10 lateral steps each side
- 10 alternating high knee lifts
- Standing side crunch
- Runners (on back)
- Clamshell (on side)
Small plate shoulder series — 3 rounds of 8–12
- I's, Y's, T's, and lateral "Lu" raises
Plank series — 2–3 rounds of 10–30 sec
- Forward plank
- Right arm plank
- Left arm plank
- Reverse plank / bridge
Nothing heroic. Noting flashy. Just consistent, purposeful preparation — every single day.
The realization
The more I sat with the results, the more I kept coming back to one thought: the principles here go beyond swimming. I mean, Vern Gambetta himself worked with track athletes early on...
Daily touches on athletic development. Preparation that actually connects to performance. A body that shows up ready — not one that needs the first twenty minutes to wake up. That's not a swimming concept. That's an human movement concept.
That realization is a big part of what APX MVMT Method is built on.
I'll be writing more about how this applies across sports later — but in the meantime, give the WUTS dryland a try before your next session.
It's built champions in the water. It works for you too.
Coach Wes | Creator, APX MVMT Method
Move. Improve. Repeat.
The APX MVMT Method is built on the lessons learned from the Gambetta Athletic Improvement Network (GAIN), OPEX Fitness, Active Life Professional, and over a decade of coaching.