by I see many swimmers don’t warm down right away. After they swim, they are either prancing around celebrating their best time, sulking in a chair because of a crappy swim, or talking to the coach about their swim. All three of these things can be done AFTER warm-down. Don’t let the lactic acid just linger in your muscles. A long wait between competition and recovery gives the body more time to tighten, making it harder to flush out the lactate acid built up in muscles.
Go straight to warm-down.