Last Wednesday (the last time I swam), I noticed a slight but sharp pain in my left shoulder about 30 minutes after I got out of the pool. Over the next few days, the pain got progressively worse - to the point of near debilitating. Constant unrelenting pain. I went to the ortho yesterday and he basically said I have an inflammed tendon. He prescribed a high powered anti-inflammatory and ice. It does feel better today. The constant pain is gone, but the zingers are still there if I move the wrong way. Has anybody dealt with this before? I would like to be a litte more pro-active in the healing process other than pills and ice. Any advice out there? acupuncture, massage, cortizone, etc? Should I still bike and run - those seem to aggravate it a bit? I'd like to get a better indication of how long I'm going to be down, too. I missed an entire season last year because of a stress fracture in my heel and so I'm just a tad pissed off about this considering several key races are a month from now.
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Re: Swimmer's Shoulder [Boz]
[ In reply to ]
Hi Boz,
I had the same problem last year during my ironman training and went to a sports physio. I ended up needing a steroid injection and 4 weeks of physio to fix the problem. The physio also gave me a number of exercises to do each day to keep the shoulder working properly.
Biking and running were fine for me - just be careful about how you position yourself on the bike. Make sure your shoulders are not held in an unnatural position.
You will probably need to skip any races for the next month but if you go to the physio NOW you should be ok for the rest of the season. If you don't treat it quicker you will end up making it a lot worst for yourself in the long run.
cheers,
dt.
I had the same problem last year during my ironman training and went to a sports physio. I ended up needing a steroid injection and 4 weeks of physio to fix the problem. The physio also gave me a number of exercises to do each day to keep the shoulder working properly.
Biking and running were fine for me - just be careful about how you position yourself on the bike. Make sure your shoulders are not held in an unnatural position.
You will probably need to skip any races for the next month but if you go to the physio NOW you should be ok for the rest of the season. If you don't treat it quicker you will end up making it a lot worst for yourself in the long run.
cheers,
dt.
You need to see a Physical Therapist
[ In reply to ]
Glad to see there are still physicians ordering rest for injuries that come from improper swim technique. Yay!
You can rest for two weeks but if you don't figure out what about your technique is doing the damage you'll be back when you start swimming again.
You need to see a physical therapist first. They will tell you how to rehad and strengthen your shoulder so that the ball doesn't rattle around in the socket of your shuolder. (Figuratively that is).
Then you need to read these articles
(http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/swim/papers4/ad.html)
http://www.svl.ch/files/shoulder_strengthening.pdf)
You can ask the same pt for clarification of some of the terms. Or maybe a coach.
It might help to get some video of you swimming; doesn't need to be underwater, plain old video camera will do; your friends with kids probably have one.
Pay particular attention to
1. Breaking the frontal plane during your recovery
2. Internal rotation on hand entry (thumb first)
Pressure in the vertical plane during the catch (pressing downward with your hand instead of back).
The article goes into it more.
You can rest for two weeks but if you don't figure out what about your technique is doing the damage you'll be back when you start swimming again.
You need to see a physical therapist first. They will tell you how to rehad and strengthen your shoulder so that the ball doesn't rattle around in the socket of your shuolder. (Figuratively that is).
Then you need to read these articles
(http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/swim/papers4/ad.html)
http://www.svl.ch/files/shoulder_strengthening.pdf)
You can ask the same pt for clarification of some of the terms. Or maybe a coach.
It might help to get some video of you swimming; doesn't need to be underwater, plain old video camera will do; your friends with kids probably have one.
Pay particular attention to
1. Breaking the frontal plane during your recovery
2. Internal rotation on hand entry (thumb first)
Pressure in the vertical plane during the catch (pressing downward with your hand instead of back).
The article goes into it more.
Re: Swimmer's Shoulder [davet]
[ In reply to ]
Thanks. What kind of exercises did the physio have you do? Is it something I can work on myself, or were there things like ultrasound, etc. that made the difference? Also, during the 4 weeks, did you swim at all?
Re: You need to see a Physical Therapist [Kevin in MD]
[ In reply to ]
I have to second this opinion. I had a problem with my stroke for years. Together with other abuse over the years, the various problems required me to have surgery last year. The good news is that heavy duty therapy after the surgery has given me pain free full use of the shoulder.
In my case I was pushing down on the water with my extended arm while I was breathing to get some "lift." Bad plan.
Fixing your swim stroke, therapy, ice and anti inflammatory drugs are the plan in that order. You need to rest to recover, but that won't fix the problem if your stroke is defective.
The worst case is having some structural problem which is causing the soft tissue to be inflamed during even normal activity. Then surgery might be required. It doesn't sound like you are anywhere near that point yet.
Don't cheat the process. Don't do it yourself. Get real physical therapy, probably three times a week. It costs a few bucks, but they are the only shoulders you have. Make the investment.
I doubt your season would be in jeopardy. The few minutes you spend swimming in a race don't add up to much. I basically swam last year only in races and I had my surgery after the end of the season. Yeah, my swim times stank last year, but they were still a lot better than my run splits.
Recovered in Florida,
In my case I was pushing down on the water with my extended arm while I was breathing to get some "lift." Bad plan.
Fixing your swim stroke, therapy, ice and anti inflammatory drugs are the plan in that order. You need to rest to recover, but that won't fix the problem if your stroke is defective.
The worst case is having some structural problem which is causing the soft tissue to be inflamed during even normal activity. Then surgery might be required. It doesn't sound like you are anywhere near that point yet.
Don't cheat the process. Don't do it yourself. Get real physical therapy, probably three times a week. It costs a few bucks, but they are the only shoulders you have. Make the investment.
I doubt your season would be in jeopardy. The few minutes you spend swimming in a race don't add up to much. I basically swam last year only in races and I had my surgery after the end of the season. Yeah, my swim times stank last year, but they were still a lot better than my run splits.
Recovered in Florida,
Re: Swimmer's Shoulder [Boz]
[ In reply to ]
the most common cause of shoulder pain results from joint instability. the muscles that provide the most shoulder stability are the rotator cuff muscles. If you are not doing exercises to strengthen these small muscles which lye on top of your shoulder blade and wrap around the head of your humerus, the "ball" of the shoulder will be pulled forward. this leads to major biomechanical problems aggravated even more by the stress of swimming. Add external rotation exercises to your routine and you will notice much less pain in the shoulder.
I agree with all the other posters about Physical Therapy. Swimming overstrengthens some shoulder muscles at the expense of others. The result is the ball comes up out of the socket when pulling and "impinges" on the tendons of the rotator cuff. The therapist will give you a host of exercises to restrengthen your shoulder. The more you do them the better.