Hi all,
Hoping for some thoughts/advice to make this go away. A month ago I developed a pain in my right elbow, and now it’s started in my left but even worse. It’s a very sharp, almost radiating pain when it hits - the right arm was felt particularly during the catch phase if I really tried reaching to get as tall as possible in the water, it’s like I was hyper extending. My left one was fine until his evening when all of a sudden several movements caused shooting pain like having a weight in my hand and trying to raise/curl my arm like when putting grocery bags on the counter, when I twist it the wrong way and even when trying to push. it’s a little tender in a section on the outside of my elbow. I’m assuming it’s just like a tennis elbow type issue from overuse, but that’s the weird part because I’m really not doing much volume, 2000 yards 3 times a week or so. Most things I’ve read people talk about shoulder pain, mine are a little tight/sore sometimes during warmup but then never have a problem during or post workout shoulder wise. I haven’t been swimming for long so figure there is something (or likely many) issues in my stroke that are causing this. Any help is appreciated, here is a YouTube video from a recent attempt at self diagnosis. https://youtu.be/YoQEC56tU9k
Hi all,
Hoping for some thoughts/advice to make this go away. A month ago I developed a pain in my right elbow, and now it’s started in my left but even worse. It’s a very sharp, almost radiating pain when it hits - the right arm was felt particularly during the catch phase if I really tried reaching to get as tall as possible in the water, it’s like I was hyper extending. My left one was fine until his evening when all of a sudden several movements caused shooting pain like having a weight in my hand and trying to raise/curl my arm like when putting grocery bags on the counter, when I twist it the wrong way and even when trying to push. it’s a little tender in a section on the outside of my elbow. I’m assuming it’s just like a tennis elbow type issue from overuse, but that’s the weird part because I’m really not doing much volume, 2000 yards 3 times a week or so. Most things I’ve read people talk about shoulder pain, mine are a little tight/sore sometimes during warmup but then never have a problem during or post workout shoulder wise. I haven’t been swimming for long so figure there is something (or likely many) issues in my stroke that are causing this. Any help is appreciated, here is a YouTube video from a recent attempt at self diagnosis. https://youtu.be/YoQEC56tU9k
Thank you for any insight!
Your technique isn’t terrible. A few little things going on, namely you’re not going for an early vertical forearm, this is putting unnecessary load on your joints, especially your shoulder. Fix this up for starters. I’m heading out on the beers so can’t post anything lengthy, but perhaps have a look at my posts on swimmers shoulder.
Thanks for the feedback! I just read your post on the shoulder issue, man that sounds like a long battle to get better, glad to know it seems to be improving. I was wondering if it was the straight arm but that seemed to be more just a shoulder/rotator cuff stress from what I’ve read, also it didn’t seem very different from the YouTube videos I’ve seen on total immersion where the hand seems to drop quite a bit before the elbow really bends. But maybe that’s more of a passive drop vs my actively pushing down which is causing the problem? Here are some screenshots from one of their videos. http://i67.tinypic.com/2nq6rl1.png http://i68.tinypic.com/6xrafn.png
Not bad but here’s what I think may be causing this: it looks like you’re not rotating enough which makes your pull very wide. when it’s that wide you are no longer engaging the big muscles so you are pulling with everything else. the weakest link will fail, in this case your tendons Also you might be applying too much power past your hips where again, it’s hard to engage the right muscles - this is just a suspicion.
I had the same thing. It felt like I had tennis elbow in both elbows - hurt like hell! In my case I had been doing an inordinate amount of paddle work. After laying off the paddles for a few months everything came back to normal. Good luck.
Always hard to know without fully looking at everything in your life - but as a Physical Therapist and recovering swimmer (pink), I think the comments about shoulders and your stroke being wide are good points. Elbow problems can often be traced to a lack of shoulder strength, engagement, or both. Throwing athletes with elbow concerns have rehab directed at the pain site, but also to the shoulder and upper quarter of the body to reduce the chance of re-occurance. While in a different plain - the motion of swimming is very similar to other overhead athletes. More rotation will allow increased engagement of the lats and traps. Also, there is a lot of movement in the forearm during your pull through which may be contributing; improved rotation and ability to stabilize better at the shoulder will likely reduce this.
stretching for the irritated forearm with eccentric strengthening of the forearm muscles
weight bearing strengthening for the shoulder girdle, mid and lower traps
work on rotation during stroke - good old fashioned 10-12 kicks per stroke can help start to get you into the rolling. I am SURE there are much more qualified swim technique/drill people here, but it’s a start.
Always hard to know without fully looking at everything in your life - but as a Physical Therapist and recovering swimmer (pink), I think the comments about shoulders and your stroke being wide are good points. Elbow problems can often be traced to a lack of shoulder strength, engagement, or both. Throwing athletes with elbow concerns have rehab directed at the pain site, but also to the shoulder and upper quarter of the body to reduce the chance of re-occurance. While in a different plain - the motion of swimming is very similar to other overhead athletes. More rotation will allow increased engagement of the lats and traps. Also, there is a lot of movement in the forearm during your pull through which may be contributing; improved rotation and ability to stabilize better at the shoulder will likely reduce this.
stretching for the irritated forearm with eccentric strengthening of the forearm muscles
weight bearing strengthening for the shoulder girdle, mid and lower traps
work on rotation during stroke - good old fashioned 10-12 kicks per stroke can help start to get you into the rolling. I am SURE there are much more qualified swim technique/drill people here, but it’s a start.
Good luck
Dana
Some good suggestions there.
While I was battling shoulder problems, I constantly tinkered with my stroke, seeing what I could do to reduce the load on my shoulder and alleviate the pain. Perhaps do the same, experiment. Try extending your stroke, increasing stroke rate, rotation etc Splay your fingers, that’s inefficient, but if it reduces the load on your elbow it will help. I’ve also had tennis elbow and swimming made it worse. But it wasn’t the cause, I got it from carryying my daughter around when she was little. I wonder if there’s anything you’re doing outside the pool that’s exacerbating it?
Do you have neck or shoulder discomfort? Any loss of flexibility in your neck? If this came on acutely, it may not be your stroke. Have your neck and possibly your shoulder evaluated by a Mckenzie credentialed physical therapist.
I’ve had elbow pain from swimming for years - my suspicion is that the root cause is either genetic or from damage lifting like an idiot in high school and college, when the pain started but went away until almost a decade later. The Band-It elbow bands from Amazon help tremendously, and are literally the reason I can be a triathlete (obviously they can’t be used in racing, but wetsuits help in wetsuit races). Form helps some, but only some. And there are lots of lifting moves I still can’t do at all without my elbows lighting up for days or weeks afterwards. And some yoga stuff, like dolphin poses.
And that’s after half a dozen doctors and PTs all swearing they could fix it.
I did know another guy who was a very good swimmer with similar issues. Interestingly, he only had the issue with his right elbow… because his left elbow got better after it was broken in a sailing accident and surgically repaired. He wore the same Band-It on his right arm.
Just wanted to give a followup, thank you everyone who lent their thoughts/advice!
Currently I am back to swimming 10-12k/week! I can occasionally feel soreness, but no more shooting pains! Yay.
Here’s what I did:
First took a full week off from swimming. Then did 2X/week for a couple weeks at about 1000-1500 yards, very few sprint type efforts and stopped if I ever started to feel sharp pain. I bought these two rehab things: https://www.amazon.com/...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1https://www.amazon.com/...00?ie=UTF8&psc=1Extra strength training and stretching forearms.**Doing my best to bilateral breath and potentially eliminate imbalances from not doing that.**Fingers crossed it only gets better from here, hope this helps someone else who might run into a similar issue!
If you’re swimming with much exertion at all, you really need to breathe every 2 strokes, i.e. every stroke cycle. If you want to practice breathing on both sides, breathe on one side going down and the other side coming back, but breathe every 2 strokes. I see so many people breathing every 3, 4, or even 5 strokes, and then they wonder why they are winded but not going very fast. All top swimmers in any race over 50 m breathe every 2 strokes.
Also you might be applying too much power past your hips where again, it’s hard to engage the right muscles - this is just a suspicion.
