Panic Mode! Tricep pain while swimming

Triathlon Forum
1

Hello all,

3 weeks ago during my swim I felt a slight twinge in my left bicep. Ever since then its been hurting whenever I use it. I took a week off the pool, which didn’t help, and am hoping another week will do it. I’ve only been swimming a few years and was averaging about 8-10k a week. It hurts mainly when I use it close to the center of the tricep and I don’t see any bruises. Recently I did change my stroke to use my tricep and lats more and it is more than likely some type of overuse injury.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found much on the internet about this and am hoping I can resume training as I have IMAZ in a few weeks and I was hoping to put in a very good swim time. Any ideas will help!

2

two thoughts:

  1. is this arm the opposite side that you usually breathe? If so you are probably using your offside arm to prop your head up. The best way I’ve found to counter this is to do one arm drills while holding your other arm and head in the streamline (ear to bicep) without breaking this position to breathe.

  2. ART. I had this same problem (from #1) for a while. Even once I fixed my stroke, I would not go away. Then I had some ART work done on my arm and shoulder and after 2 or 3 sessions I was back in action. I still incorporate some of it into my stretching during a warm up. I mainly use my fingers on my other hand to apply pressure along my tricep while slowly bending my arm at the elbow back and forth. As you move your fingers around, you’ll find the sore spots.

3

two thoughts:

  1. is this arm the opposite side that you usually breathe? If so you are probably using your offside arm to prop your head up. The best way I’ve found to counter this is to do one arm drills while holding your other arm and head in the streamline (ear to bicep) without breaking this position to breathe.

  2. ART. I had this same problem (from #1) for a while. Even once I fixed my stroke, I would not go away. Then I had some ART work done on my arm and shoulder and after 2 or 3 sessions I was back in action. I still incorporate some of it into my stretching during a warm up. I mainly use my fingers on my other hand to apply pressure along my tricep while slowly bending my arm at the elbow back and forth. As you move your fingers around, you’ll find the sore spots.

  3. May be it. I think I’m going to have it looked at tommorow and have some ART done. Tks.