Recently I noticed that towards the end of longer sessions in the pool, I’m having trouble keeping my fingers somewhat (as to how much exactly - that’s the topic of a lot of other threads) together and push against the resistance of the water. Especially the pinky and ring finger give way during the push-off.
Are there specific strengthening exercises for the hand to target this issue? Or is this just a symptom of some technique flaw or failure to relax the hand enough?
One more thing: In the swim classes I attend, we do a lot of swimming with paddles (where the problem naturally doesn’t occur)
Is it just fatigue or is there some tingling and numbness as well?
If it’s just fatigue you can try grip balls, but I think it will go away with more swimming.
If its numbness - I can’t help you. I’ve had non-breathing side hand numbness for over a year now with MRIs, nerve conduction tests and still no diagnosis.
I have never heard of this. My first guess would be you are keeping your hand and forearm tensed and thus causing fatigue. I have seen swimmers feel problems in the shoulder from holding the fingers together too tight.
Learn to stay relaxed in the water. Go in and “play” in the pool. Tread water, do some sculling drills, swim under and above slow and easy, etc. One must learn to not fight the water…rather you gotta learn to manage it.
I’ve seen this in swimmers, mainly in the beginning of the season after they’ve been on holiday for a bit and are out of shape.
Towards the end of a longer set you basically have fatigued the brevis, abductor, opponens and 3rd & 4th hmm suddenly my mind went blank on the name of those muscles in the fingers. It’s not a strength issue but then again limiters in endurance sports are typically not.
A couple of things come to mind. I’d guess you have a hard catch, made with a rigid hand. I’d also guess you keep your hand rigid through the entire stroke AND recovery. It’s almost like you could karate chop someone with you hand at any time during your stroke.
To help solve this, relax especially on recovery and your entry. You don’t need a rigid hand throughout the entire stroke. Swimming isn’t a sport where rigidity is essential to success. As you gain fitness this should happen less often. Swim more often to make greater swim fitness gains.
in the same line as desert dude that give you very good advice… it s not a strengh problem. Try to relax your hand during recovery period of the stroke and dial down a little the rigidity of your hand in the catch phases etc… you should never have that too rigid…
personaly, i would say you are showing sign of someone trying to hard in the pool and not relaxing enough in your swimming…a video of your swimming would be very telling…
In the pool, fingers should be close together but you shouldn’t have to feel like you’re having to tense up to get them to stay that way.
And agreeing with what others are saying about relaxed hands and arms on recovery. In that part of the stroke, the shoulder muscles should be doing the bulk of the work to get the arm over the water. Points further out than that should be relaxed, and the hand is following the motion of the shoulder (and to some extent the elbow) and not leading your arm.
You know, I had the same problem with my hands doing the “live long and prosper” sign. It usually during the end of a long swim and I was trying everything to figure out why. Then the next time I did that long swim I noticed that for the entire time I was tensing up my hand and didn’t even know it. I guess toward the end of the set it became apparent. Take Brian’s advice and relax the hand the entire swim. I also make fists with my hand and hyperextend them a few times before I start. I hope this helps.
I don’t train the swim that long or hard anymore (rarely more than 3000 yards), but I do remember that happeneing in hgih school during push-offs. Just fatigue. I think it also happens less now sicne i focus less on keeping my fingers together when swimming. I’ve seen enough data that suggests closed vs. open hand makes little difference. So I keep my fingers together, but relaxed somewhat.
I have this exact problem. It seems to be mostly related to my recovery - if I don’t focus on relaxing my hands during the recovery, my hands eventually tire to exhaustion. The harder I swim, the harder it is to relax during the recovery. I’ve found it very helpful to open and close my hands during the recovery as a way to force my arms and hands to relax.
like other’s have said, it sounds like you are keeping your hand tense. i’ve had to work on that when I’ve taken lessons. He’s had me wiggle my fingers during the recovery stroke to focus on relaxing. (obviously, during easier sets, warmups, etc)
I guess I will try real hard to relax a little more (get the irony? no?).
If that doesn’t help I will definitely try the Swedish ultraman training regime…
and now… off for a gloriously boring ride on the trainer…