so I’m guessing that I have swimmer’s shoulder. About 10 days ago, I had to step up to a faster lane than the one in which I normally swim - - requiring me to push a little harder. The next morning, my right shoulder was so stiff and sore that I couldn’t move it.
I’ve taken off swimming since the injury and things have improved, but not much. As the day goes along, the pain and stiffness dissipate, but never go away. In the morning, it’s a 9 on a 1 - 10 scale. By lunch, it’s a 4. The pain is mostly posterior.
I’m training for IMFL, my first IM. Any suggestions? I don’t want to take off much more time, but I don’t want to aggravate the situation.
What to do, what to do.
Alternate w/ heat and cold? Massage? Leave it alone? Drop swimming all together and just hope for the best at IMFL? Stretching?
I don’t see a Dr. giving any advice that doesn’t require me to lay off for at least another month - - thanks, but that’s not too helpful.
Need more info- Where in your shoulder is the pain? Front, Top or back? Towards the outside (delts)?
There are a ton of resistance exercises that any PT can show you using Thera Bands - Giant rubber bands. Also streching may help, but be careful some stretches can irritate your problem.
When I swam competitively (15,000-20,000 yd/day)I had constant dull pain in the shoulders. To this day I can’t sleep on my side and that is 11 years removed from my last season. The norm was to eat ibuprofen breakfast, lunch and dinner and ice after each workout. Do not use heat-my bet is that this is swelling of the rotator cuff and heat will only make it worse. Also back of the speed- move back to the easy lane. This late in the game I don’t see you making huge improvements on your swim by jumping up a lane. You may have pushed a bit to hard or lost good form in order to keep up, which tweeked your shoulder.
I’ll second what’s been said already. I struggled through pain in that area for a few years, and aside from lots of ice and advil, specific strength exercises helped. Use those elastic cords if you can, although very light aerobic weights can work too. The two exercises that come to mind are:
Lift your arms straight from your side to parallel to the ground. Try and do these in at least sets of 20.
Start with your humerous parallel to the ground with your forearm hanging down. Slowly rotate your arm so that your forearm finishes pointing up, and be sure to maintain your humerous parallel to the ground. Again, go for at least sets of 20. Weight is unimportant.
There are a million things it could be but think about whether you’re dropping your elbow. Its pretty common to start doing that you step up your intensity and are swimming tired or focusing on other stuff (i.e. intervals, keeping up etc.). If its only your right shoulder that’s hurting, a dropped elbow is an especially likely culprit if you breathe exclusively (or mostly) to your left though I suppose it could be the cause even if you bilateral breathe. Regardless, think about keeping your elbows up every lap, every stroke the next time you get in the water. Even if its not the cause, it will take stress off your shoulders and probably make you a better swimmer.
I had pretty good cases of swimmer’s shoulder in college. I think that the usual order of treatment:
Ice
OTC Anti-inflammatories
Prescription Anti-inflammatories
Cortisone shots
Shoulder surgery.
Numbers 3 to 5 are something you should leave to a very qualified sports medicine doctor. I only had to go through 4, but you need to be careful because you can really mess your shoulders up. It’s been 18 years since I swam full time, and shoulder problems still affect how I can and cannot sleep.
The shoulder lifts described in one of the posts did wonders for me as well. They both stretch and strengthen your shoulders.
Whether to use heat depends upon the injury. If you are having tendinitis, then heat can be a good thing before a workout. I also gotted zapped with the ultrasound machine before practice, but that’s one of the nice things about going to a college whose training rooms were stocked full of neat toys by the professional football team that held its training camp there.
got “swimmer’s shoulder” early last season. immediately went to a reputable LMT who worked on it several times as well as used a tennis ball to massage a trigger points. also worked on one-arm drills and used a kickboard during lay-off. In a matter of 2.5 weeks, i was back swimming laps.
I should also mentioned that upon your return to swimming, make a minor adjustment and enter “pinky first” during entry. You can read about it here: http://www.donalfagan.com/html/shoulder.html.
In addition to the mentioned aids, you might try two additional approaches:
Use a life-guard style stroke-much wider with a slightly faster tempo;
Don’t put your thumb down on entry. Start by putting your little finger in first and if that works moving your hand over towards the thumb down position a little each day until you find a good compromise. Thumb down, shoulder shrugging, arms straight forward swimming and lots of volume equals shoulder injury in many people.
You need a doctor’s opinion obviously on the extent of the injury, but I’ll bet some rubber band therapy as mentioned above and a few days off followed by very easy swimming will help immensely.