What have you done to correct Swimmers shoulder, shoulder impingement issues?

Triathlon Forum
1

I’m trying to figure out a good course of action for dealing with my shoulder issues. It’s clear that I have impingement, not sure weather its rotator cuff biceps tendonitis or a multitude of other names. Whats clear is that my range of motion is compromised by pain emanating from the ‘front’ of my shoulder. Swimming and pretty much any overhead pressing is out of the question at the moment.

I’ve tried internal and external rotation with bands, stretching, mobility wod movements and other excersizes to eleviate the symptoms, but haven’t gotten any ware so I’ve been on full rest for three weeks, but want to try some sort of rehab by the first of the year. I have gotten relief by applying pressure with a tennis ball to the front and in and around my scapulae in the back. For that reason I thought I might try active relief therapy, postural restoration rolfing? Has anyone been able to correct this without surgery, or expensive specialists and imaging bills? Health insurance is not the greatest with Obamacare(but thats a topic for the LR)

2

Before I got back in shape, and was only playing golf, (2008 or 2009) I did something to my shoulder playing with my brother’s kids in the pool. It was a classic shoulder impingement. If I raised my right arm straight up, I couldn’t move it over my head. Since I wasn’t training for anything, and the movement didn’t restrict my below the shoulder golf swing, I did nothing about it. About 9 months to a year later the I noticed that the impingement was gone.

My point in that story is that sometimes rest and restraint from painful activities is the best advice.

3

I’m trying to figure out a good course of action for dealing with my shoulder issues. It’s clear that I have impingement, not sure weather its rotator cuff biceps tendonitis or a multitude of other names. Whats clear is that my range of motion is compromised by pain emanating from the ‘front’ of my shoulder. Swimming and pretty much any overhead pressing is out of the question at the moment.

I’ve tried internal and external rotation with bands, stretching, mobility wod movements and other excersizes to eleviate the symptoms, but haven’t gotten any ware so I’ve been on full rest for three weeks, but want to try some sort of rehab by the first of the year. I have gotten relief by applying pressure with a tennis ball to the front and in and around my scapulae in the back. For that reason I thought I might try active relief therapy, postural restoration rolfing? Has anyone been able to correct this without surgery, or expensive specialists and imaging bills? Health insurance is not the greatest with Obamacare(but thats a topic for the LR)

Hey, man, I’m going through the same exact thing right now. I think I hurt my shoulder while racing B2B Half in October. I was using a wetsuit that just didn’t feel great in the shoulders. I pushed the swim anyways and remember thinking after the race that I had discomfort. A month and a half later and the result is inflammation in the tendons surrounding the shoulder and lack of mobility.

Saw a doc for what I feared was a rotator cuff injury, but he referred me to PT upon determining it wasn’t.

I attended my second round of PT this morning and the therapist applied e-stim and heat to loosen the area. That in itself was worth the visit. Next, we had my first ever dry needling session to loosen the trigger points in my chest near the area. That was not my favorite, btw, especially when my chest would spasm as the needle loosened the TPs. I also couldn’t help thinking I was going to get stabbed in a vital organ with a needle! Ha! I can see and feel the benefits, though, and will do it again. I could tell that my chest muscles didn’t “pull” the shoulder in towards my body. It was a relief. Then, the therapist loosened the shoulder with pressure and range of motion exercises. It took a while to relax the muscles and ligaments surrounding the shoulder, but afterwards, i felt loose in that area. After that, some ktape on the back to promote good posture (shoulders back), and then we did some exercises with light weights and a stability ball, which will strengthen the muscles in the back.

As I stated, it’s been two sessions, but my shoulder already feels better. It’s going to take several weeks to get 100%, but I’m on the right track a this point. I will attend a few weeks of PT, but I don’t think I’ll do the 6+ weeks that was recommended.

My question, have you seen a doc? If it is a tear, no point in going to PT or other expensive therapies until it’s healed. The doc can prob make some kind of determination by poking and prodding the area.

Good luck, man! I hope you can get it taken care of!

4

I went to the doc and thought it best to see a specialist get an MRI, the usual. Just trying to see what else is out there before I go down that very expensive road. Of course the chiro, pt, rolfer etc aren’t cheap either. Thanks for the input

5

What worked for me

  • I stopped swimming for a week

  • I learned that doing certain things hurt more than others (such as the depth of my catch) – I adjusted my stroke to prevent any pain. This also meant shortening my stroke for a period of time.

  • I stopped trying to “test it” by doing anything that I know hurts.

6

I wouldn’t have you just jump right into this without knowing the full story, so you should seek out a PT to help you through this, but read up on Dr Kirsch and his brachiation treatment.

It’s basically a fancy way of saying “hang from a bar.”.

I’ve had good luck with it so far with my clients.

Good luck!

7

I stopped stretching before I swim
.

8

I had nagging shoulder issues and finally got diagnosed with a frayed labrum. After an MRI, I did a few months of PT, and took a long break from swimming/racing.

9

I had the same thing towards the end of this summer. I tried everything, ART at chiropractor, tennis ball, massage, resistance bands, stretching, you name it. I dealt with it for a couple of months. What made it go away was not swimming for about 4-5 weeks. During that month off I worked on flexibility and did tons of rotator cuff exercises. Now I can swim pain free and have much better range of motion.

10

I had the impingement as well as a torn labrum an rotator cuff. I ended up doing 3 months of PT to strengthen the part of the shoulder that tried to correct the “winging out” of the shoulder blade. It helped but decided on the surgery. They ended up repairing the labrum, rotator cuff and performing a Mumford (spelling?) to remove the bone that was causing the impingement. I had this done December 2012. Shoulder is stronger now and more stable that the other non repaired shoulder. I have noticed a little stiffness after swimming but I e helps that. I wil start swimming more rural areas again a few months from now and can report then.

11

I dont do 80 to 100 k (metres) per week any more.

12

Treetop - many of the posters here have what you lack. An accurate diagnosis from someone who does this for a living. I think before you can address specific remedies you need a specific diagnosis. I happen to like shoulders as does someone near where you live. My suggestion is to define the problem then define the treatment. Good luck!

John

13

I think mine was caused by swimming as well. I swim like a bread truck. I muscle through the water with my shoulders and only ever feel my lats when I’m using paddles and a pull bouy. I learned all this a little late though, after the damsge was done

The thing is i was all but done with triathlon, even sold my tri bike last year, but came back to deal with unfinished business- Ironman. I registered for IMMT a month ago then started wondering how i was gonna swim 2.4 with an f’d up shoulder! Haha

14

Stretches to do and not to do from USMS and USA Swimming. Some stretches can be harmful, it turns out they are very common

http://www.usmsswimmer.com/201001/swimmer_stretching.pdf

http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/fb638d16-5a36-4b16-916f-ca7c48592d2d/Stretching%20Summary%20USA%20091807.pdf

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I think Johnpostmd hit the nail on the head. without a diagnosis, medical or biomechanical, you are really just guessing

16

First showed up as increasing pain when on my bike. Original diagnoses was torn rotator cuff (from MRI and x-rays) Turned out to be wrong. I finally got fed up with the pain and “try this” or “try that” - just asked for surgery to fix the problem. Turned out to be a bone spur (probably from 55+ years of competitive swimming). The surgeon said it was one of the worst she had ever seen. Still wondering why it was not picked up on the scans. However, surgery fixed it right up. Took a month of formal rehab (PT) and about seven months until my swimming returned to what it had been. Turns out that there is very little to be done, short of surgery, that will “fix” a bone spur. Interestingly enough, the surgery fixed the bike pain almost right away but really messed up my swimming, which had been pretty much OK before the surgery…

.

17

Woah. Gold… there goes my stretching routine…

18

I was having shoulder issues due to improper technique. In particular, my problem was that when breathing, I was pushing down the opposite arm (starting the catch) to help me keep my head up. After a visit to the swim smooth guys with a video analysis session, I was prescribed some drills to help with the issue. Here’s what one of my issues was:

3: Breathing Timing (Front quadrant swimming): you need to keep the arm up when turning head to breath so you maintain your FQS. Otherwise you completely lose your catch on the water and push down with a straight arm.

My drills were something like this.

**TECHNIQUE - breathing timing / turn head to take in breath as you extend arm in front of head ( this will help you maintain your FQS - front quadrant swimming) **

Side kicking with fins / keep arm extended and weightless* when turning head to take in breath / keep head low when taking in breath***

  • 100m / alternate sides per 25m

***"Stroke - stroke - stretch the arm drill " ***

  • 3 x 50m on 30 ri with fins /Full stroke but stretch arm forwards when turning head to take in breath to prevent it dropping too soon
  • 3 x 50m on 30ri without fins / as above

**MAIN SET **- focus on keeping arm up when turning head to take in breath - maintain your FQS

19

Well, what worked for me was taking 20 years off from swimming. YMMV.

20

as everyone has said, go to a doc and get an accurate diagnosis first… shoulder joint is frail and complex, lots of different things could be causing the pain.
Surgery should be a last option in most cases - overuse injuries occur because of muscle imbalance and weakness, surgery won’t fix that. The fix is a comprehensive rehabilitation program including rotator cuff exercises, scapula stabilization exercises, upper back, lower back and core.

start with rotator cuff and scapula stabilization exercises. These are frustrating as they work small easily fatigued muscles, so it doesn’t feel like a workout or anything much. Focus on doing the exercises right, it’s easy to compensate and start using the wrong muscles just to get the motions completed.
Persist with them for at least six months before saying ‘nothing works’. It took years and probably decades to get to this point of injury, quick fixes are not to be expected.

USA Swimming used to have a PDF of the exercises, now I see it is a video, for people who can’t read… oh well try that as a start,
http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=1587&Alias=Rainbow&Lang=en