I started to swim regularly nearly two months ago. I almost exclusively directed my intention to improving my breaststroke - and I have hardly been swimming any other techniques since I started.
I watched some youtube videos for guidance, but as I never had the information with me in the pool, it mostly came down to experimenting and improving the technique on my own, still of course trying to imitate the image I had in my head from my vague memory of the videos. In the beginning my kick was quite straight vertical. Only later did I start to bend my feet outwards and kick in a sideway fashion, trying to imitate what I have seen on the videos. In terms of functionality and uses of muscles it was different from what I was used to.
I rarely do very long sets, as I most of the time do weightlifting as well beforehand. The other day however, I did not do any weightlifting and instead just had a long swim. I guess my body was not very used to the length neither the kicking technique.
All seemed to have gone well, but a few days later I went to the pool again, but this time I could feel a sharp pain in my hips as I was doing my kick - to the degree that I couldn't/didn't want to continue.
Now to some questions I have in mind; Should I be worried that I have done some real damage? Could it be due to overstrain, wrong technique or both? Should I wait it out or seek medical advice? etc.
The main reason why I am asking is that my body has not been the same since a bacterial infection that happened a few months ago, and wonder if it could be related.
I will be grateful for any inputs and I am especially interested if anyone of you have encountered similar issues!
I would wait until you can swim hip pain free. But I broke my hip and was able in time to return to swimming in time. I would not swim and lift lower body weights for a good while, particularly hip flexors and extenders. You can always focus more on upper body swimming using pull-buoys, but I would wait a week or two to heal. 5-6 weeks if you are really hurting. See a sports orthopedist if you are, or a regular orthopedist. Hip injuries are not usually aggravated from swimming if you don't do kicking, besides a light flutter kick. But I would never lift weights and then swim unless you are very young. You should heel in time.
I would wait until you can swim hip pain free. But I broke my hip and was able in time to return to swimming in time. I would not swim and lift lower body weights for a good while, particularly hip flexors and extenders. You can always focus more on upper body swimming using pull-buoys, but I would wait a week or two to heal. 5-6 weeks if you are really hurting. See a sports orthopedist if you are, or a regular orthopedist. Hip injuries are not usually aggravated from swimming if you don't do kicking, besides a light flutter kick. But I would never lift weights and then swim unless you are very young. You should heel in time.
