What do I do to get past these sore shoulders? Am I working out too hard? Is there anything that works to calm the soreness? If I keep swimming will they get worse? Or do I need to swim the soreness out?
I've had some problems with my right shoulder from time to time and once tore a rotator cuff muscle. As a personal trainer who has gone through PT and completely rehabilitated, here's what I suggest:
1) If it hurts when you are not swimming or doing any activity, this indicates a serious strain that needs some rest. I would suggest rest and ice for a week. You could do kick sets in the pool in the meantime. Then you could go back to easy swimming and drills the week after perhaps. I will tell you the serious injury I had took 8 months to fully rehabilitate. I swam most of the time, but very cautiously. There is less blood flow to the shoulder muscles than most others and so it takes longer to heal. Be patient!
2) Stretching and proper warm-up and cool-down make a huge difference. I never swim really hard until I've done about 20 minutes of swimming and I always do a 200 or more cool down (4 or 500 in meets).
3) Sometimes the shoulder clicks happen because of impingement due to overtight muscles impairing proper movement. Swimmers tend to be overdeveloped in the pectorals. Good exercises to balance this out are high rows, scapular retraction and chest stretching (lying over a foam roller with arms extended works great). Lats also get tight and make the humerus sit weird in the joint. I roll the lats with a foam roller when they are tight.
4) Become more in tune with what your body needs so you know what you need to do to remediate. Learn what your limits are.
Hope this helps!
I've had some problems with my right shoulder from time to time and once tore a rotator cuff muscle. As a personal trainer who has gone through PT and completely rehabilitated, here's what I suggest:
1) If it hurts when you are not swimming or doing any activity, this indicates a serious strain that needs some rest. I would suggest rest and ice for a week. You could do kick sets in the pool in the meantime. Then you could go back to easy swimming and drills the week after perhaps. I will tell you the serious injury I had took 8 months to fully rehabilitate. I swam most of the time, but very cautiously. There is less blood flow to the shoulder muscles than most others and so it takes longer to heal. Be patient!
2) Stretching and proper warm-up and cool-down make a huge difference. I never swim really hard until I've done about 20 minutes of swimming and I always do a 200 or more cool down (4 or 500 in meets).
3) Sometimes the shoulder clicks happen because of impingement due to overtight muscles impairing proper movement. Swimmers tend to be overdeveloped in the pectorals. Good exercises to balance this out are high rows, scapular retraction and chest stretching (lying over a foam roller with arms extended works great). Lats also get tight and make the humerus sit weird in the joint. I roll the lats with a foam roller when they are tight.
4) Become more in tune with what your body needs so you know what you need to do to remediate. Learn what your limits are.
Hope this helps!
