Injury layoff of a week or so--ho long to regain form?
Former Member
I have a friend who has a shoulder injury (mild but enough that she doesn't want to risk delaying recovery to swim). Have any of you had layoffs from swimming due to injury or other issues and when you came back to the pool did it take you long to regain your form. She is freaked a bit because she loves swimming and is so afraid she will lose all the fitness she has gained over the last few months. She has done short swims of 1750 or so, maybe once a week. So not a significant layoff. But maybe a week or so. Any help or positive encouragement is welcome!
thank you!
Every person is different. Every injury is different. Every journey is unique.
When you're sick or injured and taking time off from training it's easy to imagine the worst. Usually a swimmers' perception or fear about getting out of shape is often worse than the reality. The key is to work with your docs, physical therapist, & coach on your recovery and path to getting back in shape.
The truths are
it takes what it takes.
Always err on the side of caution
Do everything you can to avoid getting reinjured.
At the risk of sounding contrarian here, I think that it's important to realize there are injuries and there are injuries.
Which brings me to my larger point: I think we are too quick to baby our shoulders. I used to agree wholeheartedly with Ande--err on the side of caution. But then I started to realize that when I would have a somewhat sore shoulder and err on the side of caution, its rate of improvement was no faster, or slower, than if I just continued swimming with some minor modification. Indeed, the discomfort usually got better faster if I didn't stop swimming.
Here is what I recommend: get some fins and continue to swim with your team, using the fins to "de-weight" the effort of your pull. If you have to, just let your sore arm go through the range of motion of the stroke without actually putting any power into it at all. I don't know of any doctor who recommends not moving a shoulder that has suffered a slight tweak. You may want to avoid sprinting, but there is usually no reason to get out of the pool and/or stop all motion.
If you shoulder is so sore that you can't even go through the range of motion, then you might have a more serious problem. But as Dr. Richard Hawkins, MD (of the legendary Steadman-Hawkins Clinic in Colorado) once told me, the vast majority of shoulder problems will heal on their own provided you don't just bludgeon the joint. I'd caution conservatism about MRIs and the like, and even more conservatism if such unearths (as they usually do) some sort of lesion that requires an expensive repair.
I pretty much agree with Jim. I hurt my shoulder in early August, probably a partial separation. I did keep swimming, used fins, cut back a bit to 3-4 sessions per week and did not push the shoulder too hard for about 3 weeks. I did stop swimmming fly and bk altogether, because the rotations hurt, and no lifting. I did start easy bk after about 4 weeks and may now start fly after about 6 weeks.
I also found when swimming OW that the strap of my sleeveless wetsuit aggravated the shoulder injury by pushing down on the supraspinatus shoulder stabilizer muscle at the top of the shoulder blade (especially after about 2k) and this apparetly pulled on the tender shoulder joint. This might also be a problem if i were female swimming in suit with tight shoulder straps pulling down. If your friends female, she might want to stay away from tight racing suits and swim in a suit that doesn't pull on her shoulder.
Within about 4 weeks of the injury, my shoulder survived a 2 day pool meet, one sprint tri, and a 1.5 mi OW race . I haven't seen a Dr and have reasoned that as long as it was getting slowly better, it would heal without intervention. I found that swimming helped keep the injury from freezing my shoulder and seemed to loosen it (it generally feels better after i swim). Some minor pain remains and i think it wil be about 8-12 weeks before injury sensation is gone completely. But, im an old guy :cane: and heal slower too.
Of course, this is my shoulder injury and there are probably 50 different ways to injure your shoulder and everyone has different tollerances for injury and pain. But, as jim indicated, don't feel that you automatically need to completely stop swimming or seek surgery for a shoulder. You may be able to maintain your conditioning, use the time to recover a bit and work on technique, dps, sdk, turns etc., and just hold back on the hard stuff. :2cents:
I have a friend who has a shoulder injury (mild but enough that she doesn't want to risk delaying recovery to swim). Have any of you had layoffs from swimming due to injury or other issues and when you came back to the pool did it take you long to regain your form. She is freaked a bit because she loves swimming and is so afraid she will lose all the fitness she has gained over the last few months. She has done short swims of 1750 or so, maybe once a week. So not a significant layoff. But maybe a week or so. Any help or positive encouragement is welcome!
thank you!
I swim with an age group team. We had 4 weeks off for summer break, we were back a week and I was feeling good and then I had hand surgery. I thought 2 weeks out of the water until my stitches were taken out and the incision opened up. Now I'm out a full 4 weeks :( How will I get back in shape,slowly. Tell her to start small and as she feels better, add more in. I'll be starting with kicking only for 2 weeks and then hopefully getting cleared to swim.
At the risk of sounding contrarian here, I think that it's important to realize there are injuries and there are injuries.
As swimmers, we are all prone to anxieties about our shoulders since major damage here can lead to temporary (or in worst cases) long term sidelining from the sport we love.
Other tweaks to our bodies, from sore feet to back pain, tend not to freak us out nearly as much because we don't tend to view these as critical to our swimming. Thus you can be hobbling around on a twisted ankle and not be all that upset about it; but a little shoulder discomfort is reason to check into the shoulder ICU for a massive diagnostic and therapeutic bivouac!
Which brings me to my larger point: I think we are too quick to baby our shoulders. I used to agree wholeheartedly with Ande--err on the side of caution. But then I started to realize that when I would have a somewhat sore shoulder and err on the side of caution, its rate of improvement was no faster, or slower, than if I just continued swimming with some minor modification. Indeed, the discomfort usually got better faster if I didn't stop swimming.
Here is what I recommend: get some fins and continue to swim with your team, using the fins to "de-weight" the effort of your pull. If you have to, just let your sore arm go through the range of motion of the stroke without actually putting any power into it at all. I don't know of any doctor who recommends not moving a shoulder that has suffered a slight tweak. You may want to avoid sprinting, but there is usually no reason to get out of the pool and/or stop all motion.
If you shoulder is so sore that you can't even go through the range of motion, then you might have a more serious problem. But as Dr. Richard Hawkins, MD (of the legendary Steadman-Hawkins Clinic in Colorado) once told me, the vast majority of shoulder problems will heal on their own provided you don't just bludgeon the joint. I'd caution conservatism about MRIs and the like, and even more conservatism if such unearths (as they usually do) some sort of lesion that requires an expensive repair.
Have your friend do some stretch cord exercises for the rotator cuffs and scapular stabilizers, then buy some fins and keep swimming. She will be fine, and this approach will not make things worse.
At the end of July I finished the Negaunee to Ishpeming (Michigan) Teal Lake Swim for Diabetes that I do every year. I did it in 90:13, which, while not fast is a personal best. Three years in a row personal best is pretty good at age 59.
Anyhow, I started training to consider a marathon-like swim next summer (Mackinac Straits. Been *talking* about that for years.)
I wanted do a couple of the Texas Highland lake swims at the end of October. If I do a 3 mile race at a faster per-mile pace than the 2.25 Teal Lake, then I'm on the right track.
After picking my nose and drinking wine in August, I started training again in September. At the end of September, I was up to a 5100 yard swim. (I woulda made 3 miles, had I arrived at the pool earlier.)
I started have some pain in my shoulder though. IU idd a coupel shot days. I switched from a paced mile to a paced 1000. Did 6 X 50 sprints instead of 12X 100. And the shoulder hurt a bit worse.
Having had a couple YEARS of restricted activity in the mid-90's from a rotator cuff puts me into the "caution" side of the equation.
I delayed getting a plane ticket, then cancelled in my mind, seeing as how the first week or 10 days of october was to be peak training.
I sat down at my computer and was going to write a stinging rebuttal to Jim Thornton's post ("Well-elllllll! Obviously LiTtLe JiMmY has never had a real shoulder injury....")
But then I re-read what Jim said (Not to hear what he was saying, of course. Just not to make fool out of myself with small errors as I ground him in to the dirt, you understand.)
Anyhow, the upshot is that I got the *click* they're-both-right epiphany. I decided to keep swimming 3X per week. Only intead of the 10,000 yards I wanted to build to, maybe a quarter of that, and haveing relaxation as the speed goal. Maybe do some more kicking work.
So I've done that. I'm finding it's much harder to motivate myself to get to the pool on time - or at all - and a little bit harder motivate to do my PT stretch band calisthetics and stretching (even though I know that NOW is the important time to be rigorous with that.) So, I've missed maybe a quarter of my swims.
Now, I'm hoping that I can start increasing distance again. Maybe do 4000 yard+ distance swim sometime before Thanksgiving.
I dont' know if I can or not. Shoulder doesn't hurt now -at least not much - but there is a little funny feeling twinge. I've had worse feelings just go away when I've decided to tough it out, but it isn't clear this one is going anywhere.
So, I figure I start ramping up from my current rec-swimmer 1000 yards. I'll try to increase maybe 500 yards per workout to see if I can get up to do a 4000+ yard swim before Thanksgiving.
I have to steel myself - If this is another long term deal, then I probably better off swimming little 1000 (minus) swims 3 times aweek than I would be doing nothing.
If it's long term, I'll will probably heal faster if, whenever there is an issue I ease off the yards in an "err on the side of caution," with any pain. Some slow recovery swimming is probably better for the shoulder than not swimming. It will probably be easier to motivate my shoulder PT if I do some rather that none, too.
On the other hand, I'm confident I could swim 5000 yards right now with no pain. UNTIL the next day. Then, that twinge would be my constant companion for a time. As in, "I've had friends who didn't stay married that long."
It will be hard for me, because I do NOT do well with the uncertainty. In some ways, it would be easier to stop swimming than to say I'll increase by 400 yeards each workout UNLESS I get soreness, then I'll go back to 800 yards total. Or trying to figure out if there might be a problem in my shoulder after 2000 yards or am I just being lazy?
Particularly if this shortens the down time from the 3 years or so I faced in the 90's to maybe 18-20 of short, slow swimming.
The 18 months would be way, WAY better than the 3 years, but could also turn into "Every few months, I convince myself I'm healed and reinjure."
That is a lot of patience. Not sure if I have it.
In the GREAT AMERICAN U!S!A! spirit of Lance Armstrong and buddies, I'm contemplating talking to my doc about things like human growth hormone and testosterone supplements.
some hardcore cross training might help me, too.
Anyhow, so far this thread has provided a lot of good hope and guidance for me. I'm turning 60 next year. At my age, I can't expect to swim frigid, choppy-waved, swift-current straits without having a physical setback or two in my training.
Thanks.
Mr Thornton, I think I owe you a beer. I live in the same town as you. We're both on that awkward edge between middle-age and true geezerhood. Do you swim in the river with the triathletes somtimes? I know I've met guys named "Jim" there, but there's a lotta Jims. Ever meet someone named "Mick" down there ?
Mick
"You're in pretty good shape for your age. But that's like saying your dog has pretty good breath for a canine."
This is such a timely topic for me and i was thrilled to see the list of shoulder strengthening exercises in Swimmer mag that showed up the other day!
I've been struggling since july with what has now been determined to be rotator cuff tendonitis. I went to PT and I am now a shoulder strengthening fiend and in the past couple of weeks, have noticed subtle improvements.
I've taken the route of cutting back versus just not swimming at all. I usually swim 3000 3-4x per week with all strokes but reduced this 2000-2500 of just kicking and free. The repetition is what causes the discomfort so i do no more than 300 swim sets up without breaking them up with kicking. i also only do higher intensity sets with fins.
I also decided that instead of focusing on what i cannot do in the pool like any strokes, it is a good time to work on my weakness...kicking. There are also a lot of drills that don't hurt the shoulders and i rarely found time for when i was uninjured.
While i cannot wait to take my first strokes of a pathetic but pain-free butterfly with people versus alone, my hope is that i can come back with a stronger kick and a more balanced stroke along with bomb proof shoulders.
Kick! I've been banned from everything but kicking for the past month, and have just been cleared to try very very limited backstroke. Used to be one of my worst strokes, second only to butterfly (probably only because I can at least breathe freely while on my back). I've now spent so much time kicking on my back that I go straighter and have much better form overall. If you need to give your shoulder a break, do different kick sets and drills. It will still give a good workout, and you can use it as a chance to add more power to your stroke by working on the kick.
