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!
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.
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.
