Hi
i know that sounds like a dumb question, but I have concerns.
i have been reading some of the posts on this site and people are talking of swimming 5 or 6 days a week, I would love to do that.
Currently I swim 3 times a week and put in 3,500 yards a session . I would like to increase this but for the last couple of years every time it get going I end up with tendinitis in my elbows and or shoulders. The doctors always say I'm over doing it and to back off.
it seems I should be able to up my yardage or amount of swim days but I'm always afraid of injury, I am starting to get a little faster now and can feel my elbows threatening me.
Could this be a stroke problem ? Or maybe I'm susceptible to tendinitis ?
Any ideas how to get around this and spend more time in the pool would be greatly appreciated.
Thank You, Tom
The doctors say it's over use and back off and yet most people seem to be putting in more yardage than me.
I end up with a shot of cortizone and three days later no pain.
Your doctors do not seem to know much about swimming, or about shoulders. A cortisone shot is not a routine, first-line treatment for swimmer's shoulder. It is a last-try-before-surgery treatment. It knocks down inflammation, sure, but it doesn't do anything about whatever problem caused the inflammation in the first place. And if something is inflaming your shoulders on just 10,000 yards a week, to the point that you need a cortisone shot rather than just 400mg of ibuprofen, you need to get to the bottom of it.
I've just gone through about a year of rehab for a shoulder issue and, in the end, the only thing that worked to get me back to training was finding a physical therapist who knew swimmers.
PWB's advice is the advice to follow. The routine, first-line treatment for shoulder pain in swimmers is really a pre-treatment: You need to strengthen the muscles that stabilize your shoulder blades on your back and your upper arm bone in your shoulder socket. To do so, you need to see a physical therapist who knows about overhead sports, swimmers ideally but baseball or volleyball players would do. Then you need to get in the habit of doing the suite of rotator-cuff exercises your PT recommends, religiously. They are like brushing your teeth (you do it every day; you don't wait until you are in pain). As a serious runner you surely are familiar with the concept, for knees and hips. The older I get the more exercises I have to do just to stay in shape to exercise.
This FINA video is about shoulder exercises. It is informative, but rather than just copying a video I would recommend strongly that you see someone who can help you understand which exercises would be good for you with how your shoulders work today. You don't want to do the exercises incorrectly, and you don't want to do exercises that you are not strong enough (yet) to do correctly and beneficially.
http://youtu.be/tP7fV_d7cDQ
The doctors say it's over use and back off and yet most people seem to be putting in more yardage than me.
I end up with a shot of cortizone and three days later no pain.
Your doctors do not seem to know much about swimming, or about shoulders. A cortisone shot is not a routine, first-line treatment for swimmer's shoulder. It is a last-try-before-surgery treatment. It knocks down inflammation, sure, but it doesn't do anything about whatever problem caused the inflammation in the first place. And if something is inflaming your shoulders on just 10,000 yards a week, to the point that you need a cortisone shot rather than just 400mg of ibuprofen, you need to get to the bottom of it.
I've just gone through about a year of rehab for a shoulder issue and, in the end, the only thing that worked to get me back to training was finding a physical therapist who knew swimmers.
PWB's advice is the advice to follow. The routine, first-line treatment for shoulder pain in swimmers is really a pre-treatment: You need to strengthen the muscles that stabilize your shoulder blades on your back and your upper arm bone in your shoulder socket. To do so, you need to see a physical therapist who knows about overhead sports, swimmers ideally but baseball or volleyball players would do. Then you need to get in the habit of doing the suite of rotator-cuff exercises your PT recommends, religiously. They are like brushing your teeth (you do it every day; you don't wait until you are in pain). As a serious runner you surely are familiar with the concept, for knees and hips. The older I get the more exercises I have to do just to stay in shape to exercise.
This FINA video is about shoulder exercises. It is informative, but rather than just copying a video I would recommend strongly that you see someone who can help you understand which exercises would be good for you with how your shoulders work today. You don't want to do the exercises incorrectly, and you don't want to do exercises that you are not strong enough (yet) to do correctly and beneficially.
http://youtu.be/tP7fV_d7cDQ
