While I was swimming 5 miles on Monday (first time doing this distance), my right elbow started hurting and it did again today when doing an easy 2 miles before work. With my arm outstretched, palm facing up, the pain is on the right, outside side of my elbow, which I think might be lateral epicondylitis, as opposed to medial epicondylitis. I will see the NP in the orthopedic/sports medicine office tomorrow. He's the same guy who misdiagnosed my foot injury for months, which eventually required major surgery that put an end to my long-distance running so I will also follow up with a sports medicine specialist, but may not be able to see him until June 23rd.
In the meantime, any tips on the best type of catch and pull that will not put further stress on this part of my elbow?
People like you and me who only breathe to one side, tend not to rotate as far to the non-breathing side. I believe it's more common to have rotator cuff issues on your non-breathing (under-rotated) side. If you are having issues on your breathing side, I'm skeptical that bilateral breathing will help. Like you, I have shoulder problems on my breathing side. Bilateral breathing (when I have tried it) has been no help at all. In fact it has hurt. My right shoulder hurts, so when I breathe on my left and skip the breath on the right, I (of course) tend to under-rotate to the right. That just makes the shoulder sore.
As for "a whole new set of exercises", doing them for a few weeks then stopping probably won't help in the long run. Make sure that you continue at least some subset of them for the long term. I have only found long term changes possible (strength, weight, flexibility, whatever) when I've been able to incorporate small changes to my daily routine on an ongoing basis. So, for example:
cut out a soda or skip elevensies, not go on a massive diet to lose weight
find a simple set of shoulder exercises which don't require special equipment or a trip to the gym
do a few stretches while binge watching Game of Thrones instead of signing up for a yoga class across town you go to at most once a week
(Sorry if I sound preachy. Don't mean to. "Bending the curve" is really all that's ever worked for me though...)
Thanks, smontanaro. I agree about the difficulty of incorporating these specific exercises into a sustainable regime. Good to know about bilateral breathing not necessarily being part of the remedy.
People like you and me who only breathe to one side, tend not to rotate as far to the non-breathing side. I believe it's more common to have rotator cuff issues on your non-breathing (under-rotated) side. If you are having issues on your breathing side, I'm skeptical that bilateral breathing will help. Like you, I have shoulder problems on my breathing side. Bilateral breathing (when I have tried it) has been no help at all. In fact it has hurt. My right shoulder hurts, so when I breathe on my left and skip the breath on the right, I (of course) tend to under-rotate to the right. That just makes the shoulder sore.
As for "a whole new set of exercises", doing them for a few weeks then stopping probably won't help in the long run. Make sure that you continue at least some subset of them for the long term. I have only found long term changes possible (strength, weight, flexibility, whatever) when I've been able to incorporate small changes to my daily routine on an ongoing basis. So, for example:
cut out a soda or skip elevensies, not go on a massive diet to lose weight
find a simple set of shoulder exercises which don't require special equipment or a trip to the gym
do a few stretches while binge watching Game of Thrones instead of signing up for a yoga class across town you go to at most once a week
(Sorry if I sound preachy. Don't mean to. "Bending the curve" is really all that's ever worked for me though...)
Thanks, smontanaro. I agree about the difficulty of incorporating these specific exercises into a sustainable regime. Good to know about bilateral breathing not necessarily being part of the remedy.
