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?
Dr. Gull, that was an awesome article! Wish I had that when I hurt mine several years ago. I hurt mine sculling - and racing at the same time. Because my doctor was convinced that it was "just" tennis elbow, we only got Vioxx and steroid shots. After a couple more years of this, and now my elbows were about 3 times larger than usual I decided to do what any good NP ought to have done years before, and I stomped my foot and demanded an EMG by neuro. Well, after the cubital tunnel was released, it was almost immediate how much better I felt. I had less swelling coming OUT of surgery than going in! And 4 years later am still fine. Moral of the story: if the pain continues robrect, consider neurology. Sometimes it's not muscular. AND, I personally believe that if done correctly, EVF will take strain OFF your elbow - you'll feel it more in your deltoid and biceps.
He gave me a whole new set of exercises and is sending me to physical therapy for the shoulder. (I always breathe on that side so maybe I should learn bilateral breathing?)
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...)
Finally got in to see the sports medicine doc today (instead of the physician assistant at the orthopedic surgeon's office). He seemed to know what he was talking about--made a point of 'name-dropping' that he's seen the same issue in NY Yankees pitchers that he treats.
He says the real problem is with my shoulder and the elbow injury is secondary, from over compensating for the shoulder issues, which are scapula (shoulder blade) and rotator cuff (tendons and muscles in the shoulder that connect the arm to the) scapula. My shoulder doesn't even hurt, but he demonstrated that it is in fact weaker than the other shoulder when doing some movements. Apparently, he can see it even with my poor posture that I am holding one shoulder higher than the other. He gave me a whole new set of exercises and is sending me to physical therapy for the shoulder. (I always breathe on that side so maybe I should learn bilateral breathing?)
He says I can start swimming again as long as I'm not in too much pain and compensate with poor form. He does not want me to work on speed drills or worry about my time, but (surprisingly) said that I should be able to do the 3.1-mile open-water swim I'm signed up for in a couple of weeks.So I am changing my goal from time to finishing without pain as slowly as I can without sinking.
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.
I had some elbow pain a few years back. Truthfully I think the whole thing started by using paddles that were BIG and trying to swim fast with them. My freestyle pull is a bit sketchy too. I didn't quit swimming: I spent 3-4 weeks doing the team workout but kicking only. I used small fins most of the time. I feel like it improved my kick + I was surprised I didn't loose much conditioning.
My Physical Therapist recommended I purchase and use a Therabar. Here's the link for Amazon: www.amazon.com/.../B00CMMZUHC I believe this bar gave me some relief and possibly built up some of the small muscles in my forearm. I tried one of those arm bands but it didn't seem to help. I cinched it down as tight as I could but it still slipped off. Good luck, I hope things are back to normal for you asap!
Did a slow mile today with an elbow brace given to me by the sports medicine doc. No pain. Maybe I will try for 2 miles on Tuesday but stop if there's any pain. I don't want to push myself but I do want to get a sense of whether or not I should do the 3-mile open-water 'race' on July 12th. I've given up on trying for a good time and will be happy if I finish without any pain.
Did a very slow 1.6 miles today, again with the brace. Elbow started to get a little uncomfortable so I stopped short of 2 miles. Next time I will do 1 mile. If everything feels fine again, I might try another half-mile, but even if I feel fine after 1.5 miles, I will not push it beyond that. Determined not to let this become a chronic injury. Probably won't be able to do the 3-mile open water swim on July 12th, but we'll see how it goes.
