I've had a very rough month, had to drop out of my masters swim class and stop running. I was diagnosed with spondylolisthesis, a displacement of the lumbar vertebrae, which pinched a couple nerves and caused extreme pain down the left leg. I still have lingering aches, but feeling almost normal again. It's caused by arthritis eating away the bone of the vertebrae and allowing them to slip. I had been running 3-4 miles every other day and swimming 1500-2500 yards alternate days (had not begun biking yet). I'm getting PT once a week a gym and once in a pool. Running is out of the question for the foreseeable future, but what about getting back in the pool? Has anyone had this issue and what do I need to be doing to get back in the water.
I have congenitally fused C4 and C5, or maybe it's C5 and C6, with serious arthritis in the joints above and below the congenital fusion. I can't remember which joint is fused because it doesn't bother me much any more. I learned about the fusion about ten years ago, after ten years or so of increasingly severe neck, upper back, and arm problems. (I got serious about finding out what was wrong with my neck when I lost my grip on my big chef's knife and nearly impaled my foot.) The treatment that helped the most, and that ultimately helped me swim faster too, was personal Pilates training with a trainer who was in a practice group with a PT. The PT advised the trainer and the trainer helped me strengthen all of the small muscles of my neck, upper back, scapula, shoulder girdle etc. so that I can move my head and arms effectively without pain. I also used my snorkel a lot when I was recovering from my most severe pain, and I still use it for drills and any time I feel unusually stiff in the upper extremities.
My husband has surgically fused L4-L5-S1, from an accident many years ago. He also has seen great benefits from focused core training (with the same trainer, conveniently). He had to give up running, but he has no problem with long-distance backpacking and canyoneering that includes rock climbing and rappelling. He knows how to swim but he has never tried seriously to be a swimmer.
An aggressive core strengthening program, guided by your PT, might really help you. If you can do individualized training, I highly recommend it, because it's very easy to think that you are using the target muscles when really you are using larger muscles to approximate the movement while leaving the target muscles un-worked and even risking further injury. I think it's more likely that you would have to give up running for good than swimming, but I wouldn't think you should count either one out until you've given serious core strengthening a real try. I was a pretty good swimmer before I had to start over because of my neck, and yet I was much weaker than I realized in the spinal stabilizers, shoulder stabilizers, and hip stabilizers.
I have congenitally fused C4 and C5, or maybe it's C5 and C6, with serious arthritis in the joints above and below the congenital fusion. I can't remember which joint is fused because it doesn't bother me much any more. I learned about the fusion about ten years ago, after ten years or so of increasingly severe neck, upper back, and arm problems. (I got serious about finding out what was wrong with my neck when I lost my grip on my big chef's knife and nearly impaled my foot.) The treatment that helped the most, and that ultimately helped me swim faster too, was personal Pilates training with a trainer who was in a practice group with a PT. The PT advised the trainer and the trainer helped me strengthen all of the small muscles of my neck, upper back, scapula, shoulder girdle etc. so that I can move my head and arms effectively without pain. I also used my snorkel a lot when I was recovering from my most severe pain, and I still use it for drills and any time I feel unusually stiff in the upper extremities.
My husband has surgically fused L4-L5-S1, from an accident many years ago. He also has seen great benefits from focused core training (with the same trainer, conveniently). He had to give up running, but he has no problem with long-distance backpacking and canyoneering that includes rock climbing and rappelling. He knows how to swim but he has never tried seriously to be a swimmer.
An aggressive core strengthening program, guided by your PT, might really help you. If you can do individualized training, I highly recommend it, because it's very easy to think that you are using the target muscles when really you are using larger muscles to approximate the movement while leaving the target muscles un-worked and even risking further injury. I think it's more likely that you would have to give up running for good than swimming, but I wouldn't think you should count either one out until you've given serious core strengthening a real try. I was a pretty good swimmer before I had to start over because of my neck, and yet I was much weaker than I realized in the spinal stabilizers, shoulder stabilizers, and hip stabilizers.
