Swimmer Magazine: Scapula Article

Kudos to Jim Thornton for his excellent article in the current issue of Swimmer Magazine! :applaud: Jim, your articles are always informative and enjoyable to read. Thanks! Jim, if you come across any good videos of the exercises you wrote about in your article, will you please post them on this thread? It's important to do the exercises correctly, and the visuals would really help! Forumites, make sure to read this article and take it seriously. Even though I was already doing a routine of shoulder exercises prescribed by my physical therapist back when I had surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome in 1993, I still developed snapping scapula syndrome when I tweaked my training routine to prepare for racing the 1650 at Spring Nationals. All it took was adding this set to my weekly routine: 16x100 free. The repetitiveness of that set when I was used to training IM six days/week was enough for me to develop a click (or snap) that I heard and felt in my right scapula. As a person with a body that is very susceptible to repetitive stress injuries (and having had surgery for snapping hip syndrome due to repetitive walking during my 31 non-swimming years), I knew to take it seriously. I immediately made an appointment with my PT for an evaluation and had a couple of sessions of dry needling therapy. In addition, he made some adjustments to my PT routine, including switching the angle of my Theraband pull exercise. The other thing he did is tape my scapula and photograph it, so my husband could re-tape my scapula correctly. MY ADVICE :2cents:: 1. If you develop ANY repetitive clicking or snapping in any joint, take it seriously, even if is not painful. If you ignore it, you could end up with a labral tear or other problems that may require surgery. 2. The BEST thing you could do is see a sports physical therapist for an evaluation and follow ALL of their advice. The exercises they prescribe will be specific for your problem, and it's important to continue doing them, even after your symptoms resolve. 3. If you are not a backstroker, and you do not swim any backstroke in your workouts, START. Swimming only free, ***, and fly will develop imbalances in your muscles. If you are not lifting weights in the gym to work your lats and other back muscles, you need to do exercises targeting those muscles to keep everything in balance. Swimming backstroke will help, even if it's during warm-up and cool-down. 4. If you use Kinesiotape, learn how to use it correctly. If you won't see a physical therapist, at least go on YouTube and view videos Kinesio has posted on how to use their tape correctly. Still, you should have your ailment evaluated first! 5. Have your stroke evaluated. It could be poor stroke technique causing your problem. In my case, I did that first. I had my husband shoot topside and underwater video of all my strokes, and I sent the links to my part-time coach. Although I have far-from-perfect strokes, there was nothing he saw that was causing my specific problem. That is when I knew it was the increase in freestyle yardage (and decrease in training the other strokes) that was the issue. Since going through PT and resuming my IM training routine, I have not had any further problems. I continue to do my PT exercises each day, and I keep my scapula taped. ***Keep in mind that Kinesio tape is NOT allowed in competition. I removed mine for last weekend's Ironman Pentathlon. Good luck, and stay healthy! :D