Hello, A few months ago I tried to break out of sedentary habits and begin exercising by swimming at my local pool (a bout of 20 minutes of vigorous sidestroke laps. Sidestroke is what I am most comfortable with.) Sometime after that I developed a frozen shoulder, which continues to bother me even after a couple of months of physical therapy (which ended several weeks ago.) I am tempted to return to the swimming but was curious as to whether or not it would be advisable to do the sidestroke. (I have gentle exercises prescribed for me to do specifically for the shoulder as well.) Maybe this is a question for my doctor. Any advice is gratefully appreciated, thank you.
I've always thought of sidestroke as more of a rescue stroke. Master's swim teams, at least the ones I know of only use the 4 competitive strokes and drills for them.
If I were you I'd mix my strokes up. When you sidestroke you are repeatedly doing your long, power stroke with the same arm over and over again. At the very least try to alternate sides so you get a different arm pattern every other lap. I'm just coming off 8 weeks of rotator cuff irritation. The things I did was rest, ice, shoulder strength exercises (pulling with a rubber tube helped lots), but most importantly I've been doing lots of backstroke. I normally swim mostly freestyle and I think a summer of hard, chest down swimming did me in. I've been doing at least 40% of my workout backstroke and after a week things started feeling much better. My backstroke is getting better too. This morning at workout I told my coach, this is my year of the backstroke.
Good luck and congratulations on finding a more active lifestyle! Your new lifestyle will pay off with benefits you never even though were obtainable!!
I've always thought of sidestroke as more of a rescue stroke. Master's swim teams, at least the ones I know of only use the 4 competitive strokes and drills for them.
If I were you I'd mix my strokes up. When you sidestroke you are repeatedly doing your long, power stroke with the same arm over and over again. At the very least try to alternate sides so you get a different arm pattern every other lap. I'm just coming off 8 weeks of rotator cuff irritation. The things I did was rest, ice, shoulder strength exercises (pulling with a rubber tube helped lots), but most importantly I've been doing lots of backstroke. I normally swim mostly freestyle and I think a summer of hard, chest down swimming did me in. I've been doing at least 40% of my workout backstroke and after a week things started feeling much better. My backstroke is getting better too. This morning at workout I told my coach, this is my year of the backstroke.
Good luck and congratulations on finding a more active lifestyle! Your new lifestyle will pay off with benefits you never even though were obtainable!!
