I've been having numbness and tingling in the right arm for 2 weeks. I got
an MRI last Friday, and it showed that I had herniated cervical disks
(that's slipped disks in the neck in layperson-speak) at the following
levels: C3-C4, C4-C5, and C5-C6 (this last level is where it's worst). I
haven't experienced any loss of strength and coordination (yet). Based on
the advice of a friend of mine that has had the same problem, I've avoided
any exercise that could involve bending or stretching of the neck (so just
stationary cycling for now), restricted myself to lifting no more than 10
lbs. at a time, and am taking anti-inflammatory medication. I'm awaiting a
(timely) referral to a neurosurgeon.
My questions to my fellow Masters swimmers:
1. Have any of you ever experienced this problem?
2. If the answer to (1) is yes, then what sort of treatment (medical and
non-medical) did you receive?
3. Are there any specific things I should be avoiding, swimming-wise (certain strokes, drills, etc? I assume diving is out of the question) and exercise-wise?
4. Before I saw what my MRI looked like (I'm an Internal Medicine MD, so I
could see my MRI was abnormal), I had continued to swim, and actually felt
that swimming helped me feel better. Does anyone out there know if swimming can actually put you at risk for this type of injury?
Physicians, as a rule, tend to err on the side of rest and inactivity for
recovery from any injury, so if anyone has any evidence that states that I can
keep up with at least some swimming while I find out what my course of
treatment will be, I would certainly be grateful for that. I've only started
to get seriously back into swimming since last fall, and was actually
starting to feel good about my swimming, so this recent setback has me
really bummed out at present :-(
I struggle with it and when doing a lot of swimming (for me, 4000+ workouts) it defintely gets wonky and I get the numbness down to my left pinky and my scapula grinds along my back. I've explored surgical options but am a bit leery of them.
I can say what's worked for me - I'm not cured by any means and have to constantly manage it.
-standing desk at work (with a fatigue mat)
-lots of lat work, bands, cables, thoracic push ups.
-stretch out your upper pecs--they get tight from swimming and pull everything forward.
-swim with a snorkel to warm up and for kick sets.
-I'm constantly googling thoracic spine exercises.
www.trainingcor.com/.../5-ways-to-improve-thoracic-spine-mobility-in-swimmers-and-why-it-is-important.htmlwww.stack.com/.../sprintphysio.co.uk/.../thoracic-spine-mobilising-exercises.htmlwww.youtube.com/watch
-yoga, pilates, trx - I find the more diligent I am about my core, the more it takes the stress off of my shoulders/upper back. I'm too lazy/busy to take regular classes but fit in what I can, as it helps pretty much 100% of the time.
-slow warmup with stretching every few 100s.
-bilateral breathing.
When things get bad, I dial down my yardage and try to do those goofy exercises where you pull your neck back (like to give yourself a double chin) about 5x a day.
I think anytime you can avoid surgery it's a good thing. It's a pretty common injury. For me, I've found that once I get tight, my swimming gets shortened up, thereby putting MORE pressure on the neck. Foam rollers are also essential. I also have lacrosse balls I wedge under my scapula while lying down to work on the permanent knot I have in my infraspinatis area.
Last time I was training for a meet, I found that the more flexibility and core training I did (vs the usual weight training) I made significant speed gains.
I often warm up doing some of those swimsmooth kick drills- snorkel, one arm forward (like setting up your catch in free) and that helps stretch things out.
Deep tissue massage + accupuncture is great too. I've had both good and poor results with PT - I think it depends on whom you go to. The first time it happened they told me to stop swimming for 2 months and just use bands. I ended up just atrophying, was frustrated from not swimming, and had a tough time getting back into it.
Hope that's of use, and don't get discouraged - it's rather inconvenient but manageable.
Curious to hear what works for other people, as I'm just winging it and figuring it out by trial and error.
