I swam competitively from age 9 through high school and hated it. Now at age 30, I joined a local Master's team and love it. My friends say that it is my religion. My change of heart is a different topic however. Now I need some help solving my latest "possible" swimming related problem. I read another post about cervical injury and swimming but thought that this was a somewhat different subject.
Over the past three months, I have had numerous whiplash injuries to my neck and shoulders. Both my right and left sides have been affected. I end up in the doctor's office in such pain that I need muscle relaxants, vicodin, a whole lot of icy hot and some beer to move about. I end up taking time off of swimming to let my injuries heal. The doctors think that it might be swimming related. I personally don't think so and don't want it to be (since I now love it). But maybe I am doing something inadvertently.
1) I have been told that I have "beautiful" stroke technique (expect backstroke where I cross over)
2) I never dive in except in meets
3) I alternate breathe except when my neck won't allow it
4) The pool is over 80 degrees
5) I swim three to four times a week 3500 yards at a time
I want to know if anyone else has these problems or if anyone can think of swimming related techniques that would cause this.
Thanks
I've found that to get good results from medical folks on shoulder issues with regard to swimming; you have to come preloaded with lots of good technical information about your situation.
What I mean is, not walking into the office saying my shoulder hurts. I mean walking in saying well, I have poor internal rotation in my shoulders and have a recurrent problem with pain on the right side of my neck. It hurts on the right side when I turn left or right, as far as I can tell it's between C6 and C7.
You may have already guessed the correct answer isn't to take some muscle relaxers and ice it for a few days. You'll be back in the office very soon in that case.
The correct answer would be something like, let's find out exactly what the problem is, (imaging as suggested elsewhere) and now let's figure out what you're doing to make this come up. Since you're a swimmer with shoulder and neck problems we will look at swimming first. This part may not be with a doctor at all but can very well be with a physical therapist.
Also please be aware that your lane mates saying you have good technique doesn't exactly pass over swimming as the problem.
Not your lane mates in particular but in general swimmers are not tuned into what ways we expose ourselves to injury by swimming. Only those that have taken a particular interest for themselves or possible medical practitioners who also swim are likely to know enough to give good answers on the question. Your lane mates may be these people, but be aware they may not.
Laslty, my biomechanical questions about swimming usually start here
www.education.ed.ac.uk/.../
There's lots of good information there.
Find the good medical people in your area, there is certainly someone in Chicago that can help you.
I've found that to get good results from medical folks on shoulder issues with regard to swimming; you have to come preloaded with lots of good technical information about your situation.
What I mean is, not walking into the office saying my shoulder hurts. I mean walking in saying well, I have poor internal rotation in my shoulders and have a recurrent problem with pain on the right side of my neck. It hurts on the right side when I turn left or right, as far as I can tell it's between C6 and C7.
You may have already guessed the correct answer isn't to take some muscle relaxers and ice it for a few days. You'll be back in the office very soon in that case.
The correct answer would be something like, let's find out exactly what the problem is, (imaging as suggested elsewhere) and now let's figure out what you're doing to make this come up. Since you're a swimmer with shoulder and neck problems we will look at swimming first. This part may not be with a doctor at all but can very well be with a physical therapist.
Also please be aware that your lane mates saying you have good technique doesn't exactly pass over swimming as the problem.
Not your lane mates in particular but in general swimmers are not tuned into what ways we expose ourselves to injury by swimming. Only those that have taken a particular interest for themselves or possible medical practitioners who also swim are likely to know enough to give good answers on the question. Your lane mates may be these people, but be aware they may not.
Laslty, my biomechanical questions about swimming usually start here
www.education.ed.ac.uk/.../
There's lots of good information there.
Find the good medical people in your area, there is certainly someone in Chicago that can help you.
