Location of soreness when overly ambitious in the water

Depends on what muscles/technique you elected to focus on. If you use muscles that have been out of the mix for awhile, they tend to be the ones that say "Hey!".

I've been training for a long swim that will happen next week. I did a peak swim about 3 weeks ago, 12500 yards, plus had increased the distance of my everyday swimming. The next morning when I jumped in the water, I had some pain in my right shoulder blade, felt like right at the tip. I had no pain before that; slept fine the night before. Just the movement of swimming again kicked it off. I had little to no pain doing backstroke, so I just flipped over and did much of the workout backstroke. Breaststroke was minimal pain. I put fins on, and just took things easy. Not just that day, but that whole week. I majorly adjusted my training plan (well it was in my head). The following Sunday, I did 7200 (a bit of swimming with fins and very minimal paddles), and felt fine. So I did another peak week (with just 11,600 on the big day) the next week, with higher distances during the week, and I was fine (I think about 3200 yards over the week).. Along with adjusting the swimming, I also did more stretching, icing, and took some Tylenol. My thought process is...I'm swimming for fun and to keep in shape. Sure I do meets once in a while, and I do o/w swims, but I've long since accepted that I'm never going to the Olympics. If I'm not having fun, then something is wrong. Pain is not fun. I haven't really figured out why I had the pain. I'm sure some was technique--which is why I did add in Agility paddles after a few days, in small amounts. Those seem to really help my technique. But I think it was mostly the volume. I had never swum that much before in one session in my life.

Well, don't stand that way, then! ;) But no - I think if it was a fundamental technique problem, it'd have hurt to start with. If you've made a jump in yardage, are doing more of a stroke you're not used to, the muscles are bound to say yikes. Being sore is not too bad - if you're in pain, stop. If the soreness gets in the way of doing ordinary things, see your doc. I have been slowly working backstroke into my rotation and yeep, hello unused muscles.

Where are you supposed to feel sore when you swim more than normal? I've been upping my yardage a bit and if i stand with my palms facing front and raise my straight outstretched arms overhead with my back and arms against the wall, the muscles that run along the sides of the biceps are tight and sore. I think it's the deltoids. I just don't know if this is normal or if i've got a form problem. I'm an adult-onset swimmer so i'm constantly working in tweeking things. I recently got a tech-toc to see if lack of rotation was a problem and it doesn't seem to be the issue. So where are you supposed to get sore if you swim too much? Thanks I also have the same feeling, previous my deltoids were always extremely fatigued when swimming, and now still feeling so if I go extra yardage than normal and/or doing high intensity long sessions on consecutive days. I currently have a goal which some people think is too ambitious.

For me it's usually the anterior, or front, deltoid. But I guess it does depend on which stroke(s) you've increaded your yardage/intesity in. In prepping for some longer open water swims this summer...I have increased my pool yardage, and am swimming pretty much crawl stroke only, and increased yardage. So that's where I'm feeling it. Dan