For starters, I'd suggest a series on swimmer's shoulder. I've seen estimates of 50% prevalence among Masters swimmers. This is too broad a topic to cover in one article without oversimplifying and being incomplete. For example, the
cause(s) may vary greatly from individual to individual--impingement, muscle imbalance, rotator cuff tears, labral tears, chronic tendinosis, osteoarthrits, etc. Arguably this could merit a regular column in every issue, judging by the number of post related to this subject.
Perhaps others have suggestions?
Former Member
I was going thru quite a few back issues of Swim Magazine (I've got more than I can deal with--like 8-9 years worth!) and found that every couple of years there ARE articles about shoulder injuries, rehab and surgeries.
Perhaps there should be a yearly issue devoted to (I know this will get me into trouble) injury prevention and recovery for those of us who missed the previous issue.
There are a number of orthopods who were swimmers and now are surgeons after their swimming days were over (I know of at least one in the Boston area). Heck--even a surgeon who specializes in sports injuries would be welcome on a regular basis.
Since some of us swim without coaches there are all kinds of physical problems we can give ourselves due to our "advanced" age. Who would think that knees would be a problem with the breaststroke (when you're a kid) as you age.
One of the professional journals I read regularly invites papers on certain topics then compiles them into one issue. In one issue you can read several research papers and reviews on many aspects of the same topic. If a topic is too broad to be covered in one article then it might be beneficial to publish several related articles. Or, maybe have several articles with opposing views.
I think it is a great idea to put articles about shoulder problems in Swim magazine since this is probably one of the biggest reasons for masters swimmers having to drop out of swimming! It is extremely important to prevent shoulder injuries because it is so hard to bounce back from them now that we are older. I think an article showing about 6-8 exercises that PREVENT shoulder injuries would be great. I wish I had done these exercises! I went through a lot of pain, physical therapy,surgery and more physical therapy to get back to the sport I love. It was very hard but worth the price! Even if it might seem repetitive, it would be worth putting an article on this topic in Swim magazine at least once a year!
