Has anyone actually dislocated their shoulder while swimming? I swam all through high school, took 6 years off tried bodybuilding then went to powerlifting. After several disk injuries, I decided to quit, and get back into swimming to save my aching body/joints. After about 6 weeks of training I competed in my first Masters meet. The first two events were awesome 50m back then 50m fly. I actually broke the state records in both. The third event 100m I.M. While sweeping outward in the butterfly, my shoulder came completely out of the socket for a split second, then popped back in. I could actually hear things popping and tearing. It has been 6 weeks, and it still hasn't completely healed. All I've been able to do is kick workouts without a kickboard.Does anyone else have a similar experience?
Brining back an old thread in hopes of getting some advice/encouragement/words of wisdom.....apologies in advance, this is long!
OK, so about 3.5 years ago I dislocated my left shoulder after I fell on it. Started PT as soon as I could, and also started swimming again once a week. (A blessing in disguise I guess, because this is what got me back into the pool after almost a decade.) I noticed three big differences after my injury: 1) a constant popping with backstroke; and 2) breathing more on the left side rather than right; 3) needing to be really careful when doing open back/*** turns when landing on the left arm as I could really feel the weakness then.
So since then, my shoulder has been rather loose I guess. I'd say it has at least partially dislocated several times (once was when I was changing a light bulb, I had my left arm over my head screwing it in, and then I sneezed and it came out lol....but always outside of the pool). But I continued to swim 1x a week, because I noticed that my shoulder seemed to be more prone to popping out when I wasn't keeping up with my weekly swimming.
(I am also assuming that it is in fact re-dislocating. When I think its popping out, I can feel a crunchy/tear sensation, but it immediately goes back into place.....longest its ever seemed out of place has been maybe 5-6 seconds tops. This does not produce intense or acute pain however. What really hurts are the days after, when it feels like I've been punched in the arm and I feel the pins and needles in my hand. So I'm not sure if its actually redislocating, or if its just tendons and ligaments moving around....because the pain I feel isn't really my shoulder per se, its more around the of my outside arm below the shoulder joint.)
OK so fast forward to 6 months ago when I joined Masters. Shoulder was in great shape.....hadn't redislocated in a while, no pain, no backstroke popping. I would favor left side breathing while using paddles and would go easy on bk/br turns but thats about it. I assumed I was having no problems because my shoulder was nice and strong.
So two weeks ago we did an 100 IM for time in practice. I wasn't thinking about it, and landed on my left arm for the back/*** turn and had a nice pop n' rip :( Went home, took ibuprofen and 2 days off from practice. I layed off the backstroke (popping was back) but continued to train with my sore shoulder.....thinking its just sore, no big deal.
Then this past weekend I had my first USMS meet. My shoulder was still a little sore but I didn't think much of it since I wasn't doing any backstroke or IM events. However, while finishing hard into the wall for the 50 free, I again landed with my left arm and had another pop n' rip :( I'm not sure if this would have happened if I didn't mess it up 2 weeks earlier, but thats beside the point....its super sore now!
Anyway, I will be scheduling an appointment with the doc. In the meantime I'm trying not to get too upset over this. I knew that when I originally dislocated it, things wouldn't be the same in the pool. But over the past 6 months I've really started to feel like a swimmer again, and it pisses me off that this injury could hold me back. At the same time, I guess I'm thankful that this never happened during my 'prime', I can't imagine going through this with a career on the line!
Should I even go to practice tonight? I'm not sure if I should let my shoulder rest or keep it moving (taking it super easy of course).
Thanks for letting me rant. :)
Brining back an old thread in hopes of getting some advice/encouragement/words of wisdom.....apologies in advance, this is long!
OK, so about 3.5 years ago I dislocated my left shoulder after I fell on it. Started PT as soon as I could, and also started swimming again once a week. (A blessing in disguise I guess, because this is what got me back into the pool after almost a decade.) I noticed three big differences after my injury: 1) a constant popping with backstroke; and 2) breathing more on the left side rather than right; 3) needing to be really careful when doing open back/*** turns when landing on the left arm as I could really feel the weakness then.
So since then, my shoulder has been rather loose I guess. I'd say it has at least partially dislocated several times (once was when I was changing a light bulb, I had my left arm over my head screwing it in, and then I sneezed and it came out lol....but always outside of the pool). But I continued to swim 1x a week, because I noticed that my shoulder seemed to be more prone to popping out when I wasn't keeping up with my weekly swimming.
(I am also assuming that it is in fact re-dislocating. When I think its popping out, I can feel a crunchy/tear sensation, but it immediately goes back into place.....longest its ever seemed out of place has been maybe 5-6 seconds tops. This does not produce intense or acute pain however. What really hurts are the days after, when it feels like I've been punched in the arm and I feel the pins and needles in my hand. So I'm not sure if its actually redislocating, or if its just tendons and ligaments moving around....because the pain I feel isn't really my shoulder per se, its more around the of my outside arm below the shoulder joint.)
OK so fast forward to 6 months ago when I joined Masters. Shoulder was in great shape.....hadn't redislocated in a while, no pain, no backstroke popping. I would favor left side breathing while using paddles and would go easy on bk/br turns but thats about it. I assumed I was having no problems because my shoulder was nice and strong.
So two weeks ago we did an 100 IM for time in practice. I wasn't thinking about it, and landed on my left arm for the back/*** turn and had a nice pop n' rip :( Went home, took ibuprofen and 2 days off from practice. I layed off the backstroke (popping was back) but continued to train with my sore shoulder.....thinking its just sore, no big deal.
Then this past weekend I had my first USMS meet. My shoulder was still a little sore but I didn't think much of it since I wasn't doing any backstroke or IM events. However, while finishing hard into the wall for the 50 free, I again landed with my left arm and had another pop n' rip :( I'm not sure if this would have happened if I didn't mess it up 2 weeks earlier, but thats beside the point....its super sore now!
Anyway, I will be scheduling an appointment with the doc. In the meantime I'm trying not to get too upset over this. I knew that when I originally dislocated it, things wouldn't be the same in the pool. But over the past 6 months I've really started to feel like a swimmer again, and it pisses me off that this injury could hold me back. At the same time, I guess I'm thankful that this never happened during my 'prime', I can't imagine going through this with a career on the line!
Should I even go to practice tonight? I'm not sure if I should let my shoulder rest or keep it moving (taking it super easy of course).
Thanks for letting me rant. :)
