Ok...Here's the short verison of the lead up to my question. I dislocated, well suplexed (popped out but popped in on it's own), my shoulder about a month ago when I was doing butterfly (I promise my form has improved since then:D ). I took a week off from swimming, work and everything and my shoulder was for the most part healed, it only bothers me every once in a while..mostlyat work. But today when I was swimming, it kinda started grinding and hurting when I started my recovery on all my strokes. Any ideas about what to do? Drills to make it stronger or anything would be good. When I do dryland I spend some time focusing on making it stronger...benchpress and such, so it should be getting stronger, so I was surprised when it hurt today. Maybe it's the changing weather;). Im gonna let it rest for a day or two and ice it regularly, but when I get back into the pool it would be nice to not have this problem again. Thanx for your help!!
~Kyra
Been there..done that! I had the same shoulder problem! Don't ignore it. You may end up having to have surgery and a painful , long rehab like I did! You need to STOP doing bench presses...period. They will not help for your problem. It is called subluxation of the shoulder and the only way to help it is rotator cuff exercises. I would definitely go see a doctor to make sure this is indeed what is going on. If so, your doctor will probably send you to physical therapy. Don't ignore this problem. Everytime your shoulder pops in and out you are damaging the soft tissue around your shoulder and stretching out your cartillage and ligaments that help hold your shoulder together. I kept ignoring mine til everything was too stretched out for the rotator cuff exercises to help. I ended up having to have surgery, painful rehab and miss almost a year of swimming! Nip this in the bud! Sorry to get preachy on you but I just don't want you to go through what I did!
I would say that you are right on the money! You definately should take preventative measures. The article mentioned earlier in this post talks about shoulder exercises for the uninjured athlete so definately do them and save yourself the pain and trouble. And take it easy while your still new to swimming....I thought I was since I have swam before but I guess that that doesn't count, apparently I pushed a little to hard.
~Kyra
Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming
I read all these "horrors" here about shoulder problems and thought:how about those who did not experience those problems yet - would those rotator cuff excersises be helpful?Maybe that would be a good idea so that you never have any problems.Am I right?
Yeah, if you can strengthen things before they get strained from pushing them too hard is a lot better than coming back from an injury, even a minor one.
Originally posted by gull80
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2. Lat pulldowns are great for shoulder stabilization; avoid dips, bench press, upright rowing.
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Lat pulldowns in front of the head or behind?
According to my therapist (everyone should have one!), behind the head, keeping the back and neck straight. Don't start out with too much weight, and avoid reaching up too far.
A few other points:
1. The rotator cuff muscles are small, so you don't want to start with a lot of resistance. Tubing and Therabands are color coded depending on the amount of resistance.
2. Lat pulldowns are great for shoulder stabilization; avoid dips, bench press, upright rowing.
3. Do the exercises consistently (daily) and be patient; it can take a few months to see results.
