Shoulder Problem

Maybe you should have someone check your technique. There are shoulder friendly ways of swimming.

Another shoulder bites the dust. There have been countless discussions about shoulder injuries on this forum, many of the started by myself. I injured my shoulder three months ago and I am still in recovery mode, although I do swim nearly every day in short distances of 800 yards or so. You can search around on this website but I would suggest seeing an orthopod right away to get the problem under control. The sooner you diagnose your problem the sooner you can rectify it. It sounds as if you just need a course of physical therapy to go along with your swimming to strengthen the rotator cuff and scapula muscles. Good luck and keep us informed.

Thanks, I did find forums.usms.org/showthread.php I'm not going to doctor, however... We all know what a doctor will say, "Don't push it, do these low impact exercises. Have these anti-inflammatory medication." For general health it's better that I swim than stop. Today I'll try to perform some swimming exercises that don't aggravate it. If I stay away from sprints I'll probably be okay. This hasn't been a long term injury and seems to heal a bit over the weekend (I don't swim on weekends). So, I guess I'll have to modify my workouts, but I'm not happy about it. :(

While I can't tell you what to do, I would suggest that merely working around the problem is a bad idea. You will most likely find that as long as you keep swimming it is going to bother you unless you seek treatment. You are ultimately responsible for your own health but I would be concerned if my shoulder was making noises and causing pain (My shoulder was in pain and making noises and I did seek treatment). A weak rotator cuff, if left alone, will only continue to get weaker and weaker.

I have to agree with 330man on this one in saying to go and see a doctor. They never tell you what you want to hear, but since I saw the doctor my shoulder has improved tons! But if your not going to see the doctor, I recommend doing cuff exercises strengthen the muscles that hold in the shoulder and stop the popping. The doctor also told me to stay away from *** and fly until the popping stopped and I could swim without pain, and had strengthend the muscles. Hope that your shoulder feels better soon!! ~Kyra

I just got back from swimming. I kept it nice and easy and my shoulder actually feels better than before I swam. I still did a 3000 yard workout, but I left out the butterfly. I also stretched in between sets. The patient knows his body better than the doctor. Forgetting the fact that there no way I can afford the worst case scenario (no job, no insurance, no money). I mentioned that I'm having some popping in my shoulder. I also mentioned that it doesn't really hurt. And you guys want me to see a doctor right away? I think you're being a little overly cautious. My inquiry is completely preemptive. I was noticing that wasn't quite right and wanted to know if other people have techniques to help this kind of thing. If everyone's technique is "see a doctor" then... I don't know what to say. That's not what I was looking for. If it felt like a tear, I couldn't move my arm, or it felt like something was out of place I would stop swimming until it healed or I could find someone to look at it. I don't think it's any of that. It's uncomfortable, seems to heal with two days rest, but isn't nearly as uncomfortable as a even a strained muscle. I don't think it's even 1/10th of what 330man describes. It may be the beginning of the same problem, but I don't see that there are many options. I should pay attention to it... that's what I'm doing right now. But I'm not someone who goes to a doctor for every sniffle. Really, I feel that I may have pushed myself a little too quickly. Within six months I'm already knocking on the door of some of my high school swimming times (Well, they're at least in sight). I've also changed my stroke so that I'm reaching forward more. I believe the extended stretching toward the wall in freestyle is the cause of the irritation. That, and today I found that when I was reaching I tend to push slightly downward with my hand as I breath. This is the moment of most discomfort: just after the hand enters the water, palm slightly down, pushing slightly toward the bottom of the pool as I breath. I swim a pretty good forward quadrant now - something I never did in high school. So, the whole technique is probably putting strain on parts that have never felt it. I may also be exaggerating it a bit, or maybe I don't have the breathing stroke correct. It's been 20 years since I worked out at all. What do I expect? I'll try not to put any downward pressure on my hand when I breath. This alone (and no fly) seemed to work with today's practice. Not to mention that downward pressure is wasted energy. I should be pulling myself forward, not pushing myself upward. I think I'll bring my camcorder to the pool tomorrow. BTW: I really do appreciate the concern.

Hey, It's probably that you're overdoing it! Just take a step back and vary the distances. Maybe doing the cuff strengthening exercises will help (it did me). When my shoulder hurt me, I wore fins for the longer sets, until it got better (it helped to take the pressure off of my shoulder whilst swimming). Oh yeah, stay away from pulling! Good luck with it! k. (an uninsured writer :))

How about some shoulder exercises. If you are just beginning to feel some difficulty, a few shoulder stabilization exercises will help a lot. Three sources I know and like: The new issue of Swimming World has a feature called 5 exercises, 5 minutes, 5 days a week. It is a nice set of exercises you can do with surgical tubing or theraband, so it's cheap to do. There is a book called Swimming Past 50 with a similar set of exercises and a pretty good discussion about this and a lot of things related to swimming as a lifelong activity. Emmit Hines (sp?), who works with a Houston group of masters swimmers has a set of in-the-water warmup exercises his group does that helps. I think his article is called Dips, Whirlpools, and Shoulder Thangs. It is probably available somewhere on or through this site. Good luck!

did you mean MediCAID rather than MediCARE? Medicare is usually for those over 65 or who have been declared disabled by Social Security even if under age 65. I had a cousin who at 36 was on Medicare due to cancer and disabled by that disease. MediCAID is general for those who lack financial means but are under age 65. Some places it's called Medical Assistance. Either way--it's a lousy system. Don't try to fix something when it's minor--wait until it's a major problem and then have to spend more money to get it fixed. I still would spend the $ to get a doctor to take a look at your shoulder. A home exercise program might be the solution BUT most rotator cuff tears (if that's what it is) don't heal on their own and require some surgical intervention IF you want to have a lifestyle that includes over-hand/over-head sports. Been there--done that. Injured in 1988, tried the PT route from Sept-Dec (injury was in late july--diagnosed over labor day), surgery in early 1989, 1991, 1992 and finally in 1998 the left shoulder was back to normal. Right only needed 2 surgeries in 1989 and 1991. Small tear discovered in 1998 surgery--caused by the shoulder dislocating. Previous problems had been tendonitis and acromion problems.

Yeah, I meant MediCAID. I just hear Medicare so often on the news, ect... that I've kinda' lumped the names together and didn't think. I just looked at my video of today's swim and there's definitely something wrong with my left arm stroke. When I reach I cross my left hand about 4 inches past centerline. Not saying it's the definite cause, but I've never seen myself swim before, and though minor - it's definitely not right. That, and I need a haircut.