Shoulder pain:

Never do the exercises before you swim. I would suggest doing them in the evening before you crash for the night. I have been bad about my exercises recently. It seemed the more I did them the more my shoulder would bother me. I am now swimming about 5 times/week and do my exercises about once a week. My shoulders are getting much stronger just from swimming. I should note that doing the exercises once a week affords me the opportunity to test my cuff muscle strength. Each time I do them I can do more with less fatigue. As long as that weekly exercise routine continues to show improvment I will maintain my current schedule.

Originally posted by geochuck Never, as far as I am concerned. The only swimmers who have have rotator cuff troubles are stretching before and after they swim. If you are in trouble modify the stroke so it doesn't hurt I take it you're an orthopedist specializing in sports medicine. I be interested in hearing about some of your experiences dealing with shoulder injuries, tendinitis, impingement, etc.

I was just wondering if anyone could suggest on when to do rotator cuff exercises.Do you need to do them right after the work-out or not? I understand it is good to ice up the shoulder after the work-out...So when do you do the exercises?Do muscles need to be warmed up? Thanks...

Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming I was just wondering if anyone could suggest on when to do rotator cuff exercises.Do you need to do them right after the work-out or not? I understand it is good to ice up the shoulder after the work-out...So when do you do the exercises?Do muscles need to be warmed up? Thanks... Never, as far as I am concerned. The only swimmers who have have rotator cuff troubles are stretching before and after they swim. If you are in trouble modify the stroke so it doesn't hurt George

Originally posted by gull80 I take it you're an orthopedist specializing in sports medicine. I be interested in hearing about some of your experiences dealing with shoulder injuries, tendinitis, impingement, etc. No but my orthopedist told me this, he also told me not to swim any more but that if I was going to swim I had to change the way I swam, which I did. If you read the post I did say "as far as I am concerned". George

Originally posted by geochuck The only swimmers who have have rotator cuff troubles are stretching before and after they swim. George This is where you went wrong. If it were really that simple we would not need doctors to diagnose our shoulder problems.

Originally posted by 330man This is where you went wrong. If it were really that simple we would not need doctors to diagnose our shoulder problems. I have always said don't do home remedys, stretching and yes there are clubs that have their swimmers doing these pretzel stretches, duck walking before they swim, these are the guys who have rotator cuff problems. If you have read any of my other posts I have said to see a doctor. However all doctors don't have the right answer. I would always get a second and maybe a third opinion. That is the reason I went to a doctor in Egypt who had experiance with 100's of marathon swimmers. Just as an after thought it was a Doctor who wanted me to take steroids. George

Just a little update on my shoulder soreness that I had about a week ago.I am happy to state that it is almost gone.I did the following: I took two complete days off from swimming, then swam 3 days in a row paying very close attention to my technique, I also cut down on my butterfly for now(about 150m. per work-out only), I started icing up my shoulders right after the work-out and before going to bed.I also ordered therabands which should be coming in a day or two.With all these changes my shoulder is feeling great.That bronges me to the following question: since I never experienced any sorenes or discomfort in my shoulder before I introduced a lot of butterfly into my work-outs and it all went away when I cut down on it, could it be that butterfly is what was causing the discomfort.My guess is: either it was too new and came like a shock therapy to my shoulders or I am doing something wrong when swimming it or both... So my next step before I raise my yardage in butterfly again is to strengthen my shoulders with resistance bands for about a month, then consult some coach who would look at my stroke mechanics and only then safely but gradually raise the amount of butterfly per work-out...

Originally posted by hooked-on-swimming Just a little update on my shoulder soreness that I had about a week ago.I am happy to state that it is almost gone.I did the following: I took two complete days off from swimming, then swam 3 days in a row paying very close attention to my technique, I also cut down on my butterfly for now(about 150m. per work-out only), I started icing up my shoulders right after the work-out and before going to bed.I also ordered therabands which should be coming in a day or two.With all these changes my shoulder is feeling great.That bronges me to the following question: since I never experienced any sorenes or discomfort in my shoulder before I introduced a lot of butterfly into my work-outs and it all went away when I cut down on it, could it be that butterfly is what was causing the discomfort.My guess is: either it was too new and came like a shock therapy to my shoulders or I am doing something wrong when swimming it or both... So my next step before I raise my yardage in butterfly again is to strengthen my shoulders with resistance bands for about a month, then consult some coach who would look at my stroke mechanics and only then safely but gradually raise the amount of butterfly per work-out... Sounds like a good plan to me. The most important thing to remember is to never swim through pain. This seems obvious and simple but I have been a victim of the "just another 100 yards" syndrome.

eh, swim through the pain ... I'm a bit of a masochist ... I think there is a bit of a point to that though. There are times when you have a twinge of pain and it gets better when you swim a few hundred yards and there are times when it is going to hurt worse. I had some tendonitis issues going on in my brief high school swim career and was told I wouldn't do any more damage but it would hurt. I chose to stop swimming and now I regret ... now I would swim through it but again I am a bit of a masochist and I really wouldn't recommend swimming through it to anyone else ... disregard that message ... When in doubt get in checked out!