Recovering from shoulder surgery; feeling crummy...

Kari, I learned to breathe on both sides, and it took a while, but now I am very comfortable with it. I do mostly open water swims, and I wanted to be able to breathe wherever I needed to, so I worked on it a lot. Now I breathe every 3 strokes, and am very comfortable with it. In fact, if I breathe only to one side, it feels "off" and I have to go back to breathing every 3. I think it has really helped to balance out my stroke a lot, plus some personal coaching. If your stroke has other problems, I would recommend working with a private coach, if you can afford it and find one. It is worth the investment, to get some really good pointers. My coach actually gets in the water with me and looks at the stroke from all angles. The tweaks she has made have made a huge difference. One thing that helped me was to really focus on how you feel when you breathe to your strong side (where your hands are, how your body is rotated, etc.), and then try to replicate that "feeling" on your weak side. I hope this makes sense. Good luck! Diana

I taught myself bilateral breathing a few years back. As I recall, I just started trying to do it by swimming a slow, steady pace and alternating sides. At first, I thought my lungs would explode -- Who can go 3 strokes without a breath?!!, but that went away as my mind adjusted to not having that gulp of sweet air with every stroke. It felt awkward as can be at first (I recall craning my neck like some movie creature emerging from a primordial swamp), then gradually less awkward, then finally became second nature. I swallowed a whole bunch of pool along the way. Honestly, it's not that tough. I am about as far from kinesthetically gifted as a person can get (the word "dork" comes to mind), and if I can work it out, anyone should be able to. And I think it really helped my stroke mechanics, too. Good luck.

Kari!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are still alive!!! We've missed you! Sorry to hear that you are feeling crummy. DON'T STOP SWIMMING! Swim lots of breaststroke! Actually work on changing your breathing slowly. 25 breathe right, 25 breathe left. It'll become more natural ... Email me some time...

I am still battling with my shoulder(s) from week to week. It seems the more I am in the water the better I am. If I take a few days off, that is when the soreness sets in. Weird huh? I would suggest just cutting back on the yardage and increasing your intensity just a bit instead. I am sure that you can overcome this injury and I suspect that boxing will not do your shoulder very much good either. Best of luck and keep us posted as to your progress. Sometimes just sharing my experiences on here makes me feel better, even though nothing has really changed.

Kari, It's old home week here :p I would definitely go with the chiropractor. When you find a good one they can seemingly fix anything. As far as the discouraging. I won't go into all of the details (far too boring) but I have been SO AMAZINGLY DISCOURAGED with my swimming for the last 5 years (yes, I know, I've had 3 kids, but still...). My point is, I've stayed in the water, as much as I could, and listened to all of the positive comments made by my teammates. I have definitely turned a deaf ear to the woman who keeps telling me that my belly fat won't go away! I am starting to do other things out of the water that will help me in the water: weights, stretching, running, etc., but again I struggle with getting/finding a schedule that won't kill me! Hang in there. Definitely listen to the positive, ignore the negative, do what you can and push the envelope when you feel you can without setting yourself back. The cool thing about Masters is that it will always be here. We will always be here. You are a great swimmer and work really hard- you'll achieve your goals :) By the way, hi :p

Have you tried massage therapy yet? Deep tissue massage has worked wonders for me. I started swimming again after taking @10 years off. My shoulder was really sore all the time (I had injured it lifting in preparation for getting back in the pool) and I couldn't swim very hard. I had started seeing one at the suggestion of my chiropractor. My shoulder is a lot better now and I know some other people that it has helped. Maybe it will for you too.

Hi Kari I have also battled with shoulder pain whenever I try to swim consistently with freestyle. On occasions I can swim without any pain setting in and then for no apparent reason it will set in a couple of days after swimming only say 500m. The sports injury doctor didn't think it was anything serious and recommended deep tissue massage and specific excercises to strenthen the shoulder. Unfortunatley it did not seem to work. I am currently in the midst of my big push to overcome the problem. I recently joined a stroke correction class which focuses on all strokes including freestyle. I have enjoyed improving other strokes and feel these are good for overall flexibility. The coaches have detected that my right are exits the water a little awkwardly and I am trying to correct this. I definitely feel that this has resulted in a better stroke and has minimised the onset of the shoulder pain. I am not convinced it is all of the answer but it seems to be part of it. We are now working on distance and I expect future classes will work on rythmic bilateral breathing. I am hoping this will result in further improvement. If my shoulder pain comes back with a vengeance I propose to go to a physiotherapist at the same time and see what they have to say. Hopefully between the swimming coaches and medicos I will be on my way. Good luck to you.

Well something is causing the pain. What explanation did the surgeon give you? What was the diagnosis? Keep track of when and where you feel the pain. According to the ASCA, 90% of shoulder problems are from impingement and can be helped with stroke modification. There are medical causes besides just technique. To ask you to swim in pain is not acceptable. I've had my moments of dispair lately over injuries, but it's not going to stop me from swimming. Don't let it eat away at your confidence.

hi kari, nice to see you back here sorry to hear about your shoulder pain you mentioned changing the side you breathe on you just gotta force yourself to do it concentrate maybe try breathing every 3 so you'll alternate sides when you quit thinking about it, you'll probably revert to your old habit until you replace it with a new one. ande Originally posted by Fishgrrl and actually considering giving up swimming. I am so discouraged these days.... I fell and hurt my shoulder about 9 years ago. I didn't have surgery at the time (was told I didn't need it) and thought I healed correctly. Fast forward to today...after swimming 6 years I start to feel an ache in my "bad" shoulder when I swim longer than a mile. So off to the sports med doc I go....I get an MRI which looks like I might have torn cartilage, which is causing the pain. Surgery is scheduled....they find nothing. Nothing is torn; nothing to fix. So now I will have to swim with the pain.... I know that some of the tension is a result of an imbalance in my freestyle...I always breath to my left, which means I pull harder with my strong (right) side. When I try to breath to the right it all falls apart. I don't feel balanced in the water; I am sure there are a million things wrong with my stroke...I should kick more...blah blah blah. I just started swimming again...been in the water for the last few days and I am very discouraged. I'd love to hear from folks out there who have taught themselves to breath to their uncomfortable side.... and how you did it, how long it took, etc. Anyone else out there going through a discouraging time...or if you have in the past, how'd you get over it? Ande - what are your thoughts? I used to box...maybe I should just go back to the ring and stay out of the water....:(

I've posted my experience here before. Two years ago I had an MRI which showed some arthritic changes in the shoulder but no tears. The diagnosis was impingement/tendinitis. Fortunately I was referred to a physical therapist with a lot of experience working with athletes. At the time I could not swim 1500 yards without pain. Now I swim 3-4000/day, including butterfly. Here's what worked for me: Daily home PT exercises (concentrating on the rotator cuff and scapula) Antiinflammatory drugs (Aleve) and ice (after swimming and at bedtime) Glucosamine Stroke correction Building endurance with distance sets using a pull buoy (taking some of the strain off my shoulder) No butterfly or paddles Very slow increase in yardage Patience (very important). As for bilateral breathing, I think the main benefit is making your stroke symmetric. Catch up drills, breathing to the weak side and kicking through the breath, have helped me. The key for me was changing from a two beat kick to a four beat kick, which has also improved my body position.