Recovering from shoulder surgery; feeling crummy...
Former Member
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....:(
Parents
Former Member
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.
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.
