Hi I am new here.
I have been having a lower back pain for the last few months. I am not sure if this was caused by my nagging hip injury from running or increased amount of swimming (in a poor form). I haven't been running for more than few months, have cut back the swimming volume (from 8000yd/wk to 3-4000/wk), physical therapies, acupuncture, core strengthening work etc. etc. but nothing has helped much.
A few experienced swimmers looked at my swimming form including underwater didn't find anything particular that might be causing or aggrevating my lowerback pain. A few things they noticed are that my arms in front of me tend to cross the center line, and that I do have sissor-kicks, and oh of course horrible low elbow.
I am a triathlete and swimming was the only thing I could do without pain due to the hip problem, until recently. Now with this lower back pain, I can't even swim without worring about pain. Buoy helps and I am waiting for a swimmer's snorkel to arrive so at least I don't have to take a breath which may have something to do with the backpain.
Sorry for the long post. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks in advance.
Hi. I had similar problems. My doc sent me to a PT who was also a swimmer. He told me to stop doing flip turns, and if I couldn't stop doing flip turns to try to alternate sides when you flip. I know, this is very difficult to do, but I did it. Just think of learning to breathe on both sides. It's pretty much the same thing - be aware of where your body is when you flip on your good side, then try to replicate that on your bad side. It helps to balance it out. I had problems with L4/L5 and sacroiliac. I still have some bad days, but my good days far outnumber my bad days now.
My PT is also a Pilates expert and gave me exercises to do at home. I did them religiously for about 3 months before I started to see any improvement. So my advice is to listen to your PT (make sure s/he knows you are a swimmer and what your goals are) and do the exercises religiously, even if you feel like you are not making progress. Remember, it takes 12 weeks of solid work to see improvements. So be patient and stick to the plan. You should see improvements, but it will take time. I was very frustrated a month or so ago because I was still having pain and I needed to start training for a distance open water swim. But I stuck with it and it worked out.
Good luck! Let us know how you are doing.
Diana
Hi. I had similar problems. My doc sent me to a PT who was also a swimmer. He told me to stop doing flip turns, and if I couldn't stop doing flip turns to try to alternate sides when you flip. I know, this is very difficult to do, but I did it. Just think of learning to breathe on both sides. It's pretty much the same thing - be aware of where your body is when you flip on your good side, then try to replicate that on your bad side. It helps to balance it out. I had problems with L4/L5 and sacroiliac. I still have some bad days, but my good days far outnumber my bad days now.
My PT is also a Pilates expert and gave me exercises to do at home. I did them religiously for about 3 months before I started to see any improvement. So my advice is to listen to your PT (make sure s/he knows you are a swimmer and what your goals are) and do the exercises religiously, even if you feel like you are not making progress. Remember, it takes 12 weeks of solid work to see improvements. So be patient and stick to the plan. You should see improvements, but it will take time. I was very frustrated a month or so ago because I was still having pain and I needed to start training for a distance open water swim. But I stuck with it and it worked out.
Good luck! Let us know how you are doing.
Diana
