shoulder clicking

Tim: You need only search under "shoulders" or "shoulder injuries" and you will see that shoulder injuries are not only commonplace, but virtually ubiquitous. "Clicking" is commonplace too. My shoulders have been clicking since college, but I was never in pain until I started swimming again awhile ago. Now, however, I do not associate clicking with pain. Swelling or soreness in particular rotator cuff muscles or a dull pain at rest is much more worrisome. I would just say that you should do dryland/weight exercises for your rotator cuff muscles. Following Terry's advice on proper technique will be extremely useful as well.

Hi all, I've been swimming regularly since June and have developed an annoying clicking sound in both shoulders. I've started doing some rotator cuff exercises witha theraband daily to try to alleviate this. Anyone else have experience with this? Oh yeah. I don't think we can draw simple conclusions. In some cases it's a bad sign, in some others it's part of one's anatomy. Do you feel any pain?

There is pain but it doesn't occur with the clicking. Sort of a background pain through the 'deep' part of the shoulders that comes and goes after workouts and varies with their intensity. I've always had poor shoulder flexibiility and between the swimming and an adult gymnastics class I'm taking I've improved the strength and flexibility in my shoulders a lot. But now there's this clicking sound. I'm still a novice swimmer, just working through Emmet Hine's Fitness Swimming book and doing about 1500 - 1800 yards a workout. Are overuse injuries pretty common in swimmers shoulders? I'm trying to balance keeping the workouts and improvements coming but not making anything go 'pop' either. Thanks both of you for replying, I'll give the forearm pushups a try along witht the therabands. BTW, are you the Terry Laughlin who wrote the TI book? I use that as well. I like the technique based approach it takes. I see what you're saying about not applying pressure till the arm is in a stable position and I'll try to see what I'm doing with that and correct. By taking more time with the catch I think you mean hanging on to the glide, staying long etc as is stressed in TI?

Get some x-rays. Could be a bone spur. After having one removed from the right shoulder, no more clicking (or pain). Lots of grinding in the left shoulder and I am having that one removed in 2 weeks.(spur, not the whole shoulder!)

My shoulders still click after my shoulder injury but there is generally no pain associated with it. In fact, most of the shoulder pain I experience is after i have been out of the pool for 4 to 5 days. If I swim regularly I am fine...weird. I would proceed with caution concerning your shoulder issues. Take care of whatever the problem might be before it winds up keeping you out of the water for weeks at a time. I suspect a stroke alteration or a decrease in yardage will solve your problem.

Get some x-rays. Could be a bone spur. After having one removed from the right shoulder, no more clicking (or pain). Lots of grinding in the left shoulder and I am having that one removed in 2 weeks.(spur, not the whole shoulder!) Aww man! I was gonna tease you about the "whole shoulder" thing too! Hope that the surgery clears things up for you.

Wow, thanks so much to all of you. Gives me lots to think about. Here I thought I had some weird unusual problem - I mean swimming is supposed to be a gentle exercise, right? Heheh. Hey, maybe I'll even learn a second stroke to take some repetition out.

Thanks, that led me to a surprisingly large # of threads.

And I can control it significantly by taking more time making my catch, and applying no pressure until my arm is in a stable position. Great advise. Pulling too early in the stroke can lead to problems due to stress on the joints when the arm is stretched out. It's better to 'fall into the stroke' and wait until the hands are done scooping water during the catch... before force is applied. Aside from this...Keeping the hand out front for a split second longer will get rid of any bubbles...lowers on-coming~frontal resistance....and results in "swimming taller".

As you know, Terry, I don't agree on this point. I think shoulder problems are a perfectly "normal" swimming phenomenom. It is all-too-easy to ascribe problems to improper technique. But the evidence, zillions of swimmers with shoulder problems (many on this website), suggests there are other origins too. It is often plain overuse or having done insufficient exercises to strengthen the small rotator cuff muscles. If you haven't done those exercises, the simple act of training can become painful. And I'm an optimist at heart too."loosey goosey" because ALL my joints are loose and I'm very flexible. While this helps me in swimming, it also hurts me if I don't keep my rotator cuff (shoulder muscles that hold your shoulder together) and quads (helps hold my knee in correct allignment) strong. I also don't run any more because my knees can't handle it.