Best weight room exercises for swimming

I just started concurrently doing the rotator cuff/shoulder exercises (the ones that are often linked here) and weight training. I've got a cranky left shoulder that started acting up every time I inched toward 3 miles in open water or increased yardage in the pool. I'm pretty sure the problem is technique; my right elbow is high in the catch phase, but I noticed that my left arm goes straight down for a bit before I finally bend at the elbow, so I've been working on that. Just this morning, I felt a little pain, immediately adjusted, and the pain abated considerably. Now comes the hard part -- being consistent. Should I just do the rotator cuff exercises for a while before starting the weight training? I wonder if I might be jumping into it too quickly. I've made sure to lift very light weights, and I haven't really felt much soreness afterward. And I'm completely avoiding bench press, pushups and dips. I'm trying to be extra careful, because the shoulder set me back this open-water season, and I really don't want the same thing to happen again next year. Also, I have a very nice medicine ball that I bought last year and has been collecting dust in my closet ever since. Does anyone have any good specific medicine ball exercise recommendations? It's been about a decade since I used one with my swim team, and I don't remember much aside from tossing it to one another. I would think you can do the RC exercises and weights simultanously or on alternate days. Don't do the RC exercises right before you swim. Unless you're in real pain, you should be able to do moderate weights. That's what I do. Having well developed back and scapular muscles will help hold the shoulder together and take some stress off the smaller RC muscles. In fact, increasing core strength will also be good for the shoulders. But watch out with the medicine ball being held up over your shoulders too much or for too long. That could be counterproductive. I'm just not a real fan of overhead exercises with weights. Although maybe it's just me. Another good exercise for the obliques with a med ball is to stand back to back with a partner with the med ball at your right or left side in both hands. Then swivel, say from right to left and hand your partner the ball. Then you swivel back to the right and get the ball back from your partner. Do 15 and then switch direction. It seems as if so many of us have cranky left shoulders and falling left elbows ...

I just started concurrently doing the rotator cuff/shoulder exercises (the ones that are often linked here) and weight training. I've got a cranky left shoulder that started acting up every time I inched toward 3 miles in open water or increased yardage in the pool. I'm pretty sure the problem is technique; my right elbow is high in the catch phase, but I noticed that my left arm goes straight down for a bit before I finally bend at the elbow, so I've been working on that. Just this morning, I felt a little pain, immediately adjusted, and the pain abated considerably. Now comes the hard part -- being consistent. Should I just do the rotator cuff exercises for a while before starting the weight training? I wonder if I might be jumping into it too quickly. I've made sure to lift very light weights, and I haven't really felt much soreness afterward. And I'm completely avoiding bench press, pushups and dips. I'm trying to be extra careful, because the shoulder set me back this open-water season, and I really don't want the same thing to happen again next year. Also, I have a very nice medicine ball that I bought last year and has been collecting dust in my closet ever since. Does anyone have any good specific medicine ball exercise recommendations? It's been about a decade since I used one with my swim team, and I don't remember much aside from tossing it to one another. I would think you can do the RC exercises and weights simultanously or on alternate days. Don't do the RC exercises right before you swim. Unless you're in real pain, you should be able to do moderate weights. That's what I do. Having well developed back and scapular muscles will help hold the shoulder together and take some stress off the smaller RC muscles. In fact, increasing core strength will also be good for the shoulders. But watch out with the medicine ball being held up over your shoulders too much or for too long. That could be counterproductive. I'm just not a real fan of overhead exercises with weights. Although maybe it's just me. Another good exercise for the obliques with a med ball is to stand back to back with a partner with the med ball at your right or left side in both hands. Then swivel, say from right to left and hand your partner the ball. Then you swivel back to the right and get the ball back from your partner. Do 15 and then switch direction. It seems as if so many of us have cranky left shoulders and falling left elbows ...