I am trying to increase volume and swim about 15-20K a week. Most of these yards a hard with not alot of drill yardage. I have sore shoulders all the time. Not injured, but sore and very tired. I have to be carefull how I sleep on them and not to put strain on them doing mundane daily activity.
....Is this normal?
When my shoulders get very sore (usually the left one, but occasionally the right), I will swim with zoomers and "de-weight" the arms for a while. It feels a bit like cheating, but you actually can get a harder workout this way since the zoomers make you use your legs so much more, and leg muscle mass is so much greater than the arms/upper body. Eventually, my legs get so tired and sore and prone to cramping that I don't want to use the zoomers any more, and I go back to swimming normally, i.e., using my shoulders again, which no longer seem quite as sore as they once did, at least relatively speaking.
Think of it as rotating crops of pain.
When my shoulders get very sore (usually the left one, but occasionally the right), I will swim with zoomers and "de-weight" the arms for a while. It feels a bit like cheating, but you actually can get a harder workout this way since the zoomers make you use your legs so much more, and leg muscle mass is so much greater than the arms/upper body. Eventually, my legs get so tired and sore and prone to cramping that I don't want to use the zoomers any more, and I go back to swimming normally, i.e., using my shoulders again, which no longer seem quite as sore as they once did, at least relatively speaking.
Think of it as rotating crops of pain.
