Sore shoulders normal?

Art therapy is very interesting. Thanks for the link I just returned from my weekly massage therapy session. My shoulders, neck, triceps okay basically my upper portion of my body were very very very sore. It is amazing how much better I feel. After reading about shoulder injuries I was kind of nervous due to how sore I am. NOPE muscular I feel better already. I started going regularly after I walked the 60 K weekend to end *** Cancer in 2005 and was sore. Then when I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. IT is one of my favorite times of the week. My therapist is into womans health and good eating so I have learned a lot. Fortress I hope that my therapy really helps. You are right training just makes you sore. Especially when you are starting out, heavier and out of shape. I dont swim Wed but I went to the gym. I know it will get better. Thanks for all the wonderful info Katie

Since shnaging my stroke up I have not had all the shoulder issues, but I am having some middle shoulder blade soreness that laying on 2 tennis balls corrects in a matter of 15 minutes. Learn to do self massage especially on the back shoulders, biceps and triceps. If you feel a bump or knot in your muscles that is painful, it is a trigger point you might need to work out through accupressure or massage. I'm a sucker for anything new, so I naturally I had to get me one of these: www.spikmattan.se/index.php The first few times, especially the first five minutes it HURTS! But now I just fall asleep.

I will try to work in rotator cuff workouts when I can to help strengthen. Maybe it is RC muscles deep in my shoulders that are sore. I will try to vary the workouts. Swimming is not easy.

Sven Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm very interesting. When we were at a Science Centre in Northern Ontario. They had a bed of nails to try out. We all did it. It was pretty cool. How is it working for you Katie

The subject is popular because a lot of swimmers are walking around with shoulders. Any repetitive overhead activity poses potential problems for the shoulder joint, especially as we age and the supporting muscle groups weaken or become imbalanced. If your shoulders are sore throughout the day and, perhaps more importantly, at night during sleep, you need to adjust your workouts, address any inflammation (tendinitis) or actual injury, and begin a rehab program. Otherwise the problem will only get worse. As I have posted previously, I believe all Masters swimmers should be doing rotator cuff exercises on a consistent basis. These are relatively small muscles that need to be targeted with specific exercises. You need a healthy rotator cuff if you want to swim. And that about sums it up perfectly! On my team, some of us have shoulder issues and some of us don't. It seems like those in the 40-60 range have more issues. But if you train a significant amount, you must be vigilant about shoulder health.

My shoulders were soooooooo sore yesterday. Lots of IBphrophen and then I had a massage. THEY are 80% better. I had a tough swim this morning lots of front crawl work using paddles and pull bouys. I thought OH BOY here we go. I am at work having a coffee:coffee: and I feel much better than yesterday. SO ALL IS WELL So for me massage helps. I am going to incorporate some shoulder exercises into my routine Katie

I can almost infer something just by the amount of responses. I think the subject is popular because alot of swimmers are walking around with sore shoulders? The subject is popular because a lot of swimmers are walking around with shoulders. Any repetitive overhead activity poses potential problems for the shoulder joint, especially as we age and the supporting muscle groups weaken or become imbalanced. If your shoulders are sore throughout the day and, perhaps more importantly, at night during sleep, you need to adjust your workouts, address any inflammation (tendinitis) or actual injury, and begin a rehab program. Otherwise the problem will only get worse. As I have posted previously, I believe all Masters swimmers should be doing rotator cuff exercises on a consistent basis. These are relatively small muscles that need to be targeted with specific exercises. You need a healthy rotator cuff if you want to swim.

Fort - could it be that shoulder issues come from over use and or improper technique. My last shoulder problem was in 1964 after a very tough race. I wanted to win the race, I needed the money. The guy in my boat kept putting up a sign saying the others were comming fast. I finished 2 hours ahead of everyone else. He was not my regular boat guy. The rest of that year was a disaster for me, I swam the rest of the races in a very relaxed mode. I won lots of money but it should have been my best year.

I think a couple of things to consider: 1. stop the doubles. Inflammation, injury, soreness, etc. at minimum needs recovery time. 24 hours of recovery is much better than 8 hours between morning and afternoon. If you are motivated to maintain similar total distance per week - obviously lengthen your primary workout. Adding 500-1000 yds to that workout may not be so hard since you are already warmed up. The 2nd workout, especially if it is 1500 yds. may not be as beneficial for your conditioning anyways because you probably spend 25-35% warming up and warming down. I think 1000 more yds in the morning may be more impactful than 1500 in the afternoon. 2. If you are lifting weights stop or minimize exercises that typically cause more shoulder stress (bench press, military press). 3. I think an indicator of rotator cuff problems is pain on the recovery portion of the stroke. Recovery, especially on fly, is much more of a lifting motion than a pulling motion. 4. Consider replacing part of your swimming time with another cardiovascular exercise that doesn't use the shoulders. Just for reference - I'm 48, and have slightly troublesome shoulders. I do have occasional pain on fly and breaststroke (recovery phase). It was much worse two years ago and slowly improved as my shoulders got stronger. I swim 4 times per week for a total distance of about 13,000 meters (workouts range from 3000-3500 meters).

I do the doubles because I only have an hour at noon, then 60-75 minutes in the evening. Good suggestion to bias one over the other. I don't lift weights anymore for upper body. I tried continuing lifting heavy when I started swimming and found out they don't go together at all. I only do legs now. Maybe pull ups once and a while which don't bother my shoulders. Dips, bench, press.....forget it! Recovery does not bother my shoulders at all so I guess that is a good sign. When I went through my "clicking" problem a while back, it was on the recovery. I just feel some discomfort in my left shoulder if I start pulling hard before my catch is complete. When I bike to cross train I day dream wishing I was swimming, so I don't do that often enough. Good suggestion though. My recovery is on the weekend. I finished another hard week and the shoulders are not getting worse so I am happy about that.