Shoulder Poll

I'm not an expert, but I have had 4 shoulder surgeries. Initial injury was from much tennis - but swimming aggrevated it. I get the feeling many who have contributed to this thread are in denial. Many shoulder problems can be fixed with surgery. Many more can be fixed with rest. If there is no arthritis, far fewer cannot be fixed with either surgery or rest. ...And

I get the feeling many who have contributed to this thread are in denial. Many shoulder problems can be fixed with surgery. Many more can be fixed with rest. If there is no arthritis, far fewer cannot be fixed with either surgery or rest. Not me. I was told my problem was non-surgical at the moment. But surgery sounds awful. Intense pain, long rehab, possible re-tears, possible reduced ROM. I have to think the older you are, the harder the recovery and the less chance of returning to your prior competitive speed. This recent WSJ article didn't make it sound any fun. online.wsj.com/.../SB120104648002708127.html

Also, a few folks metioned backstroke as a potential problem area. With all our recent record snow falls, I'm now suffering from "shoveler's shoulder" - my good shoulder included. It seems to hurt only during backstroke pull. This is not a complaint; any excuse not to do backstroke sets is goodness.

With all our recent record snow falls, I'm now suffering from "shoveler's shoulder" - my good shoulder included. Is your shovel catch too much in front? Do you have an early ( or late) vertical lift? How is your follow-through? Thank God I live in an apartment building.

pain or functional impairment that forces your out of the water Yes it is very depressing to be out of the water. The thought that I am now limited in what I can do drives me up the wall. Fortunately my shoulder doesn't bother me when I run, so I have been running, and running, and running. But my legs and core would really appreciate some swim time. I've been getting ART treatments for the last couple of months, and am now ready to try a little swimming. The range of motion is almost back to normal, it is just a little tougher to get the bad arm to move. Backstroke will be the last thing I try. I still don't know exactly what I did to hurt the shoulder, but it was doing backstroke with awful form.

Am currently experiencing the beginnings of shoulder soreness, probably due to increased distance. I am interested to see how many people have mentioned not using a kickboard. Did not think that this could be a contributing factor, but on reflection, maybe I will give the board a miss for a while. Also, a few folks metioned backstroke as a potential problem area and when I think about it, this may be so for me too. Will definitely not do quite as much in future. Thanks to all contributors here, for some non-intuitive suggestions.

Have left the kick board in the car for a few days now and this seems to have done the trick. Ironically, I was trying to "rest" the shoulders by doing more kicking - with the kickboard, which made it worse. Thanks again for the tip!

Am currently experiencing the beginnings of shoulder soreness, probably due to increased distance. I am interested to see how many people have mentioned not using a kickboard. Many of the folks I swim with are orthopod surgeons. They all swear that kickboards are evil.

Well, I'm glad it worked out for you, but I have NO desire whatsoever to have shoulder surgery. Plus, the WSJ article, as I recall, says that you can re-tear in the same place. That's why they're looking at using PRP during the surgery. Me, I'm going to continue to be a PRP guinea pig because my shoulder feels better than it has in two years. I just have to limit how much fly I do and use fins. I almost never use kickboards.

Not me. I was told my problem was non-surgical at the moment. But surgery sounds awful. Intense pain, long rehab, possible re-tears, possible reduced ROM. I have to think the older you are, the harder the recovery and the less chance of returning to your prior competitive speed. This recent WSJ article didn't make it sound any fun. online.wsj.com/.../SB120104648002708127.html True and not true. Intense Pain? The pain on the last surgery really wasn't there. Yipee!! They put a pain pump in the incision that delivered a really good anesthetic right into the joint whenever you need it and it lasts for the first three days!!! Possible re-tears. Sure you can reinjure your shoulder. I did. But the surgeons told me that once the wound is fully healed, any new tear would be at a new spot... In other words, you won't tear the scar tissue. Reduced ROM. Before each surgery, they told me my ROM could decrease to about 70% of what it was before each injury. If that were true and acutally happened, my ROM would be at about 24% of what it was before my first injury... But as it stands, my ROM is 100% I'm 45, and my strength is higher than it was before my first shoulder surgery, because all I did was swim with no weight training before my injuries. But I've lifted religiously 3x per week for 12 years since the first rehab. Slowing down. Not true either. It took a lot of time and effort, but the speed comes back! Yipee!!! I just drink more whey protein than I did 10 years ago. (-: