If you swim and/or weight lift long enough, chances are you are going to get hurt.
I maintain that you are probably more likely to get hurt weight lifting than swimming, partly because there is considerably more force involved in the former, and partly because most of us on these forums are swimmers first and weight lifters second (if at all), and hence our bodies are more used to swimming than to weight lifting.
I could, certainly, be wrong.
In any event, please participate in this simple poll. Assuming you swim and at least occasionally lift weights and/or do dryland exercises in hopes of improving your swimming performance, which do you personally find more problematic for injuries?
You will have to make a judgment call here, especially if you spend MUCH more time swimming than lifting. (For example, say you swim 6 hours a week and lift 3 x 30 minutes or 1.5 hours a week. Your swimming time is 4x greater than your lifting time, so if you've suffered the same number of injuries from swimming and lifting, then lifting--hour per hour--more dangerous. )
Thanks for participating!
The only swimming-induced injury I can think of in my 30+ years of the sport was just in the last few months caused by starting too forcefully off the blocks. I've been lucky, very lucky in the pool and pretty lucky on land, but, anytime I've had shoulder or back problems, I'm 95% certain they came from a dryland/weight exercise or life where I was doing something like weights (e.g., lugging luggage).
Timely question for me. I did something in the gym to fire up every trigger point in my t-spine on one side. Except for arm and shoulder soreness, the pool has never hurt me like the gym.
I've had a couple of swimming-related injuries--
* bashed my shin on a block several years ago, it started to bleed. It cut that workout short, and impacted swimming and running for a week or so. had some long-term effects combined with shin splints.
* have had several run-ins with lane lines, causing various cuts and bruises on my hands, arms, feet, and legs. nothing serious, no time lost, but they did require some bandages and/or TLC
* been hit by other swimmers with paddles and/or didn't look where they were going (I've witnessed several head-to head and head-to-wall collisions, some required the lifeguards to actually do something).
* various other repetitive motion things, especially shoulders
I've had various aches and pains from lifting, but other than callouses on my hands when I forget my gloves, no injuries.
If you want injuries, running and biking are going to amount to far more.
I hope this contributes to your grand theory that lifting weights is a pointless and dangerous activity foisted upon swimmers by the type of big lumpy airheaded bullies who used to kick sand on you at the beach.
Brutus will rue the day he kicked sand in my face!
But to answer your hope, yes. Very satisfactory poll results, I must say!
Joking aside, my teammate Mark re-started swimming about a year ago, and has been doing absolutely fine, until he fell under the spell of our Goddess of the Dryland Fad Activities, did something to his shoulder as a consequence, and is now forced to use--god help him!--fins.
This may be the subject of my next Danger Alert!!!! poll: swimming the natural way vs. swimming with the expensive assortment of pool gadgets that increase the health of gadget manufacturers at the expense of swimmer's health.
Hand paddles, kick boards, and perhaps the most dangerous of all swimming contraptions: the bikini.
Lord knows I have suffered, in my time, from them all, bikinis most of all.
Truth be known, I never thought I'd removed all the sand Brutus kicked into my eyes after I laughed at him in his bikini. Who would have thought hirsute transvestite bullies would be so quick to take offense?
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Swimming has given me swimmer's shoulder, Little League Elbow, and posterior tibial tendinitis (mermaid foot?). Without the strength training that has helped me cure or manage these ailments, I would not still be swimming.
Swimming has also given me a concussion, a broken nose, and swimmer's ear, none of which responded to dryland training.
Swimming has given me...(mermaid foot?).
Swimming has also given me a broken nose.
Just so long as things balance out on the attractiveness meter, I think you'll be okay.
I voted lifting because it caused a couple nasty pulls in my back, as well as a pain in my elbows that lasted for a few years. Swimming has mostly caused mild tendinitis.
I hope this contributes to your grand theory that lifting weights is a pointless and dangerous activity foisted upon swimmers by the type of big lumpy airheaded bullies who used to kick sand on you at the beach.
I'll vote weight lifting as I had a few issues with weights back in my gym routine days.
Having said that, adding pull ups to my routine has really strengthened my shoulders, and all but eliminated the recurring pains and popping I had been dealing with. So in that respect, a weight bearing exercise is preventing injury.
I'll vote weight lifting as I had a few issues with weights back in my gym routine days.
Having said that, adding pull ups to my routine has really strengthened my shoulders, and all but eliminated the recurring pains and popping I had been dealing with. So in that respect, a weight bearing exercise is preventing injury.
Having said that, adding pull ups to my routine has really strengthened my shoulders, and all but eliminated the recurring pains and popping I had been dealing with. So in that respect, a weight bearing exercise is preventing injury.
It is also an example that chronic shoulder pain is discredited as an "injury" for this little exercise.
