MAIN POINT OF THIS POST: How much should I listen to pain when swimming after labrum repair? (Long post...)
I am now at 21 weeks post-labrum repair. That's a little more than 5 months, using my little brain.
I am wondering what to expect. I have finished PT (4 months of it), am strong with all the exercises, yet it really hurts to swim.
Initially my surgeon just said to swim through all the pain, that that would be the only way to get "functional" movement back, specific to swimming. However, she also let me have 2 more months of PT, thankfully.
But new things have emerged after this surgery. My elbow starts to hurt so that I cannot swim at all after about 500 yards. The shoulder joint itself still is very sore. And for some reason I now have impingement somewhere when I rotate my arm (I did not have this pre-surgery). Also, I have new pain in my biceps/deltoid area that was not there before.
I do listen to my body and stop when it hurts way tooooo much, but otherwise I push myself to swim despite the pain, making sure that I don't experience more pain later. I both swim with fins and without. And I continue to do a lot of kicking. Breaststroke is least painful (because I am not very good at it); fly I haven't tried; backstroke I can do maybe 200 yards, and freestyle my limit is 500 yards. Speed of swimming doesn't make a difference in level of pain.
I still am regaining range of motion.
I know it is a long journey, possibly a year before I can really swim the way I want. I am not a patient person but am working on patience.
Anyone with history of labrum surgery have any advice about what pain to listen to, what to ignore?
Re stroke technique and wanting more posts on technique, I definitely noticed that when I was breathing to my right, I was pulling with my left arm (the one with the torn labrum) at the same time, essentially torquing my left arm every pull. So I am working very hard on not doing that.
I also enjoy the Website "GoSwimWeekly," which has a lot of things related to technique and efficiency.
And I continue to investigate the idea of "scapular swimming" (Kipp Dye and Milt Nelms (?)), looking at videos on YouTube of how Natalie Coughlin swims freestyle, where she uses her core and body strength to throw her arms forward, thus lessening stress on her shoulders. She talks about swimming as if walking. Thus no high elbows, no early vertical forearm, no long, extended arm pre-catch.
All a long learning curve.
The good news: no recent fires in my (new) toaster oven.
I'm not a doctor and haven't had labrum surgery, but do have a guideline that I go by for pain.
If it is simple muscle aches or even burning sensation, it is fine to swim through, although not at high intensity, A long (2000+ yards) warm up will do many things to get the muscles relaxed. This also helps with range of motion, but the focus is on warming up (as slowly as necessary), not speed. In the warm up, it is also helpful to have someone who can critique your stroke and for you to implement changes. Faulty stroke technique is a big culprit in shoulder damage, and Masters are real good at emphasizing the wrong stroke thousands of times if their coach is not on top of things.
Sharp pain anywhere in your joints or musculature is bad. Stop swimming. Sharp pains in the intestine is gas. you can swim with that if you can stand it.
I'm not a doctor and haven't had labrum surgery, but do have a guideline that I go by for pain.
If it is simple muscle aches or even burning sensation, it is fine to swim through, although not at high intensity, A long (2000+ yards) warm up will do many things to get the muscles relaxed. This also helps with range of motion, but the focus is on warming up (as slowly as necessary), not speed. In the warm up, it is also helpful to have someone who can critique your stroke and for you to implement changes. Faulty stroke technique is a big culprit in shoulder damage, and Masters are real good at emphasizing the wrong stroke thousands of times if their coach is not on top of things.
Sharp pain anywhere in your joints or musculature is bad. Stop swimming. Sharp pains in the intestine is gas. you can swim with that if you can stand it.
