I ended up with a nasty case of shoulder tendonitis from swimming (and probably weight lifting too). Per Physical Therapist directions, I took a month off of swimming. Then he said to add back 10 minutes per workout of swimming every week or 2 and if it hurts back off. Has anyone had to do something like this before? When you did get back to an hour long workout what did you do to help prevent re-injury? The PT thinks I just added on too much at once. I had been doing 40 minutes three times per week for a long time then went to 1 hour 3 times per week and that's when the problem started.
I have searched on injuries but the posts are more about medical help which I've already gotten, not about how to workout afterwards.
Parents
Former Member
Thank you both for your replies. To answer your questions:
No PT has not looked at my stroke but my Coach has and made several recommendations. She also video taped me under water so that she could show ME what I was doing wrong. Seeing it on tape really helped. She said I was pushing forward with my hand as it entered the water after recovery rather than pushing from my hips. The core rotation was there but the push was not coming from there. Also, she said I was entering my fingers out too far and to try entering them near my eye. Finally she said I was over-reaching past the middle line after recovery and to think about entering at 10 and 2 to avoid impingement (sp?). That was all for freestyle. She also gave me *** modifications and I have given up back and fly for now because I'm not a big fan (or very good at) of doing either and the PT said they were the hardest on the shoulder. I swim mainly for fun and fitness, so I don't feel I have to master all 4 strokes.
I'm 33, female, just started doing laps last July for the first time in my life. I was in really good shape about the time the problems started (January). I had picked up my training to get ready for a meet in May which I didn't end up doing due to the shoulder problems. In March I had a professional fitness assessment and got "excellent" on UB strength, core strength, and "good" on cardio and flexibility. I enjoy weight lifting and I'm quite strong for someone of my size (5'0") but my tendons don't seem to keep up with my muscles, so as you said above slow and steady wins the race. I've got to get a more gradual mentality instead of trying to do "it all" too soon. I also cross-train quite a bit and enjoy mountain biking on trails, deep woods hiking, yoga, and elliptical. When I go back even to "full swing" swimming I'm planning to keep it to 2 days a week instead of 3. I seem to do OK if I give my shoulders plenty of rest time and I have enough activities that I enjoy to keep me busy. If I can only swim 40 minutes that's OK too, I'll do the last 20 kick only to round out the hour.
Also, I have been doing various kicking drills as you mentioned but I have to tell you 1 hour of kicking gets painful after a while so I just took this past week off from swimming (not from working out) entirely because I was having "kicking only burnout". :)
Thanks again for the advice and if you have additional tips now that I've elaborated, please let me know.
Thank you both for your replies. To answer your questions:
No PT has not looked at my stroke but my Coach has and made several recommendations. She also video taped me under water so that she could show ME what I was doing wrong. Seeing it on tape really helped. She said I was pushing forward with my hand as it entered the water after recovery rather than pushing from my hips. The core rotation was there but the push was not coming from there. Also, she said I was entering my fingers out too far and to try entering them near my eye. Finally she said I was over-reaching past the middle line after recovery and to think about entering at 10 and 2 to avoid impingement (sp?). That was all for freestyle. She also gave me *** modifications and I have given up back and fly for now because I'm not a big fan (or very good at) of doing either and the PT said they were the hardest on the shoulder. I swim mainly for fun and fitness, so I don't feel I have to master all 4 strokes.
I'm 33, female, just started doing laps last July for the first time in my life. I was in really good shape about the time the problems started (January). I had picked up my training to get ready for a meet in May which I didn't end up doing due to the shoulder problems. In March I had a professional fitness assessment and got "excellent" on UB strength, core strength, and "good" on cardio and flexibility. I enjoy weight lifting and I'm quite strong for someone of my size (5'0") but my tendons don't seem to keep up with my muscles, so as you said above slow and steady wins the race. I've got to get a more gradual mentality instead of trying to do "it all" too soon. I also cross-train quite a bit and enjoy mountain biking on trails, deep woods hiking, yoga, and elliptical. When I go back even to "full swing" swimming I'm planning to keep it to 2 days a week instead of 3. I seem to do OK if I give my shoulders plenty of rest time and I have enough activities that I enjoy to keep me busy. If I can only swim 40 minutes that's OK too, I'll do the last 20 kick only to round out the hour.
Also, I have been doing various kicking drills as you mentioned but I have to tell you 1 hour of kicking gets painful after a while so I just took this past week off from swimming (not from working out) entirely because I was having "kicking only burnout". :)
Thanks again for the advice and if you have additional tips now that I've elaborated, please let me know.
