I had shoulder pain for over 2 years, to the point where I would wake up several times a night. There were several things I tried, and this mine was what they called an active injury. You may have a rotator cup or something else going on so the rest of this is based on the fact that I had an orthopedic rule out everything. An active injury is one that does not show up on MRIs or x-ray, since it only occurs during the motion of the stroke.
1st thing to realize is that this pain is probably similar to a deep bruise. Obviously, everytime you push on, or rub into a bruise you going to continue to hurt it. You will also cause any healing time you may have started, to be erased.
So you will need to let the bruise heal. Here are a couple of alternatives: stop swimming, or stop or greatly minimize stroking. By minimize stroking, you can put on a set of fins and swim such that 70% of or more of your power comes from your legs. Just letting your arms come through but not propelling you.
This greatly help reduce the pain, but only for period of time. I believe I was letting the brusie go down, but not fixing the cause of the problem.
You may need to change your stroke since this is likely the cause. Like you I had a issue with only my left shoulder. I was unfortunate in that I had several coaches look at my stroke, but none were competant to see or understand what was going on. I did get lucky at a state meet a few years ago and ran into Pete Anderson who was an old high school coach, and an accomplished swimmer (master's world record holder). He had one simple instruction for me. This instruction along with taking 2.5 months off to allow the brusie to get heeled are what I think actually remedied the situation. The instruction was to make sure when my left hand entered the water that I always make sure my thumb enters the water first. His reasoning is that most should injuries is a result of not raising your elbow high. He said it is impossible to not have a high elbow if you focus on this thumb entering.
It has been over 1.5 years without pain and I couldn't be happier.
Good luck!
I had shoulder pain for over 2 years, to the point where I would wake up several times a night. There were several things I tried, and this mine was what they called an active injury. You may have a rotator cup or something else going on so the rest of this is based on the fact that I had an orthopedic rule out everything. An active injury is one that does not show up on MRIs or x-ray, since it only occurs during the motion of the stroke.
1st thing to realize is that this pain is probably similar to a deep bruise. Obviously, everytime you push on, or rub into a bruise you going to continue to hurt it. You will also cause any healing time you may have started, to be erased.
So you will need to let the bruise heal. Here are a couple of alternatives: stop swimming, or stop or greatly minimize stroking. By minimize stroking, you can put on a set of fins and swim such that 70% of or more of your power comes from your legs. Just letting your arms come through but not propelling you.
This greatly help reduce the pain, but only for period of time. I believe I was letting the brusie go down, but not fixing the cause of the problem.
You may need to change your stroke since this is likely the cause. Like you I had a issue with only my left shoulder. I was unfortunate in that I had several coaches look at my stroke, but none were competant to see or understand what was going on. I did get lucky at a state meet a few years ago and ran into Pete Anderson who was an old high school coach, and an accomplished swimmer (master's world record holder). He had one simple instruction for me. This instruction along with taking 2.5 months off to allow the brusie to get heeled are what I think actually remedied the situation. The instruction was to make sure when my left hand entered the water that I always make sure my thumb enters the water first. His reasoning is that most should injuries is a result of not raising your elbow high. He said it is impossible to not have a high elbow if you focus on this thumb entering.
It has been over 1.5 years without pain and I couldn't be happier.
Good luck!
