Shoulder Pain When Swimming? | How To Avoid Swimmers Shoulder

Your shoulders do a lot of the work in swimming, therefore it’s no surprise that problems in the shoulder area are the most common injuries for swimmers. We’ll be covering the cause of swimmer’s shoulder and more importantly how to solve and ultimately prevent it.

Swimmer’s shoulder is one of those broad terms similar to runner’s knee. Broadly speaking it’s a pain around the shoulder brought on by swimming.

As triathletes we don’t do as many miles in the pool as swimmers but we still need to look after our shoulders.

Your shoulders do a lot of the work in swimming. They have a large range of movement and are put under significant force repetitively for every stroke of front crawl.

Therefore it’s no surprise that problems in the shoulder area are the most common injuries for swimmers.

Heather will be covering the cause of swimmer’s shoulder and more importantly how to solve and ultimately prevent it.

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[Trijpkizu]

She didn’t mention about Hips.

Most of the swimmer who is having a shoulder pain is lack of technique or rotation.

Rotation is a body movement, key focus is the hips to rotate between 30-40 degrees angle. It will help to lessen the pressure on your shoulder whenever you recovery.

Thank me later :)

Coach kizu

[PaulGrieselhuber]

I did these today after leaving the pool yesterday with pretty serious shoulder discomfort. Swam today with a 98% reduction in pain - less than 24 hours later. These tips work.

[pinakidas]

I have both my shoulders surgically fixed post surgery - started to swim after 2 years and felt shoulder pain instantly. So went to the gym and did these:overhead press with elbows slightly inwards, lateral raise, internal/external rotation, bicep curl, chest press (last 2 seemed to help too) and little bit of lat exercise. Now I can swim normally without any issues - obviously won't try a competitive one.

[josephmallett]

One thing she didn't mention is to make sure you aren't only breathing on one side. If you are a swimmer and have a consistent practice time of say 2 or more hours per day, if you are breathing only on one side it puts your shoulder under a lot of stress, so make sure you switch it up every so often.

[jamesellis]

I used to have a lot of trouble with my left shoulder. On my first PT appointment the physical therapist asked what seemed an odd question, "How do you drive?" It turns out that driving with my left arm extended out over the to of the steering wheel, I had elongated the tendons/ligaments enough that the shoulder had become 'too loose' in the socket allowing it to 'pop'. So, be aware of your arm/shoulder position when driving

[etienne]

Might as well give feedback. I started to have shoulder pain recently. I worked on the recovery phase. That was not useless, but was also not the issue. Turns out I have been generating almost all power from deltoids during pull phase (so shoulders). Wrong muscle group. Most power should come from latissimus dorsi (and pectoral). It is crazy that you can seemingly accomplish the same movement via entirely different group muscles. That information was hard to find.

[theroadmaster]

*Try the exercises in **_Bulletproof Your Shoulder_** - will save you a lot of pain and agony.*

[robinsingh]

Thank you so much GTN. I have been suffering from this problem for a very long time now. Thanks again

[negodiaysamsonoff]

Thanks for beautiful explanaition. Need to say that kettlebell training sets have very good shoulder recovery function

[sirmanni]

I really enjoyed this episode. I know that a fully extended arm can create a longer lever arm therefore putting greater stress on the RTC (supraspinatus).

[stephenpreston]

Clear and helpful, thanks. But I do question those who disregard the warning clicks when foam rolling the spine. Discomfort and possible risk is likely proportional to body weight (just speculating here). It seems to me that smaller folk may foam roll with less discomfort and risk. And Is there good evidence that this is time well spent?

[johnwouters]

can you provide a link to the band you use in the video? tx for great content!

[ghelen]

excellent instruction and information, thankyou ton

[RyanonBasss]

Fell in love with swimming after hurting my foot barefoot running. Upped my mileage too quickly now I'm getting a concerning shoulder click on my downstroke. My whole body is an overuse injury at this point....

[robtemoana]

Thanks GTN. Went into IRONMAN NZ with an injured shoulder. Useful tips to add to my recovery. Thumbs up.

[charlieaughenbaugh]

thank you. your material was laid out well, and you are a great orator. keep up the good work!

[psylocko]

These seem good to recover from a shoulder dislocation as well. Thanks a lot.

[chaengson]

Thank you for this GTN. I just got back to swimming today and I noticed some pain in my shoulders so this video is such a huge help!

[christianharkness]

thanks heather great tips and help with the shoulder, you speak wonderfully.

[xrayfish]

Another excellent video for pain relief trying showering using cold setting for 30 sec's or more if you can tolerate it