Swimmers susceptible to overuse injuries too

With summer in full swing many people have taken to the pool as a form of exercise. Doing laps, no matter what stroke, but performing the repetitive overhead motion can cause swimmer's shoulder. While the diagnosis is swimmer's shoulder, you do not have to consider yourself a swimmer in order to develop the signs and symptoms and even the diagnosis of swimmer's shoulder.

Swimmer's shoulder is the common term for the medical diagnosis of impingement, which refers to the pinching of the muscles of the shoulder. Specifically, the rotator cuff is being pinched between the humerus (the arm bone) and the acromium (the bone at the top of the shoulder). The repetitive overhead motion of most of the swimming strokes can irritate this muscle and cause the exacerbation of swimmer's shoulder.

Some of the signs and symptoms of swimmer's shoulder are: pain with overhead motion during freestyle, pain only through part of the range of motion meaning that you are able to raise and lower your shoulder and you only feel pain through parts of the movement, not the whole way through the movement. Other signs and symptoms include a deep ache inside the joint and your shoulder blade (or scapula) may be sticking out from the rib cage (what is referred to in medicine as winging). Despite the pain, you will be able to move your arm fully without any restriction aside from pain.  As the signs and symptoms and the pain gets worse it can lead to being unable to participate in swimming activities.

Poor posture also plays a part in swimmers shoulder. Swimmers notoriously have forward head and rounded shoulder posture, meaning they have a slouched forward posture. Unfortunately many people who work in a seated position in front of their computer all day also develop this posture which is why it does not necessarily take a heavy swimming background in order to develop swimmer shoulder. If you have poor posture that you use at work for extended periods throughout the day and then you go and swim as part of your exercise you are likely to develop swimmer's shoulder just as easily as someone who does thousands of swimming yards a day.

In the video below, there are shoulder stretches and exercises that can help reduce the inflammation of the tendon. Most likely though if you feel you have developed swimmer's shoulder you will need to go through some physical therapy in order to resolve the issues. Swimmer's shoulder is a combination of a tight capsule, meaning the 'saran wrap' that surrounds the shoulder joint is tighter in one spot more than another allowing for the shoulder to move in an awkward position and not smoothly.  It will take a specialized manual therapist, like at Total Performance Physical Therapy, in order to be able to open up this capsule.

Swimmer's shoulder is also caused by weakness of the rotator cuff, therefore, strengthening exercises need to be performed in order to help the joint move correctly and help the shoulder stay in an optimum postural position.  Performing specific exercises that target the rotator cuff is imperative.  Form is of the utmost importance as most people who are swimmers have incredible shoulder strength and find it easy to cheat and find other muscles that can easily take over for a weak rotator cuff, in turn exacerbating the problem and not solving it.

The video highlights some stretches and some strengthening exercises that make it hard to cheat when they are done at home. The one stretch will require a partner in order to perform it correctly. This will help open up the chest to minimize the slouching posture. There are also other videos on Total Performance Physical Therapy's channel that will help correct posture and swimmer's shoulder.

The other stretch that is on the video is to stretch out the capsule. This should be done every day regardless of whether you are feeling pain or not.  Keeping the shoulder moving correctly will help prevent this condition from ever happening. The final exercise is a strengthening exercise that is very difficult to cheat. This exercise will help keep the shoulder blade down and stop it from irritating the tendon and causing the discomfort. This exercise is gentle enough that it can be done every day.

Swimmer's shoulder is a multifaceted issue that needs to be treated usually by a medical professional.  Stretching, strengthening, joint correction, posture reeducation and swimming stroke revision are all things that need to be addressed in order to treat and cure swimmer's shoulder.

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