SWIMMER’S SHOULDER

QWhat is swimmer’s shoulder and how do you fix it? Stuart Chambers

AThe shoulder is a complex joint, with lots of structures working closely to each other, overlapping in their roles and responsibilities. The repetition associated with swimming means shoulder structures can go through enormous amounts of cumulative stress, sometimes resulting in pain and dysfunction. As a result, it’s very difficult to pin the cause of shoulder pain down to one specific part, and it’s instead important to take a global approach to the shoulder and torso.

But if the shoulder is sore, the first step is to figure out those particularly aggravating activities and reduce them where possible to allow time for things to settle down. It doesn’t mean stopping altogether, but may mean that you have to break your swim training up into more bite-size pieces to prevent undue overload. Sometimes, a short recovery period will be enough to let symptoms settle and allow you to slowly build your swim volume back up. Not all pain means something is wrong, it can just be your body’s way of asking for some more downtime and recovery.

If the pain persists, or returns as you start to build your volume back up to where it was initially, have a physio look at it to help find potential causes in a little more detail. After assessing you and your shoulder, you can implement a treatment plan with specific exercises that can modify the way your shoulder handles load.

To summarise, the key takeaways are:

• Avoid large spikes in swim volume

• Include regular strength and conditioning work in your regime

• Allow time for recovery if shoulder pain arises and seek help if you can’t get on top of it

• Address the movements and increase your tolerance over time. Don’t focus too much on which structures to blame

• Stay positive and be patient

James Davis