Just the other day I was working with a swimmer named Sarah. Sarah is a competitive masters swimmer and has a couple of big upcoming meets. She was really looking forward to them until she suddenly started having some shoulder pain. The pain was vague. It was in the front of her shoulder and it was starting to derail her confidence leading up into her big meet. When I was talking with Sarah about her shoulder, she brought up a really good point and is one of misconceptions I hear about swimmers shoulder. She said “well, it was bound to happen because it’s an overuse injury and I was probably overusing it.”
This one of the three biggest misconceptions I hear about swimmers shoulder. This blog is going to take a deep dive into three of the common misconceptions about swimmers shoulder and what the truth is behind them.
Misconception About Swimmers Shoulder #1
While this may make sense to call swimmers shoulder an overuse injury, if you dig a little bit deeper, it doesn’t make quite as much sense. If swimmer’s shoulder was an overuse injury, then both shoulders would be injured. Because both shoulders are taking the same amount of strokes as you go through practice. So if it was simply just overusing your shoulder, well, both shoulders would be injured.
Instead, swimmers shoulder is complex, it means a lot of different things, and is multifactorial in nature. Previous research has showed how stress outside the pool, poor nutrition, and a lack of sleep can all lead to injury. This is exactly what I have seen as physical therapist too. You can do all the exercises you want, but if you aren’t getting more than 7 hours of sleep, then it will be hard to recover from your injury. while it may be tempting to categorize swimmers shoulder as a simple overuse injury, it is important to recognize that there are many other factors at play, and addressing these underlying issues is crucial for successful treatment and prevention.
Misconception About Swimmers Shoulder #2
Another big misconception about swimmer’s shoulder is that you have to stop swimming. In many cases, a lot of people can still swim following a lot of guidelines that I’ve talked about in another blog. If you want to look at that blog, you can click here.
Staying in the water and training has a lot of benefits, both mental and physical. If you take 6 weeks of rest with no swimming, many swimmers will go crazy mentally and not get to spend time with their teammates, which in many cases, are also their friends! Another thing that will happen if you take 6 weeks of rest is your non-injured muscles will begin to loose strength and endurance. This will lead to decreased fitness and increasing the risk of another muscle or tendon becoming injured. If you need to read more to be convinced staying in the pool is a good idea, check out a previous blog post here that covers why swimmers should keep swimming more in-depth.
Misconception About Swimmers Shoulder #3
Another big misconception about swimmer’s shoulder is that it’s always the shoulder that is to blame. From what I have seen in swimmers, it is really common for the neck to be one of main reasons for having pain in the shoulder. I can’t count how many times a swimmer has come in to see me or done a virtual consult with me where they said “yeah, I have swimmer’s shoulder”. And it actually turns out to be mostly from their neck and not much from their shoulder at all.
When the muscles around the neck are tight, it can have a negative impact on how the shoulder moves. This can create a vicious cycle in which the tightness in the neck restricts shoulder movement, causing shoulder pain and leading to compensatory movements that further strain the neck. Breaking this cycle requires releasing tension in the neck. In my experience, once the tightness in the neck is relieved, the shoulder is able to move more freely with less pain. After addressing the neck, I typically focus on strengthening the muscles around the scapula and shoulder to improve overall shoulder stability and function.
The Final Touch
In review….
1) Swimmer’s shoulder is not always an overuse injury. If it was, both shoulders be injured and almost every swimmer would have shoulder pain.
2) Just because you have swimmer’s shoulder doesn’t mean you need to stop swimming. In my experience, most swimmers can stay in the pool with the right training and stroke modification .
3) The shoulder is not always the one to solely blame when you’re having shoulder pain. A lot of time, swimmers have tightness in the neck that is contributing to their pain.
Hopefully, these help you a lot in your journey of recovering from swimmer’s shoulder. If you want to get better and you want to swim again with confidence, please reach out to me. Let’s schedule a call and get it handled.
Happy swimming,
Alex Ewart