One day a swimmer comes into the my clinic and is incredibly upset. Jane (not their real name), is upset because her right shoulder is starting to be painful and is feeling so much weaker than it ever has before. Jane feels confused and hopeless as this is her third shoulder injury in the last 3 years. This is an important time of the season for Jane, because she is trying to qualify for junior nationals in her upcoming championship meet. Qualifying for junior nationals will help increase her chances of being recruited by a division one college team. When asked what exercises she is doing for her shoulders to try and keep them healthy, Jane replies that she does the occasional banded external rotations but not regularly. Jane admits she probably needs to have regular routine of shoulder exercises for swimmers. Jane also admits she has no idea what exercises to do.
What Should Jane Do?
It was found that 40-91% of swimmers have a shoulder injury at least once in their career. Making situations like Janes incredibly common. While some injuries may be unavoidable, there are ways to lower your risk of developing swimmers shoulder. One of the best ways to do so is by have a solid resistance training/dryland program. A strength training program can improve your starts and turns, increase your speed, and even prevent injuries.
The main question I get from coaches and swimmers when making a shoulder injury prevention program is, what exercises should I do? There are many different options, but not every exercise is created equal. It is important an injury prevention routine address’s common dysfunctions that may lead to injury. Otherwise, the program will be useless. This blog will cover four shoulder exercises for swimmers that should be in your injury prevention routine.
#1 Bear Crawls
The bear crawl is amazing for a couple different reasons. It does a great job promoting core stability while moving your limbs, similar to what needs to happen during swimming. Since one hand is fixed to the ground while crawling, the bear crawl helps promote shoulder stability. It will elicit a high serratus anterior muscle activation, which is one the key muscles to strengthen when you have swimmers shoulder. It you can progress the bear crawl by pulling a kettlebell and moving in other directions too. You can make it easier by just starting with a hold in the bear crawl position.
#2 Push up and Lift
The push up plus is a great exercises for swimmers dealing with shoulder pain. The main reason why is that it is one of the best exercises to strengthen the serrates anterior. The serrates anterior is active during the entire swimming stroke, making it incredibly important to strengthen.
The push up and lift is a progression of the push up plus, as just doing a push up plus may get too easy. It is important to keep your injury prevention routine challenging in order to for your shoulder muscles to become stronger and more resilient. You can adjust the difficulty of this exercise by changing the the height of the box. The higher the box, the harder the exercise becomes and vice versa.
#3 Plank Clocks
Since swimmers have limited time for dryland training and injury prevention routines, picking exercises that check off more than one box becomes more important. Plank clocks are a great for that reason. They work on the core while working your trapezius, rhomboid, and serrates anterior muscles. I like to start this exercise on a wall, then progress to an incline surface, and then finally progress to the floor. You can even add push ups in between the reps to make it more challenging. This one is a fan favorite!
#4 TRX Rows
A list of exercises would not be complete without some sort of rowing variation. Rows will help strengthen the lats, rhomboids, and trapezius, which are all key muscles for swimmers. Rows are also great in that there are many different variations. You can do inverted rows, barbell rows, TRX rows, one arm dumbbell rows, prone rows on bench, etc. For TRX rows, you can adjust the intensity by how vertical you stand. The more vertical you are, the easier the row will be. The more horizontal you are, the more challenging the exercise will be.
The Wrap Up:
There are many different exercises that swimmers can use in their injury prevention programs. Having exercises that focus on strengthening the core, rotator cuff, and scapular muscles in positions that are analogous to swimming are crucial.
Exercises like these are exactly what Jane added to her shoulder injury prevention program and is what helped not only get out of pain, but get back to crushing her workouts. She was able to qualify for juniors, getting her closer to her goal of swimming at the collegiate level.
Do You Need Help Making a Injury Prevention Program? Contact us and let’s get it sorted out!
Happy Swimming!
Alex Ewart