Swimming
Sports injuries and diseases of the shoulder
In all kinds of waters sports, whether it´s crowl swimming or diving, waterpolo are butterfly, the shoulder is one of the most weight bearing areas. In waterpolo shoulder weight bearing is enormous.
Most chronic shoulder problems in swimming are due to shoulder instabilities. Acute or complete dislocations area rare event in swimmers. Quite more frequent an overuse for years or decades results in a chronic instability due to microtraumata causing a labral and capsular wear. Shoulder pain and snapping, while swimming, at daily activities or at rest, are the complaints. First method of choice is a nonoperative treatment with rest from swimming, special sports physiotherapeutic exercises, antiinflammatory medication and muscle training. If this is not sucessful an arthroscopic operation has to be discussed. Stabilizing procedures like capsular plication will be performed. Depending on the individual situation of the swimmer an open operative procedure might be more successful than an arthroscopic operation, sometimes.
Another shoulder disease in swimming might be an impingement syndrome. Not that often it´s a classical subacromial impingement. More often it is an internal impingement, similar to a throwing shoulder.
A typical situation are unclear / unknown shoulder pain or snapping problems. In those cases a partial tear of the rotator cuff, SLAP lesion or posterosuperior Impingement might the cause. Partial tears of the supraspinatus ( PASTA lesions ) occur quite frequently in swimming.
What has to be done in a "swimmer´s shoulder" on my own ?:
The following can be recommended:
1. Take a rest. Avoid all painful activities.
2. Antiinflammatory drugs for about 2 weeks, combined with local cooling, makes sense.
3. Before starting your swimm training take care to stretch your posterior shoulder capsule. Stretching of the anterior capsule is not that much important and might accelerate your shoulder pain especially if an underlying instability is one of the problems.
4. You should train the muscles of your rotator cuff under supervision of a physiotherapist. Especially the external rotators have to be trained.
You can find us here
Other themes & sites arround the shoulder:
Diseases of the shoulder ( german ): http://www.schulterinfo.de , http://www.schulter.info
Diseases of the shoulder ( english ): http://www.shoulderinformation.com
Shoulder arthroplasty: http://www.schulterprothesen.net , http://www.schulterprothesen.com , http://www.shoulderprosthesis.com , http://www.prothesenatlas.de
Frozen shoulder ( german ): http://www.schultersteife.de
Shoulder specialists ( german ): http://www.schulterspezialisten.de
Shoulder examination ( german ): http://www.schulteruntersuchung.de
Shoulder videos ( german ): http://www.schultervideo.de