Shoulder soreness from swims..what do I do?

Are you crossing over the centerline of your body? I recently had someone point out to me that I tend to cross-over, I've been working on fixing that and my shoulders have been feeling much better after swims.

It could be from stroke mechanics, but if you're like me it happens because you're not in top swimming shape or you're pushing the intensity over what your current swim fitness might prefer.

Switching up the type of stroke in your workouts might help the recovery (i.e. breaststroke) but I'd recommend stretching before getting in the pool and after. Bringing my arm across my body, parallel to the ground, and holding it against my chest seems to target the main shoulder muscle that gets used. I also do a series of forward arm circles to loosen up before hoping in the pool.

I had similar issues that plagued me off and on for the past 2 years. I saw doctors, did PT, looked on-line... none of it worked. I think the best thing you could do would be to get someone who knows what they're doing to critique your stroke in person at the pool. I actually had an opportunity to go here last time I was in Denver:

http://swimlabs.com/

.. and in 30 min the instructor found 2 simple things I was doing wrong in my stroke that seem to have done the trick. After making the adjustments I've been pain-free for a month now. In my case the issues were:

- my hand was too high in the water during the "reach" part of the stroke. Now, when my arm is fully extended I try to get my hand about 3-4" below the surface.

- during the pull I was torquing my shoulder because my hand was coming too close to my torso. Now I focus on making sure I get an early vertical forearm - AND - make sure that my hand stays deeper in the water throughout the pull.

Try some backstroke, good for shoulder flexibility.

Find the root of the problem which is probably not strength or flexibility but your stroke mechanics. Find a good swim coach who has fixed this issue before (most good ones should be able to do so)