rotator cuff question

a way to make sure your elbow stays where it should be is to think about keeping your thumb next to your body as you finish thru the stroke.

I hope your problem isn't serious.

My tiny bit of knowedge -- what TriMom said about keeping the thumb close to your body, plus your elbow should come out of the water first -- not your hand with straight arm. And this is another reason for learning bilateral breathing -- keeping your body balanced in its muscle use. This won't necessarly prevent injury 100%, but will help.

That's all I have............

Thanks for the great advice.  I'm doing the following for this problem:

1.  PT exercises specific for rotator cuff muscles (using some nalgene tubing from the lab - hey chemists, don't waste your $$ on colored bands)

2.  Make sure I keep elbow outside shoulder, thumb along body, elbow out of water first

3.  Start breathing both sides to give the one shoulder a rest (lol, or injure both)

I'll post again in a month or so to let you know how it worked.  Perhaps I'll even do more of the dreaded TI drill work...not as much fun as when I had to stop my freestyle every 25 yds.

Hey Wry,

My rotator cuffs are shot from work-related injuries. My breathing arm shoulder also gets cranky.

I have a great chiropractor who adjusts it & puts stim on it from time to time.

I also do light shoulder weight excersizes, this helps a lot.

If you do bench pressses, be real careful. Be sure to lower the bar to a point below your nipple line. If you lower the bar to a point more towards your collar bone you over-load the shoulder joint something awful!!

Good luck!

Good information Joe -- I too will watch that bench press.

Thanks, Nancy

Hey Dry Wit Cytoplasm,

I developed a mild soreness in my shoulder from swimming a few months ago that I self-diagnosed as rotator cuff.  After reading in Swimming Fastest, I decided that the strain I was putting on the shoulder came from applying too much force before the "catch".  After your hand enters the water straight out in front, (I am told anyway), the hand should drop and the elbow should stay high to get the hand in position to pull.  The point that the pull can begin is called the catch.  I think most of my soreness was coming from pushing the hand down with some force to get to the catch position.  This really doen't help forward progress and it was putting force on the joint where it really was not very strong.  I now try to get to the catch position with a relaxed arm then accelerate the hand and forearm like a canoe paddle all the way to about mid thigh, finish the stroke with a hand push at the wrist and recover forward with a relaxed bent elbow.

The other good thing for a sore shoulder is to run or bike instead.  That is the really great thing about multisport.  You can easily lay off the injured extremity while still getting out to do something.  I am recovering from an overly enthusiastic final two miles on Saturday that left me with slightly sore knee.  I swam yesterday, will cycle tonight, then swim again tomorrow pushing the running back one extra day.  I am certain that the knee will be fully recovered by then.

Da ol' guy