Swimmers Shoulder Part 1

With pools opening back up again its a great time to get back in the water for a few laps, but how do you minimise your risk of that niggling shoulder injury returning?

Around 30% of swimming athletes will injure their shoulder every year so minimising this risk is high on every swimmers list. I have outlined below some common issues swimmers may have that contribute to their shoulder pain and solutions to these problems.

Problem 1: Workload

A great way to injure any body part is to go from zero to hero too quickly. If you haven't been swimming throughout COVID don't return to your normal workload immediately. Try starting with half as many laps and build back up over the next few months.

Problem 2: Inadequate flexibility

For a freestyle swimmer this might be a lack of flexion or rotation at the shoulder, lack of shoulder blade range, poor spinal extension or rotation, or any number of other things. If you think poor flexibility might be contributing to your swimming pain book in to see one of our physiotherapists to assess your range of motion.

In part two we will go through to second 2 problems that may contribute to your swimmers shoulder.