Swimmer’s Shoulder

Shoulder pain is one of the most common complaints among swimmers and it can be an annoying injury that stops you from being able to enjoy your swim. Swimming injuries tend to be atraumatic and accumulate over time. Structures that are usually involved are the rotator cuff or biceps tendons (a group of muscle tendons that insert into the shoulder to provide shoulder stability and movement) or the sub-acromial bursa (a fluid sac that helps reduce friction in the shoulder joint).

These structures in the shoulder become overloaded due to excessive training load, inappropriate technique or poor control of shoulder movement due to muscle imbalance or restrictions locally in the shoulder and/or elsewhere in the body. Often, restricted movement in your hips or along your back can cause excessive compensation and overload on the shoulder, resulting in shoulder problems. Swimming is a whole-body movement no matter which stroke you use and the whole body needs to be moving well. Locally, muscle imbalances (commonly being stronger in the big pectoralis muscles in front of your chest or the latissimus in the side of your trunk and being weak in the rotator cuff muscles that control fine movements in your shoulder) result in overload of the rotator cuff tendons or impingement (excessive pinching of shoulder structures) and results in symptoms.

If you are experiencing shoulder pain with swimming, diagnosing the symptom causing structure is helpful but it is more important to determine the exact cause as that will tell us how to treat the problem. By working with your Physiotherapist to look at your whole body alignment and the way you move/swim, you can work out which specific areas are contributing to your shoulder pain. To achieve positive outcomes for shoulder injuries with swimming, you may have to take a short time off swimming or reduce your swimming intensity temporarily to allow affected structures to recover. In the meantime, your Physiotherapist will provide a tailored and specific treatment and rehabilitation program that you will have to adhere to in order to return to swimming symptom free and improve your swimming performance and enjoyment.

If you would like to find out more or see one of our Physiotherapists for your shoulder, contact us at mail@castlereaghphysio.com.au or call us at 9264 7974!