Shoulder Injuries in Swimmers - Top Tips To Avoid Them

If you are a regular swimmer (competitive or otherwise) then chances are that you have experienced shoulder injuries. Swimmers tend to put a great deal of stress on their shoulders, especially if they have to swim long distances on a daily basis. After all, it is the shoulders that do most of the work to propel you forward in the water.

The problem with shoulder injuries in swimmers is that they can prevent the person for swimming for quite some time until the injury heals. Not only will this get in the way of your training schedule bur it will also require lengthy and expensive treatments.

There are a few things you could do to avoid injuring your shoulder when swimming:

- Warm up sufficiently before each session: You need to ensure that each training session in the pool is preceded by a good warm-up session. This reduces the chance of injury considerably.

- Do the right exercises to strength your shoulders: Work in the gym to develop your shoulder muscles so that they can provide you with the necessary ‘push’ in the water. In addition, you also need to work on the muscles of your chest and back. Your muscles should be very strong and flexible. Strength training should always be done under expert supervision because badly done exercises can easily lead to injuries.

- Develop the correct swimming technique: You need to have a symmetrical body rotation pattern while swimming or else there will be a lot of pressure on your back and shoulders. You should also maintain the right posture while swimming or else there will be undue pressure on your shoulders. You should ideally be able to distribute the effort amongst your shoulder, chest and back muscles.

It is impossible to prevent all sporting injuries entirely. Even world class athletes suffer from them from time to time. However, you can certainly take steps to avoid most of them and to reduce their intensity. If you can have yourself videotaped whilst swimming you will be able to understand exactly where you are going wrong. This will go a long way towards protecting you from injuries to your shoulder.

Shoulder injuries can cause a great deal of pain and you need to get them treated as soon as they occur. If you delay getting treatment then your problem might get worse and it might even require surgical intervention.