Swimming - Tips for Injury Prevention

 

Swimming is great exercise, particularly in the warmer weather. It is great for core strength, shoulder endurance, and overall cardiovascular fitness. However with shoulder injuries reported in around half of the people swimming regularly the risk of injury is high. The vast majority of injuries occurring in swimmers are due to overuse and/or poor technique, this means that these injuries are preventable. Here are some simple tips to help keep you in the water this summer:

1. Warm up: make sure you are ready to swim with adequate range at the joints and muscles, and increased blood flow to the muscles. Swim a couple of laps slowly first rather than just hitting the water full bore.

2. Know your limits:the RTA is right, fatigue kills. When you are tired your muscles will not be working in the most efficient way, and you are much more likely to injure yourself. Have a rest, don't push through, especially if you are new to swimming as other muscles will start to try and compensate, changing the way your shoulder functions and making it more predisposed towards injury.

3. Stretch:tight muscles are inefficient, and can cause injury. Stretch following every swim. Muscles to stretch include your triceps, deltoids, upper trapezius and rhomboids.

4. Regular sports massage: regular massage is invaluable as it will identify and treat injuries before they occur. Any areas of tightness will be adressed allowing your shoulder to maintain optimal mechanical function and keep you in the water.

5. Listen to your body:if it hurts, fix it early. Have it assessed and treated properly, most issues if caught early are easy to fix, the longer something is left the more reinforcement compensatory patterns get, and the harder it becomes to retrain a movement. Don't let a little niggle become a big problem.