Prevention of Shoulder Injuries In Aquatic Sports

"I take my children everywhere, but they always find their way home."        Robert Orben

Warm up swim in Kailua Bay, Kona, Hawaii

I've had, as one of the tenets of this blog, "if you don't break it, you don't have to fix it."  I truly believe that over enthusiasm, dreaming, the ground work for "too much too soon" keeps people like me in business.  This is no more true than in high school Cross Country at this time a year.  So many young people have not done enough over the summer to prepare their bodies for the rigors of the new season and they get injured.  Add to that the actual physical changes these growing bodies see and it's a set up for problems.

Translate this into triathlon and now with three sports to consider, the negative possibilities increase, especially in a population that doesn't typically find swimming as their favorite leg.  Triathletes are always looking for an edge, free speed, or as bike technology seems to be heading, not so free speed.  We are a community of what's known in Marketing circles as early adopters, one's who are willing to be first on the block to try a new technique or product, even if it hasn't been proven 100% effective (yet) but shows promise.  How else can you explain the myriad of supplements, compression devices, etc., some of which might work well, but many, how shall we say, work less well.

We have as part of our training plans, time built in for dry land exercises, weights, and cross training to both make us stronger as well as potentially diminish the chance of injury.  And make us smarter.  The video below was put together last month by FINA. It takes 15:00 minutes so if you're looking for the 90 second You Tube experience that will change your life, this isn't it.  This presentation talks about the anatomy of the swimming shoulder, how it works in the aquatic environment, and exercises that are pretty easy to incorporate into your daily routine. I'd ask that, maybe one day this WE, you put a few minutes aside to watch the video, and see if there isn't something in it for you.  I say this with a certain amount of prejudice as the triathlon swim is my favorite part.  But it wasn't when I entered this sport.  It's only been through trial and error (lots of error), and videos like this, that I've come to feel the way I do.  A knowledgeable triathlete is a faster triathlete.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP7fV_d7cDQ&feature=player_embedded