Shoulder care
Shoulder injuries can lead to a bad swimming technique or even to stop swimming all together.
This could be very frustrating.
However, this is treatable and preventable.
The constant repetition of overhead movements can cause imbalance, wear and tear.
This is the main reason a lot of swimmers have shoulder pain and have to stop swimming.
However, there are things that you can do to prevent injuries.
Swimmers develop some shoulder muscles while others get left behind and this creates the
imbalance that will eventually cause an injury.
The shoulder has many muscles and it is by nature an unstable joint.
on this video we will go over some simple exercises you can do to take care of your
shoulders.
From what I read it is better to do them after you swim or hours before, so you don’t fatigue
those muscles before your main workout.
having said that, I always did these exercises before I swam and found no disadvantage.
The most important thing however, is to do them often.
They don’t take very long and they are simple and easy to do.
Every exercise I’ll show can be done with some sort of an elastic band, with very light
dumbbells, even a water bottle or without any resistance at all.
So there should be no reason for you to not do them on the pool deck.
For each exercise do 10 to 15 slow repetitions.
Remember that they not meant to overexert the muscles, their purpose is to create balance
in the shoulder muscles and the surrounding area.
1- External rotation
This first exercise will work forgotten parts of the shoulder.
Make sure to have your elbows at 90 degrees.
slowly open your hands away from each other.
The elbows should be touching either side of your body and not moving at all.
You should be feeling how your scapulas move.
2- Butterflies a,b,c
Put your arms in front of you and contract your back muscles to separate them.
Do it slowly.
Now change the movement and raise your arms up to end in a Y position.
Now keep your elbows and hands straight down and pull them back just a little.
3- Driving
This one is probably the easiest.
So you should do double the repetitions.
Just put your hands like in a driving position but rotate the whole arm starting from the
shoulders.
4- Rowing
Start in a driving position again but pull your elbows back and bend them a little bit.
Use your scapulas to help your arms move.
This exercise is very good to correct bad shoulder posture.
5- External rotation 2
Just like the first exercise but this time is a little bit more challenging.
Remember that the elbows are not supposed to move at all.
Feel how you work out muscles in the deep shoulder that you probably never felt before.
6- Front pull
Finally, just like the third part of the butterflies.
Keep your hands and elbows straight down and pull your arms to the front a few inches like
so.
This will work the front of your shoulders.
Again, you can do these exercises without any resistance.
If you haven’t done anything like this you should actually start with no weight.
I will make a part two of this video explaining some simple warm up exercises you should do
before getting in the pool and stretching positions for after you finish the whole work
out.
If you want more personalized workouts and advice check out our patreon page!
If you want to say hi to us, pick your favorite social media and visit us there.
You can find all of this and more information in our beautiful website!
Thanks for watching!
Swim fast!