Swimming Overuse Injuries

Original Editor - Lucinda hampton Top Contributors - Lucinda hampton, Kim Jackson, Wanda van Niekerk, Jacob Bischoff and Mohit Chand

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Original Editor - Your name will be added here if you created the original content for this page.

Top Contributors - Lucinda hampton, Kim Jackson, Wanda van Niekerk, Jacob Bischoff and Mohit Chand  

Introduction

Swimming is a great sport enjoyed by all age groups at all levels of ability. It is a unique sport that in that it combines upper and lower extremity strength exercises with cardiovascular training in a nonweightbearing environment. Swimmers are unfortunately prone to injuries.  Most swimming injuries are classed as overuse injuries and relate to faulty biomechanics The most common swimming injury regions are the shoulder, neck, lower back, and knee.

Swimming overuse injuries usually arise from one or a combination of the below

• Poor stroke mechanics
• Poor breathing technique
• Poor flexibility or range of motion eg of neck or low back
• Hyper flexibility of joints with insufficient muscular stabilisation
• Decreased rotator cuff or scapular muscle strength
• Insufficient core strength/stability
• Decreased hip muscle strength
• Overtraining
• Not enough rest periods

A 2012 study into epidemiology of swimming injuries highlighting that "An understanding of swimming biomechanics and typical injuries in swimming aids in early recognition of injury, initiation of treatment, and design of optimal prevention and rehabilitation strategies"

Swimmers Shoulder

Shoulder pain is the most frequent orthopaedic injury in swimmers, with a reported prevalence between 40% and 91%

Swimmers Neck

Neck pain is mainly seen in the older athlete It may be due to facet joint arthritic change, and disc degeneration +/- nerve root irritation.  Muscle innervation and sensation to the shoulder region is predominantly derived from the C5/C6 nerve roots.  If these nerve root are irritated due to degenerative change in the neck, shoulder complaints can arise.  Arthritic change may limit neck rotation making correct breathing patterns difficult.  Swimmers who unilaterally breath are more prone to neck pain.  Looking forward rather than directly downward, and extending the head too high when taking a breath increases the load on the neck and create pain.

Swimmers Back

The spine is also a recognized site predisposed to injury in the elite swimmer, mainly associated with butterfly swimmers ( 33.3%-58%) and breaststroke swimmers (22.2%- 47%), figures varying from differing studies.

Swimmers Knee

Knee pain figures range from 34% to 86% for a single knee episode, being highest in breaststokers,

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