How to Swim Faster Without Injury By Fred Drennan

Transcription

1 How to Swim Faster Without Injury By Fred Drennan Introduction A sports injury can be a real pain, both physically and mentally, keeping you away from what you love to do. For swimmers, the most common injury is Swimmer s Shoulder. In fact, half of all Master s swimmers have experienced some kind of shoulder pain lasting three weeks or longer. For me--a Master s swimmer for fifteen years and surfer for forty five--two rotator cuff injuries were enough to send me to surgery and threatened to keep me out of the water for a long time, if not permanently. While I was out of commission, I read dozens of articles and researched many different disciplines. What I learned while out of the water not only got me back to swimming and surfing, but also helped improve my efficiency and speed. In this article, I identify what I like to call the Four Step Hierarchy for Swimming Faster without Injury. To the casual observer, swimming looks like an effortless glide through the water. But competitive swimmers know that swimming as a sport is an extremely complex blend of skill, strength, and muscular endurance. As master s swimmers, we all want to do what we can to improve our speed; unfortunately, for some of us, this means adding a risk of injury. How do we crank it up a notch without pushing ourselves to the point of injury? important and should never be ignored. However, there is much to learn from academics who study the dynamics of swimming through exercise physiology, biomechanics, kinesiology, anatomy and related fields. While not all of them agree on the process, four key elements consistently rise to the surface. Focus on these four elements, in the right priority, and you can reduce the potential for rotator cuff injury and get a great side benefit you will swim faster than you ever did before! The Four Step Hierarchy for Swimming Faster Without Injury The elements described in this section can be practiced simultaneously but there is definitely a hierarchy to the steps. In other words, it will be difficult to reach Step Four if you don t accomplish Step One with a high degree of efficiency. The four steps to increase speed and prevent injury are: 1. Swim with your lats not your shoulders 2. Stabilize your scapulas 3. Balanced rotator cuff strength 4. Increase leverage with your forearm paddle Most swim coaches endorse basic technique bilateral breathing, slide-andglide, good posture, kicking, shoulder flexibility, streamlining all of which are Fred Drennan,

2 Step #1 Swim with Your Lats, Not Your Shoulders The lats (latissimus dorsi) are the largest muscles in your back. They are the power movers for your arms. Because the lats are one of the biggest muscles in the body (see Figure 1), they have a mechanical advantage over the smaller muscles such as the rotator cuff muscles. Think of your lats as your Corvette engine for swimming. Figure 1 - The latissimus dorsi are huge You d think people who have been swimming Masters for two or three years would naturally have big lats. But when you look at them, more often you see large shoulders and small lats. This body build is what Rick Goeden, Master s swim coach for more than twenty years, calls tricep swimmers, those who swim with their arms and shoulders and not their lats. How do you know if you are engaging your lats? Ask some swimmers to flex their lats, and they aren t quite sure of where the lats are, let alone how to flex them. Swim technique is complex. It s often difficult to isolate and focus on the lat while in the water. How do you engage the lats? Elite athletes (and physical therapists treating severely injured patients) use mental visualization to activate specific muscles. Different trainers use different techniques, but most follow what trainer and two-time Mr. America, Dan Mackey, calls the Four F s: Find the muscle, Focus on the muscle, Flex the muscle, and then Feel the muscle. This mind/body process sends a focused electrical signal from the brain along a neuro-pathway to fire the muscle that is being worked. You can try this method while performing lat pull downs in the gym. Repeating the process over and over conditions the lat to develop its own memory. Once the muscle memory is developed, you don t have to think about engaging your lat when swimming, it s automatic! Engaging the lat automatically streamlines body position. Streamlining is a swimming imperative. If you want to swim faster you have to streamline; that is, rotate the shoulder and hip out of the water to reduce drag (Figure 2). Figure 2 Forearm paddles help you learn to engage the lat to improve hip/shoulder rotation. Some coaches tell us to think about rotating the seam of our swimsuit out of the water to get the hips to rotate. Some have us focus on dropping the shoulder down. Either way, you have to make a concerted mental effort to achieve the rotation. But when you successfully Fred Drennan,

3 engage your lat, the rotation happens automatically. How? In Figure 1, you can see that the lats are attached to the spine and pelvis. When you flex the lat and the teres major (the muscle just below your armpit) as your fingers enter the catch phase of the stroke, that shoulder and hip drop down and the opposite shoulder and hip automatically rotate out of the water. You don t have to think about anything, just flex the lat and teres major as your fingers enter the water. The hips and shoulders follow the lat; it s that simple. Engage the lat to relieve stress on the rotator cuff. Seventeen muscles attach to each of your shoulder blades (the scapulas). These include the motor control muscles of the arm, which are commonly called the rotator cuff. Also attached to the shoulder blades are the biceps, triceps, delts and traps (deltoideus and Trapezius). Unfortunately, these are the muscles many master swimmers use to propel themselves through the water, which puts too much stress on the shoulder joint. If you experience shoulder pain, it could be that you are not engaging your lat. Remember, the lats attach to the spine and pelvis rather than the shoulder blades. When you switch from the shoulder muscles to the lat muscles for swimming, you immediately feel the stress come off your shoulders. Until you have built up strength and muscular endurance in the lats, they may become fatigued during longer workouts in the pool. When this happens, it is a natural tendency to shift the load back into the shoulder and rotator cuff muscles. Don t go there! Remember, fatigue is a leading cause of shoulder pain and injury. Major rule: as Dan Mackey likes to say, When the lats give out, get out! Step #2 Stabilize the Scapulas The shoulder blades are the foundation of the shoulder girdle. Just like the foundation of a house, they must be solid and stabilized or the structure will start to crack and fail. It s important to remember that the shoulder joint doesn t fit into a ball and socket like your hip. The shoulder girdle is a floating structure supported by surrounding muscle. It s common for master swimmers to allow the shoulder girdle to pop up and out of place during the initial catch phase (see Figure 3). This movement destabilizes the shoulder Figure 3 Shoulder girdle unseated blade causing it to lift up (dislocate) and move forward. At the same time, the upper arm bone (the humerus) raises to a 90 degree position which can easily impinge on tendons that pass through the acromion arch of the shoulder blade (see Figure 4). During a standard one-hour swim (about Figure 4 Shoulder impingement and tendon damage 80 laps), the scapula and humerus can slam together as many as 800 times on Fred Drennan,

4 each side! Eventually, the condition becomes chronic and painful and is commonly called swimmer s shoulder. Some of us have anatomy such that there is plenty of room in this area so it may not be a problem; however most of us do not! If you do experience pain in this area and continue to swim through it, the bicep tendon and Supraspinatus tendon will be damaged at the pinch point, and you may become a surgery candidate. To prevent this common swimming injury, it is important to keep the shoulder blades anchored down. The only way to achieve this is to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder blades (Figure 5). No amount of working out in the pool will stabilize the scapulas. You have to hit the weights in the gym. Figure 5 Primary scapula stabilizers Scapular stabilization not only prevents shoulder impingement, but also ensures you get maximum power from you lats. To better understand this concept, try this easy test. First, flex your lats, and then try to lift your shoulder girdle. You can t do it! When your lat is engaged, it holds the shoulder girdle in place. When you disengage your lat, you are more susceptible to shoulder injury (and you ve also turned off your Corvette engine). Major rule: Never, ever, let the shoulder girdle pop up. Step #3 Balanced rotator cuff strength The rotator cuff muscles (Figure 6) allow the arm to move in multiple directions and keep the upper arm seated in the shoulder joint (see Figure 4). Strong and balanced rotator cuff muscles are critical for shoulder stability and to prevent injury. Figure 6 Rotator Cuff muscles. During a swim workout, the arms are internally rotated hundreds of times and never externally rotated. This action overdevelops the internal rotator muscles in relation to the external rotator muscles. Once this happens, the upper arm can unseat from the shoulder joint (Glenohumeral) and repeatedly damage the loadbearing surfaces of the shoulder joint (the labrum). This process caused my second surgery, which required titanium screws to place the labrum back onto the Glenohumeral joint (see Figure 4). To correct this problem, you must counter balance all of the internal rotation used during swimming. Perform strengthening exercises in the gym that focus on the external rotators. Major rule: Strength training for the external rotators (Infraspinatus and the teres minor) is paramount for injury prevention and faster swimming. Fred Drennan,

5 Step #4 Increase leverage with your forearm paddle Studies have shown that the propulsive force generated by the hands is in direct proportion to their surface area. So theoretically, the bigger your hands, the faster you can swim. So how do you increase your surface area of your paddle? closer you move the effort (force) toward your lat, the more fully it will be engaged and reduce the stress on the rotator cuff. Figure 8 shows the direction of the movement with your elbow as the vector, keeping the forearm and hand straight. If you compare the surface area of your hand to your forearm, you will find that they are about the same (Figure 7). Figure 8 Elbow as vector and muscle groups in use during each phase of stroke. You can learn how to effectively use the greater surface area of your forearms and the power of the lats by using forearm paddles like those pictured in Figure 9. Figure 7 Hand and forearm equal area Most swimmers can double the size of their paddle and increase their propulsive force by adding their forearms during the pull phase. Beware, however! Big paddles generate increased resistance and require more force (muscular contraction) to pull through the water, increasing the stress (and risk of injury) on the shoulder. To reduce the risk of injury and get the maximum benefit of your big paddle, think of your arm as a lever. Your effort or muscular contraction should be initiated near the elbow rather than at the hand. The Figure 9 Forearm paddles Unlike most swim paddles that stop at the wrist, forearm paddles create a plane from the tips of the fingers all the way to the elbow, which helps you sense what it feels like to use the entire hand/forearm as a paddle. Fred Drennan,

6 Workout with forearm paddles to: Help maintain a straight line through the elbow and wrist to the tip of the middle finger Feel how to apply force at the elbows and not the hand to relieve stress on the rotator cuff Double the size of your paddle to increase resistance and to engage the lat See and feel the proper placement of the forearm in relation to the body (refer to Figure 2) Exaggerate and feel the full range of motion for the slide and glide Evenly strengthen the left and right lats In Summary Swimming is fun and well known for its all around physical conditioning. However, swimming does have a high risk of injury to the shoulders because of the repetitive motion and awkward postures (shoulder impingement) that form the basis of all four swimming strokes. Bursitis, tendonitis, nerve compression, and torn tendons, cartilage, and ligaments are common among swimmers (all of which I suffered from). These soft tissue injuries occur over time and are commonly called cumulative trauma disorders. Injury prevention should be a primary concern for swimmers, young or old, whether they swim for pleasure or to compete. The most common problem is to allow the shoulder girdle to pop up during the catch phase of the stroke. This disengages the lat and transfers the effort to the rotator cuff and triceps muscles. The rotator cuff cannot take this kind of pounding hundreds of times during a workout without damage. effort. Because the lat attaches to the spine and pelvis and not the shoulder blades, the rotator cuff is protected from excessive stress. Also, because of the lats attachment points, they help with shoulder and hip rotation. Strength training is essential for body awareness and for engaging your lats more effectively in the pool. Strength training for scapula stabilization and balanced strength in the rotator cuff muscles is essential for preventing shoulder impingement and a loose shoulder joint. One of the most common beliefs about swimming is that you swim with your hands. This is false. You must swim with your forearms and hands as one single paddle. Forearm paddles can help swimmers feel where to apply force (at the elbows) and engage the lats. Swimmers who use these forearm paddles in concentrated, supervised workouts have experienced significant benefits. Final Rule: If you consistently feel pain in your shoulders, don t try to swim through it, take steps to determine the cause. Ask your swim coach or strength trainer to assist you to develop better techniques in and out of the water. The solution is to swim with your lats and not your shoulders to give you the largest mechanical advantage for the least Fred Drennan,

7 About the Author Fred Drennan is an author, speaker, and consultant on the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in the workplace. He has trained thousands of employees across the US in the risk factors for MSDs and developed a comprehensive Strength And Flexibility Exercises (SAFE) that employees perform daily at the worksite using his Back Synergy TM program. Acknowledgements: This article could never have written without the knowledge gained from Dan Mackey (two-time Mr. America). His singular body of knowledge gained from a lifetime of work can not be found in any text book. I m eternally grateful to him for getting me to swim faster without injury. Vector Forearm Paddles are a product of Team Safety, Inc. For more information or additional copies of this article, call Fred Drennan at or fred.drennan@teamsafetyinc.com.. Fred Drennan,