Research investigating foam rollers, roller massagers, and other similar devices have generally reported increased range of motion (ROM), diminished perceived pain, accelerated recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage and augmented performance. This makes foam rolling for swimmers a pertinent topic for all swimmers and coaches. The mechanisms underpinning these significant ROM increases with rolling may be quite diverse. Muscle, fascia, and …
Injury Screening for Swimmers
Injury screens were recently popularized with the functional movement screen (FMS). In fact, we created a comprehensive guide for injury screening for swimmers in our Dryland for Swimmers book. We created this as we felt the land-based tests weren’t predictable of swimming due to the novelties of the motions in the pool. One of the most effective methods to reduce …
Risk factors for, and prevention of, shoulder injuries in overhead sports: a systematic review with best-evidence synthesis
The burden of shoulder problems highlights the need for injury prevention strategies. Identifying risk factors and developing strategies to prevent injury, based on these risk factors, are key components for preventing injuries in sports. This reflects the second and third step in the ‘sequence of prevention’ and ‘translating research into injury prevention practice’ models. Overall, 4,740 studies were excluded from …
Does Circle Swimming Create Bad Habits?
Circle swimming is a fact of life for nearly every team. Even if your current situation does not require circle swimming, it’s likely at some point in your career you have done it. To be clear, many good things that come from circle swimming: the ability to accommodate more swimmers and the ability to group swimmers by speed are two …
Troubleshooting Series: Cervical Spine Injuries in Swimmers
Troubleshooting Series: Cervical Spine Understanding cause-and-effect lies in the heart of effective movement correction, both in and out of the water. The better grasp we have of the body’s movement fundamentals, the more capable we can decipher the visual presentation of stroke flaws. The quotations around “flaws” are intentional, as the flaw that catches our attention on deck may be …
3 Reasons to Fix Swimmers Posture
1) Swimmers posture can heighten injury risk2) Stroke mechanics may be implicated by swimmers posture3) Swimmers posture can affect both land and water strength We all know what swimmers posture looks like but how can we actually describe it? Characteristics include forward head, rounded upper spine (kyphosis), elevated and protracted scapulae, anteriorly positioned humeral head, highly developed upper trapezius, and …
Friday Interview: Dr. Wymore on Healthy Swimmers More Dysfunctional Than Injured Baseball Players: Swim Shoulder Pain
This is an interview with Dr. Lucas Wymore. Dr. Wymore recently published: Shoulder Functional Performance Status of National Collegiate Athletic Association Swimmers: Baseline Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic Scores. This interview discusses this research article, but don’t forget to look at Dr. Wymore’s other study: No correlation between stroke specialty and rate of shoulder pain in NCAA men swimmers. For more on Swimmer’s Shoulder checkout Swimmer’s Shoulder …
7 Ways to Reduce Swimming Low Back Pain
The shoulder is the primary site of injury in swimmers, but the low back is the second most commonly injured site. In fact, ~8% of those competing at a 2001 International competition experienced low back pain. Kaneoka (2007) noted thirty-eight (68%) elite swimmers and 11 (29%) controls had degenerated discs at various levels. Disc level L5-S1 was more frequently degenerated …
Do Schoolbags Cause Low Back Pain?
There is variation regarding recommendations for children and adolescents carrying schoolbags. Guidelines for safe loads are mostly within 10%–15% of body weight (BW) range but include values as low as 5% and as high as 20%. Some biomechanical studies suggest that the schoolbag weight of 10% of BW may be enough to cause changes in kinematics, body posture and muscular strain. Methods of …
Shoulder Kinematics During Scapular Plane Abduction
Shoulder impingement is the most common injury in swimming. Many factors contribute to shoulder impingement and one is inadequate space for clearance of the rotator cuff tendons during arm elevation. Previous studies have analyzed healthy shoulder range of motion with single-plane radiographs, but did not provide 3-D motion of the shoulder. Three-dimensional analyzes are necessary to understand the activity in …