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How to Treat and Prevent Common Swimming Injuries

By Peter Reyes

Swimming makes me feel like a baby. My mind and body relaxes as refreshing cool water cocoons my tired body into a totally weightless state. The health benefits of swimming are in abundance and well-known to many. It is one of the most popular sports in the world which can be continued throughout your lifetime.

Swimming is a great full body exercise that tones your entire muscle spectrum, builds endurance, muscle strength and improves cardiovascular fitness.

However, because of its repetitive nature of swim strokes, muscular injuries can happen with poor swimming techniques. Now, the question is which stroke can cause potential injuries?

Front Crawl
Front Crawl is the fastest stroke characterized by flutter kick and alternating over arm movements.

While doing crawling, the swimmer has to keep his head in the water, alternating the face side. It is an excellent exercise for toning your glutes, abs and shoulders, and probably a good back-strengthener as well.

But the problem associated with this stroke is improper breathing technique that can result in neck injuries.

The key part of the front crawl is to exhale evenly underwater; your mouth should more or less follow your shoulder. Try not to twist your head to the side, and instead roll the whole body to the side and keep the chin in when taking breaths rather than jerking the head backward to reduce unnecessary strain on your neck.

Breast Stroke
Breast stoke expands the lungs and works the chest, legs, shoulders and triceps. It involves arm movements on the front side, from your head to shoulder level.

Back and knee injuries are a particular risk in long regular training sessions using the breast stroke – the knee is subjected to great stress when required to rotate unnaturally.

The best action to take is to perform good quality stretches and strengthening exercises such as squats and leg presses before you plunge into the pool. Also, do not keep your head out of the water as this is extremely bad for your neck.

Back Stroke
Back stroke involves alternating over the head arm movements and flutter kick. Tones stomach, back, legs and shoulders; a good antidote to a day at the desk and adds variety in your pool activity.

Back stroke can cause fatigue of the neck and shoulder region. In order to keep your head above water, you need to use the muscles on the front of your neck, you might find these muscles are fatigued and sore at the end of a long workout.

The sensible approach to avoiding neck injuries is to stretch both before and after your swim and take breaks between each laps.

Butterfly Stroke
This is the toughest and the most exhausting swimming stroke, encompassing windmill like arm movements and dolphin kick. It stretches and strengthens the body and burns the most calories per 10 minutes but poor technique can damage shoulders and back.

Swimmers Shoulder or Rotator Cuff Tendonitis is a common complaint amongst swimmers doing butterfly stroke. This is because of poor blood supply to muscles or any of the 4 shoulder muscles over used and under extra stress. It can potentially lead to muscle tears.

I suggest you include a 10 minute jumping with a slightly weighted jump rope at the beginning or after your swimming session. It helps strengthen the other three muscles of the rotator cuff and allows balance within shoulder joint and the muscles of the rotator cuff.

Swimming is a good exercise for the young and old. However, it is important to know your own limits and strengths. Keep in mind that fewer lengths have a far more beneficial impact on both technique and general fitness than just swimming up and down continuously.

Always remember, a good swim has nothing to do with how far and how fast you swim, but rather how well you swim.

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