Exercises to Prevent Swimmer's Shoulder

By Jen Adley
For Active.com 
 
Swimmer's shoulder is an inflammatory condition caused by the impingement of soft tissue between two bones that meet in the shoulder. Repetitive overhead arm motion of the freestyle stroke can cause this overuse injury, but there are ways to prevent it.

Strengthening shoulder and upper-back muscles and stretching shoulder, chest and neck muscles will help to prevent a swimming posture that is more susceptible to injury. The muscle imbalance and inflexibility that typically occurs in swimmers contributes greatly to impingement. The following exercises and stretches specifically address these areas.

Shoulder Stability
The external rotators of the rotator cuff muscles play a crucial role in shoulder stability. These muscles are also inherently weak and are often the cause of rotator cuff impingement. By strengthening this group you will have a more stable shoulder joint.

Using a stretch cord or cable, hold your arm so your bicep is parallel to the ground and your elbow is bent at a 90 degree angle. Pull your hand forward until your forearm is parallel with your bicep, making sure not to move your elbow.
You can also do this with a dumbbell, resting your elbow on a bent knee and rotating your forearm up and down at a 90 degree angle.

Balancing Out
This exercise promotes stability in the scapular region and prevents muscle imbalance associated with swimming. These muscles promote postural alignment and aid in shoulder stability. In swimmers they often become lengthened.
Lie face down on an exercise ball. Holding a barbell with both hands, raise it until your arms are outstretched in front of you. Remember to keep your back straight.

Building a Neutral Shoulder
This exercise strengthens the rear deltoid and mid-back. Swimmers often have shortened pectorals and front deltoids, causing a shoulder joint that internally rotates. By strengthening the muscles of the back and rear deltoid you maintain a more neutral shoulder.
Leaning face-forward on an incline, hold a dumbbell in each hand and raise them up past your body. Keep your arms straight.


Flexibility Options
These stretches address tightness and shortening in the shoulder, chest and back that arises from swimming. A tight shoulder capsule will prevent proper reach and form in the water. Hold each stretch for about 30 seconds. You may progressively increase the stretch slightly every 10 seconds (within the 30 seconds).


Swimmer's shoulder may primarily be prevented by using proper freestyle stroke. The hand should enter the water with the tips of the fingers first and the palm facing downward. When the hand enters the water it should not cross the middle of the body. For further stroke instruction, seek the advice of an experienced swimming coach.

Jen Adley earned her BS in Biology and a Masters degree in Physical Therapy. She is a practicing board certified physical therapist for Body Pros Physical Therapy and is coaches athletes for The Sport Factory. She is licensed by USA Triathlon and USA swimming with over 10 years coaching experience. Jen has three times received an honorable mention ranking from USA Triathlon. Visit www.thesportfactory.com to learn more about Jen or email her at coachjen@sportfactory.com.

Swim Drills vs. Swim Volume

by Mike Ricci
For Active.com
 
Lately there's been a lot of fuss over swim drills. People have been saying that swim drills are the hot new thing on the market. New? They've been around for decades. When I was coaching high school swimming in 1989, we were doing drills daily. Every workout had a drill set in it, even if it was only a 500-yard, weak-side breathing swim.

Swim gloves for fist drills? These gadgets are unnecessary. Get a tennis ball, hold it in your hand and start swimming--now that's a real fist drill. I've coached athletes who've started from scratch and those with college swim backgrounds; both practice swim drills. Swim drills are important and I practice drills three out of every four times I get in the water, just to refine my stroke. I've been doing this for years.

When volume makes more sense than drills

Here's the problem: Unless you have someone watching you, to keep an eye on form, the drills can do more harm than good. Swim drills are helpful, but there's a point of diminishing returns. In my opinion, there's a point or pace where swim volume might make a lot more sense than drills.

So what is that point? Some coaches would tell you that it's about 1:50 per 100-meter pace, and I would agree for the most part. That would give you around 1:10 for an Ironman-length swim, 35:00 for a half IM, or 26:00 for an Olympic-distance race. If you're slower than that, you should focus more on swim drills.

There's no doubt that drills have their place, but if you want to get faster you need to swim more. More than you're currently doing and more than you think you should. I spent an entire winter swimming more than I ever have. I had a few of my experienced Ironman athletes do the same thing. We all became better swimmers.

Could we have accomplished this by swimming drills day after day? No way.

How do I know? We tried that and it didn't work. Like I said above, UNLESS you have a qualified swim coach (someone with swim coaching experience -- not someone who read a how-to book on swimming, like your cousin Dwight) watch you do the drills, then you don't know if you're doing them correctly.

If you have someone standing over you with a video camera recording your workouts and you then analyze your technique after each workout, then sure, it'll work to a point. But the fact is, most people don't do the drills correctly.

The more you swim, the better you get

Which brings us back to volume: The more you swim, the more adaptive you become and the better your feel of the water becomes. It's just like riding your bike downhill; you learn how to lean into a turn, how to accelerate out of turn, etc.

Swimming is the same way. The more your hand enters the water and you get your forearm over the barrel, the better you'll know what it feels like to 'grab' water and pull yourself through it. The more times you get in the water, the more natural it becomes.

Take two swimmers of the same ability and have one swim a volume approach and the other swim one drill after another; the volume-based swimmer will win the race in the long run.

Next time you swim ...

Tips for increasing your swim volume:

• Swim sets steady, not fast. This means swimming with a good clean stroke, without rushing.
• More swim volume equals more aerobic base. This means you have more fitness.
• The more fit you are as a swimmer, the better you'll feel on the bike and run.
• A 1,500-meter race will seem like nothing compared to that big swim set you did.
• More swim strokes means more times to look at your stroke and see what you're doing wrong/right.
• Think about your stroke on every entry, catch, pull and finish.
• Do your drills in the middle of your 4,000-yard workout, don't make them your entire 1,500-yard workout.
• Do your volume swimming in the winter when you can't bike as much OR when you're injured.
• Injury problems: Too much swim volume can lead to shoulder/back issues, so be careful!
• If you want to get to the front of your age group, you need to get out of the water in the front.

Essential drills to do every time you're in the water:

1. Fist drill - swim four strokes closed fist, four strokes open palm
2. One-arm drill - literally, watch your catch and pull while swimming with one arm.
3. Heads up swim, underwater recovery, AKA doggie paddle - Focus on the catch, nothing more.
4. Swim golf - More of a swim set to figure out your optimal strokes per length. Swim 50 yards (two lengths) and count your strokes and your time. Add the two together and you have your golf 'score.' If it takes you 50 strokes and the swim took you 50 seconds, then your score is 100. The lower your score, the more efficient you're becoming.
However, BEWARE, once you start learning how to manipulate the golf score you could end up digressing. I see swimmers all the time who try to swim 28 strokes, and have a swim time of 50 seconds (78 golf score). They'd be much better off swimming 34 strokes, with a 44 second swim (78 gold score). Personally, I'd give up strokes for speed on most days. Yes, I'm swimming more strokes, but don't I want to get there faster? Isn't that the point?

So, if you want to improve your swimming (and who doesn't?) and you can swim 1,500 meters faster than 26:00, then consider swimming more volume. You can focus on drills every time you swim, but if you really want to swim fast, you need to improve your endurance, and the only way to do that is to swim more. More than you think you should, and more than you think you can.

Mike Ricci, D3 Multisport head coach and USA Triathlon Level III Certified Coach, was selected to write the training programs for both the short and long course USA World Championship Teams from 2002-2005. D3 Multisport has a variety of services ranging from one-on-one coaching to training plans for specific events and races. Visit www.D3Multisport.com for more information or e-mail Mike at mike@d3multisport.com.

Perfect Practice Makes Perfect: Overhaul Your Swim Technique This Winter

This week we're going to focus on swimming!  Yeah!!!

By Steve Tarpinian
Triathlete magazine
from active.com

The offseason is the best time to overhaul your swimming technique, but the challenge, particularly this time of year, is that drills and yardage without focus or with less-than-perfect technique are barely worth the effort and yield minimal results.

To refine your freestyle for the coming season, select a three-month period during your offseason downtime—ideally a block well out from a scheduled A-priority race—in which you can focus on tweaking technique rather than on big volume and high intensity.

Before starting your three-month swim-technique block (which will be broken down below into three, four-week microcycles), get a video of yourself in the pool to establish a baseline. This will also help you determine which aspects of your technique require greater attention.

For example, if upon analyzing your swim video you see you have a good body position but a short, ineffective pull, you may decide to rework the below schedule to spend more time on those areas in which you're relatively weak. Additionally, videotape your freestyle stroke after each of the following four-week blocks to monitor improvement.

Finally, performing a 500-meter/yard time trial once per month will also help you gauge your improvement.

Month 1: Body Position and Kick Focus

The more streamlined you can become, the more efficient your swimming will be: Think narrow and long. There are many variations of this drill, and my experience shows that the best results come from doing the following three variations in the order below.

Kick on side with no rotation
This is one of the best body-position drills. The objective here is to get comfortable kicking on your side with your bottom arm stretched forward, your ear on your shoulder and one goggle in and one out of the water. This is the ideal position for your head when you breathe. Use fins if you have trouble staying afloat.

Kick on side with one stroke
This drill targets body position and rotation. Perform the kick drill as above, but every five seconds take one stroke and switch from one side to the other. Focus on making a smooth rotation and keeping the body in alignment.
To accomplish this, begin the recovery with your trailing arm, and stay on your side until your hand passes your face, then start to bend the elbow of your leading arm. As the recovering arm enters the water, pull with the leading arm and roll to your other side. Keep your neck in alignment with your spine (don't lift your head) throughout.

Kick on side with three strokes
This drill is the same as the previous drill; however, instead of just one stroke, take three strokes as you rotate from side to side. Drive each rotation with your kick and hips, not your head or shoulders.
I suggest you spend four weeks perfecting these drills by integrating a drill set into every swim workout. For example:

1. Warm-up: 500 meters/yards
2. 4 x 50 meters/yards of each kick-on-side drill. Take 15 seconds' rest after each 50 and focus on doing the drill properly
3. Main set
4. Cool-down: 300-500 meters/yards

Month 2: The Pull

There are five basic components to the pull cycle: entry/extension, elbow bend (catch), pull, release and recovery. Analyzing your video will show you which parts of the cycle you need to focus on improving. My experience suggests that, most often, pull shortcomings arise when swimmers do not start the pull with a bent elbow, which allows them to catch and hold water.

The Key Drills

Fist drill
This drill is easy to perform: simply swim regular freestyle with closed fists, which will force you to bend your elbow to catch water with your forearms. Be conscious of feeling the water pressure on your forearms as you begin your pull. Swim half a length with closed fists, then open your hands.
The dynamic feeling of opening your hands and feeling the added power from the higher elbow is the positive feedback that makes the change carry over to your regular stroke. Since you actually need to struggle through the water a bit to feel this pressure on the forearm, it's best to do this drill without fins. This is the only drill whose effectiveness isn't enhanced by the use of fins.

Single-arm drill
Swim freestyle but only pull with one arm, keeping the non-working arm either stretched out in front or at your side. Perform this drill in sequences of two lengths, alternating arms with each length. Focus on your elbow bend at the beginning of the pull and on body rotation.
Spend four weeks perfecting these drills by integrating a drill set into each swim workout. Suggested workout:

1. Warm-up: 500 meters/yards
2. 8 x 50 meters/yards of fist and single-arm drills. Take 15 seconds after each 50 to re-focus on doing the drill properly
3. Main set
4. Cool-down: 300-500 meters/yards

Month 3: Integration

Here's where you start to pull it all together. The main drill here is an old favorite of many coaches and swimmers: the catch-up drill.

Catch-up drill
Begin in a streamlined position with both arms extended straight forward, then pull with one arm, leaving the other arm extended in front until you have finished a complete stroke with the working arm. The catch-up drill can help you develop a longer stroke and body position, which will increase your efficiency.
When first doing this drill, it's helpful to keep both arms in front of your head and kick for a few seconds before switching arms. This gives you time to visualize a proper pull with early elbow bending and good rotation during the power phase. If you see your pull is very short when you analyze your video, scrape your thumb on your thigh at the end of your pull during the drill.
Suggested workout:

1. Warm-up: 500 meters/yards
2. 10 x 50 meters/yards catch-up drill. Take 15 seconds after each 50 to re-focus on doing the drill properly
3. Main set: Start to add long sets to build endurance. An example is 3 x 500 descending
4. Cool-down: 300-500 meters/yards

There you have it! Take the journey and break out with a faster and more efficient swim next season.

What Runners Should Know About Protein

By Karla Bruning

Every runner knows they need carbs, but protein is just as crucial to muscle recovery after a workout. It repairs muscle damage, diminishes the effects of cortisol—the so-called “stress” hormone that breaks down muscle—and, when taken with carbohydrates, speeds your body’s ability to replenish its glycogen stores, your all-important energy source for those long runs during marathon season. If you’ve ever "hit the wall" or "bonked" in a marathon, you know what it feels like to deplete your glycogen reserves.

The 30/30 Rule

To gain the full benefits of protein’s power, most sports dieticians and nutritionists recommend getting 10-20 grams of protein within 30 minutes of finishing a run, and some say even sooner—that’s when your muscles are the most receptive to a helping hand.
The amount of protein you eat matters; 10 grams is a baseline and 20 grams is optimal, according to Deborah Shulman, who holds a doctorate in physiology. Much more protein than that won’t do you any good. A 2009 study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that consuming more than 30 grams of protein in a single sitting didn’t help muscles any further than more moderate amounts. Call it the 30/30 Rule: eat less than 30 grams of protein in less than 30 minutes post-run.

Healthy Protein

What kind of protein is best? The folks at the Harvard School of Public Health recommend fish, poultry and beans. Sure, a big juicy steak will do the trick, but it comes with a price: loads of saturated fat. A 3-ounce serving of salmon (about the size of a deck of cards or a woman’s palm) gives you 17 grams of protein and only 2 grams of saturated fat. Beans do fish one better: a cup of cooked lentils has 18 grams of protein and less than 1 gram of fat.

Don’t have the time or inclination to cook up a meal? Many athletes fuel post-run with a smoothie or protein shake. Just be sure to watch those protein amounts—some shakes carry a wallop. According to dietician Matthew Kadey, excess protein, like excess everything else, can be converted into fat.

Carb-to-Protein Ratio

Be sure to hydrate and eat plenty of carbs too. Remember, carbs and protein work together to replenish your glycogen stores more efficiently. The jury is still out on the ideal ratio of carbs to protein, but most sports nutritionists say to aim for a 3:1 or 4:1 ratio for your post-run meal, especially when you’ve run for an hour or longer.

Here’s a handy formula from Running Times magazine to figure out how many carbs you should be eating at mealtime: divide your weight in half. That’s your magic carb number. You can extrapolate your protein intake from there by dividing that number by three or four.

For a 125-pound runner:
63 grams of carbs, 21 grams of protein in a 3:1 ratio
63 grams of carbs, 16 grams of protein in a 4:1 ratio
And when in doubt, just remember the 30/30 Rule: eat less than 30 grams of protein in less than 30 minutes after a run.

NY Running Examiner Karla Bruning is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in dozens of publications.

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A Nutrition Primer for the Day Before the Big Race...

WHAT CAN NUTRITION DO FOR YOU NOW????

(from the Seattle Marathon Association)

Night before the race:
*Choose higher carbohydrate foods. Typically, endurance athletes choose pasta but this could also include rice, potatoes, breads...OK to include moderate, low-fat protein.
*Avoid taking on the challenge of all-you-can eat pasta party
*Drink plenty of fluids (stick with non-caffeinated, non-alcoholic beverages!)
*If you tend to have a sensitive GI tract, avoid salads

Morning of the race:
*Choose something that you've had a chance to test out during your training and you know that you'll be able to tolerate while running/walking
*As a rule, stick to lower fat, higher carbohydrate foods... but watch those foods high in fiber (For me, this means a Power Bar, toast, or banana vs. the Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's)
*Hydrate: 8-16oz about 2 hours before the race.
4-8 oz. immediately before the start
(Some people may be sensitive to the sugar in sports and drinking them right before the race may leave them feeling hypoglycemic at the start. Unless you've tried drinking sports drinks before your training sessions, it may be best to stick to water at this point)

During the race:
*Hydrate: Drink 4-8 oz every 15-20 minutes
DO include sports drinks as part of your hydrating regime. You may want to dilute them by grabbing 1 cup of sports drink and 1 cup of water at each water station.
*Carbohydrates: Try to consume 100-300 calories/hour (or 60-90g carbohydrate/hour), ie, 1 packet of PowerGel or GU/hour or 4-6 cups Gatorade/hour (or a combination of gels and sports drink)
*Watch out for Gels and drinks that you've not tried before! If possible, it's best to stick with what you know!

After the race:
*Consume carbohydrates within the first 20 minutes after the race (ie, fruits, juices, bagels, yogurt)
*As little as 6g protein consumed within 30 minutes of finishing will help stimulate muscle repair and synthesis (This is equivalent to the amount of protein in a carton of yogurt or a sports bar)
*Hydrate: You will need to drink 2 cups fluid/pound body weight that you lost during the event. It may take as long as 24-48 hours for you to rehydrate completely. Choose high carbohydrate drinks such as juices and sports drinks to help replenish your glycogen stores and electrolytes at the same time.
*Treat yourself to a NICE meal after you've had a chance to shower up and rest! Include plenty of complex carbs as well as some protein!