Heidi help

[swimmerandy31]

Hi,

I am a swimmer of 32 years of age and do a lot of front crawl distance. I have had a shoulder inpingement of the left superstanitus and insterpinatus (poor spelling) this occured after i slipped and bashed my left shoulder then later in the day did a deltoi stretch and felt a pop.

My physio said it was the above inpingment from a weak postier shoujlder muscles. Since then i did a lot of exernal 90/90 work with weights and a band and normal external work wth a cable machine. I have also used a scapula hold with dumbells and lat pull down seat row etc.

Good news is there is no pain anymore but when i do a 90/90 internal rotation i feel and hear a click/grate on the anterior near the pec / collarbone area when i bring the arm up toears an external position.

I tried swimming the other day and there was a sight niggle in that area as i bring the arm over the water and stretch out although i only did 50 metres.

My phyio also thinks i jhave a body imbalance and need to do some work such as t push ups, push ups on a swiss ball etc to get a balance back.

My question is why is there residual clicking and grating and yet no pain and is it ok to begin to swim again even if i mix freestyle with backstroke and drills etc?

or do i need to do more shoulder stability work on the external rotators etc.

[Heidi]

It depends on what it is that's clicking! Generally if there is no pain it's not something you need to majorly worry about, although it does indicate that something isn't quite right with the mechanics of the shoulder joint - which is most likely due to muscle imbalances. Obviously I can't tell you what these may be without seeing your shoulder. Speak to your Physio
Give swimming a try - provided it doesn't hurt and you mix it up like you say then it should be ok and will even help to strengthen the joint.