A Swim-pressive Sport
Competitive swimming is a physically demanding sport that requires strength, endurance, speed, and agility. Training includes repetitive drills to develop effective stroke techniques. Most swimming injuries are caused by overuse and/or faulty stroke mechanics.
A Deeper Dive into Swimming Injuries
Common injuries include:
- “Swimmer’s Shoulder”: injury to the muscles, tendons, ligaments, or cartilage in the shoulder joint
- “Swimmer’s Knee”: injury to the muscles, tendons, ligaments, or cartilage in the knee joint
- Neck and low back pain
Water the Causes of Swimming Injuries?
- Overtraining
- Poor stroke mechanics
- Poor breathing technique
- Poor flexibility or range of motion
- Decreased muscle strength
- Poor core strength or stability
How Can Physiotherapy Help Your Rehab Go Swimmingly?
At PlayWorks Physio, we can help provide education on proper warm up and cool down strategies, to improve or prevent injuries. Our physiotherapists can create a plan to improve flexibility, strength, endurance and improve stroke mechanics. Addressing all of these areas can help prevent future injuries and pain. In addition to the repetitive nature of swimming, kids are constantly growing and their bodies are changing. This makes them more prone to different types of pain and injuries! We always suggest addressing pain sooner, to have faster recovery and prevent more severe injury.
If you have a swimmer who is experiencing pain, has a current/recurring injury or you want to be preventative, you can book your Initial Assessment here.
Written by: Melanie Touhey, Interim Physiotherapist
