What is Swimmer's shoulder?

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If you are a swimmer then you know that shoulder problems can come with the territory. 

The reasons are many but the biggest reasons are related to these two stats:

Ninety percent of the propulsive force in swimming comes from the upper limbs and even more amazing the shoulder can perform 16,000 shoulder revolutions per week which is approximately 2500 revolutions per day (Pink & Tibone 2000).

So it is no wonder that this can lead to lead to injury from repetitive microtrauma.
Pink and Tibone (2000) state that there are many shoulder injuries that exist and generally shoulder problems are reported in 66% of swimmers.


So what is swimmers shoulder?


Swimmers shoulder: Caused by avascular tendinosis, impingement, labral tear or instability (active and passive) (Weldon & Richardson 2001).

So it’s pretty broad then!

However, it’s believed that most shoulder pain is caused by instability. This is because swimming needs an increased shoulder range of motion. Muscle imbalance is created as seen in my previous YouTube videos on this subject. Volume of training leads to fatigue of the stability muscles.

All of this stacks up to reduced stability leading to subluxation of the glenohumeral joint, which, when combined with repetition, leads to inflammation and pain (Weldon & Richardson 2001).
Brushøj, C., et al (2007) found that the most common finding at arthroscopy was labral pathology.

This was 61%.

Next was subacromial impingement, which was 28%.

After this surgery 56% were able to compete at pre-injury level after 2–9 months post-op.

So in summary swimmers shoulder is an umbrella term, most commonly instability caused by Labral issues in the main.

References:

Brushøj, C., et al. "Swimmers' painful shoulder arthroscopic findings and return rate to sports." Scandinavian journal of medicine & science in sports 17.4 (2007): 373-377.

Pink, Marilyn M., and James E. Tibone. "The painful shoulder in the swimming athlete." Orthopedic Clinics of North America 31.2 (2000): 247-261.

Weldon, Edward J., and Allen B. Richardson. "Upper extremity overuse injuries in swimming: a discussion of swimmer's shoulder." Clinics in sports medicine 20.3 (2001): 423-438.

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