rotator cuff misery

rtk said:

Is there another solution, less radical, but permitting me to continue swimming even half as much?

Have you tried Larry's stroke modifications (Birmingham feather, etc.) to reduce impingement
while stroking?

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

"rtk" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I don't know how I managed to escape injury to my rotator cuff during 26 years of hard (for me)
swimming, but now I'm making up for lost time. The doc recommended surgery which digs out a bit of
bone, making more space for the tendon. I'm loathe to do any such thing. Is there another
solution, less radical, but permitting me to continue swimming even half as much?

I'd appreciate any info or opinions or suggestions.

Ruth Kazez

Have the surgery - my wife did and it only took 6 weeks to get back to near perfect.

I've got a rotator cuff injury too but haven't done anything about it (I'm just getting over
crutiate ligament re-attatchment and don't want more surgery). I've been slightly struggling for
over a year now and although it's getting slightly better I know I'm not pulling as I should on my
left side.

I repeat - Have the surgery sonner rather than later.

Just my 2p's

Wayne
--
DrClean www.DrClean.co.uk The Best Fabric Cleaning Resource on the Web

No. Where can I find it?

Ruth Kazez

Donal Fagan said:

Have you tried Larry's stroke modifications (Birmingham feather, etc.) to reduce impingement while
stroking?

rtk said:

No. Where can I find it?

I've described some of it here:

donalfagan.comshoulder.htmlOpen ↗

particularly under the Impingement page.

Larry has an article on the feather stroke somewhere. I'm sure he'll post oodles of info.

BTW, I'm returning to Altoona, so I might see you cycling the roads after all.

Donal Fagan AIA Donal@DonalO'Fagan.com (Anglicise the name to reply by e-mail)

"rtk" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I don't know how I managed to escape injury to my rotator cuff during 26 years of hard (for me)
swimming, but now I'm making up for lost time. The doc recommended surgery which digs out a bit of
bone, making more space for the tendon. I'm loathe to do any such thing. Is there another
solution, less radical, but permitting me to continue swimming even half as much?

I'd appreciate any info or opinions or suggestions.

Ruth Kazez

I agree surgery should be one of the last options, but in my case it was the option that worked. I'd
tried modifying my stroke and six months of physical therapy. Finally had the surgery
arthroscopically. That was four years ago (I'm 46) and my shoulder has been perfect ever since...no
reduction in strength or range of motion, and there's been no pain at all. But I think this is just
to say that surgery CAN work in the right situation. There's no telling if my situation mirrors
yours in any way. Good luck!

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

The doc recommended surgery which digs out a bit of bone, making more

space for the tendon. I'm loathe to do any such thing.<<

The surgery you are probably talking about is relatively minor. It usually involves shaving off the
underside of the acromion (called "acromioplasty"😉 and maybe shaving off the bottom of the
coraco-acromial ligament and perhaps doing something to mitigate bursitis, if present. You recover
from the procedure very quickly (don't let them do a joint capsular shrinkage procedure without
getting a second opinion, if this is proposed). The problem is that it can then take easily a year
to recover ... not from the surgery but from the pre-existing damage done to your rotator cuff
tendon, which has a very poor blood supply.

When you come back, by all means be certain to use shoulder-friendly technique.

Larry Weisenthal

Certitude is poison; curiosity is life

Larry Weisenthal wrote:

The problem is that it can

Quoted message said:

then take easily a year to recover ... not from the surgery but from the pre-existing damage done
to your rotator cuff tendon, which has a very poor blood supply.

Does that mean that without surgery the damage to the rotator cuff would take even longer than a
year to diminish , even if I did everything to avoid hurting myself? I've been retrieving all my old
bad and undestructive stroke faults, thinking maybe it's my silly habit of fixing what isn't broke
in my swimming that caused this problem after so many painless years of swimming. I also have an
appointment with a chiropractor, hoping maybe the arm can be bent out of its nasty shape into
something more useful and less painful. I'm not burdened with optimism about this but I've had some
nasty surgery experience - as I recall having told you a couple years ago - so I'd welcome a nice
little effective placebo if I could find one. I looked on your website for the techniques mentioned
in another post. I didn't find them, but I did find some extremely reassuring clips of loping. Why
oh why did I work so hard at almost ridding myself of doing that!

Ruth Kazez

Donal Fagan said:

donalfagan.comshoulder.htmlOpen ↗ ......BTW, I'm returning to Altoona, so I might see
you cycling the roads after all

. I just looked at your site. Very helpful! Internal rotation is now my enemy. If I remember
accurately Counsilman, in his first book The Science of Swimming, described internal rotation as
good and necessary for the perfect stroke.

I rode almost half way to Altoona today, one of our rare unrainy days.

Ruth Kazez

Larry Weisenthal said:

Regarding technique: Donal did a great job of explaining it on his

website. I published a two part series on this in the Spring/Summer issues of Swimming Technique,
2001, and a summary on the ASCA website:

Quoted message said:

swimmingcoach.orgasm20010218.aspOpen ↗

What an incredible amount of information in one little article. Why weren't those tests performed
here?! I was major positive on the second one. Today, I'm going to stop all breathing to my left and
follow as many other suggestions as I can. Recovering palms down in fly won't be easy. Not giving my
freestyle an emphatic long finish will be a big change as well. No more stretched entry. This is
going to be a challenging swim. Thank you!

Ruth Kazez