Tips From The Trainers: Safer Summer Swimming
By Chris Jeppson, MS, SCAT
Swimming isn’t merely a summertime activity for some dedicated humans mimicking the dolphin lifestyle – AKA the swimming and diving teams. This group, and cross-training athletes from other sports, get into a pool year-round to stay in proper shape and build endurance.
However, when the days get longer and the water warms up, the less dedicated flock to the beaches, lakes and pools to enjoy a glamorized, less-demanding version of the sport in its various forms.
Especially for casual swimmers, muscles, tendons, and ligaments will be largely unprepared for intense activity (water offers 12-times more resistance than air to move through). This increases the likelihood of summer sports injuries.
Similarly, a lack of familiarity with proper procedures and safety precautions increases the likelihood of traumatic injuries. Even if you swim at a pool with a lifeguard, accidents happen.
This article will highlight top risks and what can be done to prevent the associated summer sports injuries.
TOP RISKS FOR INJURY IN SWIMMING & DIVING.
To summarize, swimmers are more prone to stress injuries affecting muscles, tendons, and ligaments; whereas divers are more likely to suffer traumatic accidents. Let’s take a look at common swimming injuries first.
Swimming: Shoulder Injuries
Swimming requires a great deal of upper body strength and, consequently, places a large amount of stress on the upper body. The shoulders can develop rotator cuff impingement over time.
When the arm is lifted during swimming activity, it places strong pressure on the rotator cuff and may cause instability or tendonitis within the rotator cuff.
The best way to prevent these injuries is by building up muscles and tendon strength within the rotator cuff and shoulder; try incorporating stretches and exercises that target the shoulder into your workout routine.
Swimming: Back Injuries
Swimming can also be a source of injury and pain within the back. This is especially the case among butterfly swimmers. Butterfly strokes involve arching the back continuously to propel the body through the water, which can result in injury and intense pain in the lower back.
To prevent these injuries, focus on technique – swimming is ALL about technique, but especially this stroke: keep your head down and aligned with your spine. Also, be sure to always stretch and warm up before back-intensive activity.
Swimming: Knee Injuries
While many people would associate knee injuries more with high-impact running activities than a sport like swimming; indeed, cross-training athletes hop into the pool to get a rest from the pounding their knees take while pounding out the miles.
Certain swim strokes are frequently responsible for summer sports injuries. Most notably, breaststroke swimmers suffer knee injuries enough that a specific knee stress injury bears its name: “breaststroke knee”. The knee rotation involved in the whipping, kicking motion can create intense stress on the knee which, in turn, can strain and injure the MCL (medial collateral ligament).
The best way to avoid knee injuries while swimming is to alternate between different swim strokes and strengthen the hamstrings, quadriceps, and knee ligaments and tendons through targeted exercises.
Diving: Neck Injuries
July is the number one month for diving injuries by a wide margin. In 2013 alone, 25,832 patients were treated in emergency rooms for injuries caused by diving activity. The majority of these injuries were neck injuries, generally caused by diving into shallow water headfirst. To avoid these injuries, never dive into water of shallow or unknown depth.
Diving: Spinal Injuries
1,800 spinal cord injuries are suffered annually due to swimming and diving activity. Spinal cord injuries suffered while diving often result in paralysis.
Prevention measures include only diving in water of sufficient depth and only diving off of the end of diving boards (rather than the middle).
From this blog (https://blog.helphopelive.org/2016/07/21/diving-safety-2016/)
I share some great advice:
“If you can’t see through it, don’t dive into it.”
Death: The Greatest Injury
It was made heart-breakingly clear to our community recently that playing in water can kill when a young man attending Coker College drowned. Please, if you can’t swim – learn. If you aren’t a capable swimmer, wear a life jacket.
Swimming and summer are some of the best ways to make lifelong memories. Make those memories happy by staying as safe as possible – and wear sunscreen!