Outer arm pain after swimming?
Hi all-- Looking for advice and input on a new-to-me injury, wondering if anyone else has experienced it and what you did to fix/prevent it. I've been swimming 3x/week ~2500 yards per session for the last couple months with no issues. Then-after swimming two days in a row last week, slightly more yardage than I'd been doing, later in the day I had pain on the outside of my arm about halfway between elbow and shoulder. Best guess is it's the origin of the brachialis muscle as there was also pain toward the elbow in the muscle belly itself--but no pain in bicep, triceps, or shoulder. It feels like there's a little nodule in there that is painful when I press on it and slips under my finger like a little pebble. I took a few days off of swimming but that little trigger point is still there, though the rest of the muscle feels ok now.
I have been working on my stroke this year and had been focusing on high elbow catch. My thought process was to get a long arm reach (initiated from the hips and core), then break at the wrist/elbow to bring my forearm towards vertical (but not past that to avoid over-rotating the shoulder), then "climb the ladder" using the lats in the pull phase. I'm wondering if that much rotation from the elbow before starting to pull with the last was asking too much of the brachialis/arm muscles to stabilize that position during the power phase of the stroke?
Thanks for any input!!
Carole
Comments
Hey Carole,
Bummer about the setback. Hopefully it's short-lived. When I read tweaking stroke, increased volume and back-to-back days, I immediately suspected the cause is in there. When I go back-to-back days, I have to take it pretty easy on Day #2, unless I've already built my weekly mileage up near 15k.
Thus, most likely some combo of flexion and strength/fitness/fatigue. Not many people have the flexibility to do a high-elbow catch, and almost none of us non-elite, lifetime swimmers has the bendiness to pull off the EVF (early vertical forearm). In short, trying to get your forearm vertical BEFORE the shoulder, elbow and and hand line up underneath you and point straight down, could be troublesome. The other thing I try to do, FWIW, is once I've made the catch and my upper arm and forearm are at ~90 degrees, I pretend I'm trying to pop a water balloon in my armpit (engaging the back and chest), rather than pulling with the bicep/tricep (and probably that brachia thing you mentioned).
There are lots of poolside and dry-land stretches and exercises you can do. Sounds like some internal/external shoulder rotation tubing or light weight exercises might be beneficial, but I'm certainly no PT, so research/ask before blindly taking my babble for gospel.
As for stretching, Sheila Taormina recommends extending your arms straight out in front of you on every wall push-off, one hand clasped over the other, stretching them as high above your head as you can go. That's a couple hundred small stretches every pool session, and I've been doing that for a couple of years. I do the same thing out of the pool, pushing lightly against the top of a door jam. At my desk, I can outstretch both arms, shoulder width apart, both palms flat, then roll the elbow up as if I'm starting the catch. Same thing on a physio ball: palm flat down on the very top, roll it forward, feel the stretch as the elbow rotates up and the hand/forearm roll forward. The goal is to be able to lay flat on the ground/table, outstretch the arms one hand clasped over the other, and be able to lift your hands/arms above your head at least 10 degrees. Anything short of that, high-elbow is gonna be really tough.
Hope it clears up soon. In the meantime, I would take any frustration out on your bike.
I also have a PT appointment already for Weds, so I'll add whatever advice I get from him in case anyone else is playing along at home.
Update: PT diagnosed me in about 2 seconds as having an aggrivated radial nerve. While this sounds like something only I would do, in case anyone else has pain here after swimming:
the treatment was: in PT he did some gentle releases (like ART but with less pressure) all along the length of the nerve, some active and some passive arm movements, putting pressure on the nerve tract from where it comes out under the collarbone, around the back of the armpit, and down the bicep.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY6kJS6xHJ4
At home, nerve flossing, similar to:
While he warned that nerves can take longer than muscles to settle back down, but after a week of nagging pain it was pretty much better the next day.
I also made an appointment with a swim coach who IDed two points in my entry/catch where I could be overusing the arm muscles, leading to the pain with overuse. Issue 1 was that my entry was a bit wide and low, setting me up to overuse the shoulder so she had me practice entering straight ahead of the shoulder just under the waterline. Issue 2 was when I was dropping my hand/forearm for the catch, I was also lifting my elbow at the same time, so she had me practice just lowering the wrist/hand/forearm while keeping the elbow static (and high in the water).
Hopefully will not return!!! Thanks all!
Hey Carole,
Good news that he found the source and that you'll hopefully find a good long-term solution.
FWIW, in terms of hand placement at the catch, I try to visualize that my hand actually doesn't move at all through the water between catch and the end of the pull. Instead, once the hand catches straight in front of the shoulder (hand maybe 8-12 inches below the water), my body rotates forward across that stationary hand, which then exits at the hip. Kinda like a stationary oar with the boat moving forward across it. This tends to help me reach in the right location, no s-curving through the pull, and no wide recovery. Again, FWIW.
MR
@William, thanks for the good vibes.