Mid-September I got a shoulder injury. I typically only
go to the physical therapist when a pain gets so bad it affects my daily life.
When I woke up and it hurt like hell to even lift my arm I knew it was time to
go in. Turns out I had bicipital tendinitis which was caused because of my
horrible swim form. Few visits of getting dry needles and taped and many many
week of PT exercises and more exercise from Katie and I am FINALLY all better. Only
took about two months…
During those two months my swims were pretty much limited to short, easy and form focused. I’ve never thought about the way my arms moved through the water so much. First it was about learning how to properly move them and how to keep my elbows up and use the right muscles. That took a long time to figure out. It felt so awkward. Over time it slower turned into something I didn’t have to think about so much but something that felt more natural. Now, I’m not saying my swim stroke is perfect. It’s still far from but I can see how much it’s changed for the better during that time.
This week I finally started getting back into some normal swimming and some hard sets. And you know what you guys… I think I’m faster! I was so concerned that I lost fitness from swimming so much less that it didn’t occur to me that fixing my stroke would make me more efficient and therefore faster. That’s the funny thing about swimming. You can be super strong and in super good shape but if you have a crappy stroke, you are wasting a whole lot of energy going nowhere fast. You have to be both strong and efficient to be fast.
I’m not saying I didn’t realize all of this before but it really clicked for me this week. Trying to improve your form in anything is very difficult. It’s actually hard work, mostly mentally because it can be so frustrating and feel so weird. But I can visibly see the results from improving form and it makes me want to continue working hard to improve all the other things that I know I do wrong. Yes it will suck and yes it will be uncomfortable for a long time but in the end it will pay off.
And this doesn’t just apply to swimming. I tend to be injury prone from running and I know part of that is due to not having perfect form. It’s far better than when I first started running but I know my legs and feet still do some weird things. Irrelevant if fixing those issues makes me a faster runner, I simply want to fix them so I can stop getting injured. I have knee and hip pains that constantly come and go and for the most part those are manageable. Those aren’t so much injuries as they are just nagging pains. Now I have an injury with my Achilles tendon which is not that manageable and hurts to simply walk.
All I want is to be pain free, even for just a week would be fantastic. I’m sick of trading one injury for another. It’s time to do the work to prevent injuries instead of treating them. Time for lots and lots of drills and constantly analyzing how my body is moving and grinding my teeth while foam rolling. I can’t be the ironman I hope to be with a beaten down body.
During those two months my swims were pretty much limited to short, easy and form focused. I’ve never thought about the way my arms moved through the water so much. First it was about learning how to properly move them and how to keep my elbows up and use the right muscles. That took a long time to figure out. It felt so awkward. Over time it slower turned into something I didn’t have to think about so much but something that felt more natural. Now, I’m not saying my swim stroke is perfect. It’s still far from but I can see how much it’s changed for the better during that time.
This week I finally started getting back into some normal swimming and some hard sets. And you know what you guys… I think I’m faster! I was so concerned that I lost fitness from swimming so much less that it didn’t occur to me that fixing my stroke would make me more efficient and therefore faster. That’s the funny thing about swimming. You can be super strong and in super good shape but if you have a crappy stroke, you are wasting a whole lot of energy going nowhere fast. You have to be both strong and efficient to be fast.
I’m not saying I didn’t realize all of this before but it really clicked for me this week. Trying to improve your form in anything is very difficult. It’s actually hard work, mostly mentally because it can be so frustrating and feel so weird. But I can visibly see the results from improving form and it makes me want to continue working hard to improve all the other things that I know I do wrong. Yes it will suck and yes it will be uncomfortable for a long time but in the end it will pay off.
And this doesn’t just apply to swimming. I tend to be injury prone from running and I know part of that is due to not having perfect form. It’s far better than when I first started running but I know my legs and feet still do some weird things. Irrelevant if fixing those issues makes me a faster runner, I simply want to fix them so I can stop getting injured. I have knee and hip pains that constantly come and go and for the most part those are manageable. Those aren’t so much injuries as they are just nagging pains. Now I have an injury with my Achilles tendon which is not that manageable and hurts to simply walk.
All I want is to be pain free, even for just a week would be fantastic. I’m sick of trading one injury for another. It’s time to do the work to prevent injuries instead of treating them. Time for lots and lots of drills and constantly analyzing how my body is moving and grinding my teeth while foam rolling. I can’t be the ironman I hope to be with a beaten down body.
No comments:
Post a Comment