With the weather heating up, it means that open water swimming season is just around the corner. While you may be raring to slide back into your wetsuit and straight into those waves, it is essential to consider some of the different muscle groups that are necessary to help you swim those long distances and reduce your risk of injury.  

The ‘rotator cuff’ is a collection of 4 muscles, subscapularis, supraspinatus, infraspinatus and teres minor, that are integral in providing the majority of the active support to your shoulder joint. Swimming involves repetitive movement through many different planes of the joint. This can place stress on your joint, ligaments, tendons, muscles and all the other structures in your shoulder. If your body does not have the appropriate strength and control, this can lead to injury. 

Injury, at any age, to the rotator cuff is common. This can range from some discomfort towards the end of your session to an injury that requires some relative rest out of the water. Fortunately the rotator cuff is a group of muscles that responds very well to physiotherapy. 

There are many exercises that the team at Performance Medicine can guide you through if you are experiencing any shoulder symptoms or if you are interested in strengthening for injury prevention. Majority of the exercises are easy to learn, require very little equipment and may even help you drop some of those crucial seconds in the water. 

Now is the perfect time to start your exercises to make sure that you will be ready to go at the start line and not one of the team members minding the bags at the finish.

~ Rhea Torres