Caleb Roundy

English 12
Mrs. Freestone
1/19/16
Competitive Swimming and Joint Problems
Many people have done studies and researched what kinds of things can effect
competitive swimmers negatively and if things such as weight training and stretching can
improve these problems that competitive swimmers experience. Swimming has often been
connected with increasing joint health and increased stability, but this is not a fact especially
when it comes to competitive swimming. There have been various studies proving the correlation
of competitive swimming to various joint problems and even decreased stability in the joints of a
swimmer which I have personally experienced throughout my years of swimming.
There have been extensive studies and research done on how competitive swimming can
effect the joints of a person. Many people have found evidence that supports the idea that
competitive swimming can cause joint problems. Many Swimmers have reported joint issues in
the most common problem areas of the shoulders, knees, and spine. Even though there have been
other reported areas of causing problems with swimmers joints, they do not occur as often or as
seriously as these three areas. A study was done that reported shoulder pain [effected] 47% of
10 to 18 year old swimmers.(Heinlen, Cosgarea) It is not a coincidence that swimmers get
shoulder pain at such an extreme rate. So many swimmers have shoulder pain that it must be due
to something that they are all doing outside of their reported swimming or the competitive
swimming itself which is the most logical conclusion. In the same study, it was reported that the
underlying cause of pain may be tendonitis, instability, impingement, labral tears, or

symptomatic os acromiale.(Heinlen, Cosgarea) All of these things correlate with things that
swimmers perform daily. A couple of these things include excessive rotation of the shoulders and
muscle fatigue which occur regularly to swimmers considering that a high school swimmer can
perform between 1 and 2 million shoulder rotations in a year. Shoulder impingement, also known
as tendonitis, is a case in which the acromion which is the top part of the shoulder bone pinches
the tendons on the shoulder beneath it. This can cause various amounts of pain in a swimmer and
can lead to other more serious injuries such as arthritis. Excessive rotations of the arm can also
cause a labral tear in some cases. The labrum is a cuff of cartilage that lies on the end of the
humerus or shoulder bone. This cartilage is there to hold the shoulder joint together because the
shoulder is not stable enough on its own. When this cartilage gets torn due to overuse from a
swimmer, it will cause them extreme pain in the shoulder area and may prevent them from being
able to swim.
Another issue that many swimmers have reported is decreased stability in particular
effective joints, most often of which was the shoulders. Swimmers often have decreased stability
in the shoulder region because swimmers tend to develop hypermobile joints as the extra reach
achieved from this is advantageous to a swimming stroke. A hypermobile joint is a joint that can
stretch further than a normal joint. Hypermobile joints often give a person an unusually large
range of motion in that particular area. Hypermobile joints are either genetic or created by a
person when it is particularly advantageous to something that the person does. Swimmers even
create micro-tears in their shoulder joint to meet the demand for greater mobility in their
strokes.(SwimSwam) these micro-tears and hypermobility cause the shoulder joint to weaken
and loose stability. The shoulder joint becomes loose so that it can extend further when
swimming which makes the shoulder joint much more susceptible to injury. Hypermobility can

also occur in the knees of a swimmer as it increases the distance the foot travels during the
kicking motion. This is because the hypermobile joint, when extended, will move past a straight
line and bend in the opposite direction. This can be extremely dangerous when a person is doing
exercises such as squats. It is recommended that people with hypermobility in their knees do not
lock out there legs when doing a squat because locking out the knees when they bend past
normal, or more that 180 degrees, creates a lot of instability in the knees.
Competitive swimming does have negative effect on the joints of a person as proven in
this essay. Not only does the repetition of the rotation in the shoulder joint significantly increase
the risk of such diseases as tendonitis or shoulder impingement syndrome, it also creates
hypermobility in a swimmers joints which loosens the joint and increases the risk of injury. It
creates a point of instability in a swimmer that can be detrimental to their physical health and
cause serious pain. It is no coincidence the overuse and fatigue a swimmer creates on their body
can cause such impediments so often that terms have been coined such as swimmers shoulder
and breaststrokers knee.

Bibliography
-Strength training with hyper-mobile joints. SwimSwam. 13, September 2015. Print
This article is about the tendency of swimmers to develop hyper mobile joints, or the
ability to hyper rotate joints, as it can be advantageous to swimming. However, this causes a
greater risk of hurting or tearing the joint tissue when doing things such as strength training.
Swimmers even create micro-tears in their shoulder joint to meet the demand for greater
mobility in their strokes.
an increase in joint mobility can be accompanied by a decrease in joint stability.

-Meakins, Adam. Hypermobility and sport. The sports physio. 19, August 2012. Print
This article talks about what exactly hypermobility is and what good as well as bad can
come with is. It tells us about the things in which it can be advantageous as well as harmful. It als
talks about a way that can tell you is you have hypermobile joints.
affects the connective tissue in our bodies.
General consensus is exercises that are best for HMS are non or low impact.
this excessive movement and lack of control around the joint can then produce arthralgia or
joint pain believed to be from the shearing (side to side) forces that the joint experiences in dayto-day movements.