Caring for your painful articulations

4.0 How to strengthen painful joints?

Swimming, a cure for painful joints. Indeed, because of the environment in which it is practised, swimming is a sport that puts very little strain on the body

Initially, the density of the environment and Archimedes' buoyancy mean that you no longer have to carry your own weight. The absence of gravity frees your joints from any weight constraints.

Secondly, as water is a «fluid» rather than a «solid» environment, your joints won't have to absorb any shocks.

4.1 The back

In our daily lives, our back is subjected to a lot of strain. Firstly because of our postures, sometimes due to our working conditions (sitting for several hours, carrying heavy loads, and so on). But mainly by our lack of sporting activity, which puts strain on the back muscles. Everyone has experienced some form of back pain. Sometimes the simple fact of doing some physical activity will do our backs a lot of good

Swimming is the sport most often suggested to people suffering from back pain. There's a good reason for this: the water carries us along, freeing our spine and back from the weight of our body. But be careful how you go about it.

The best way to swim when your back hurts is on your back. In this position, the back muscles are used more than in front swimming. This will help to strengthen your back muscles, without being affected by gravity or the weight of your body, so there is very little risk of injury. On the contrary, the vertebrae are not compressed. In addition, on the back you also work on the ribcage by breathing widely, so the back is stretched and can be more relaxed

The benefit of swimming on your back is also the position of your head. When you swim from the front, you tend to look forward (and so your head is upright), which has the effect of arching your back. This often leads to lower back pain, so if you swim on your stomach, protect your back and keep your head pulled in and your neck stretched out.

4.2 The knees

The knee is a joint that carries all our body weight. The weight is normally equally distributed between the tibia plates. Our knees provide us with stability and mobility, particularly through flexion and extension movements. This joint is often painful, particularly when running, especially for beginners who do too much too quickly. But it can also be painful for more experienced runners who take on too much. Running causes friction between the tendon and the cartilage. This can lead to inflammation. If you're not careful, it can get worse. Each impact of your foot with the ground creates extra weight in the knee, which can be too much if you haven't prepared properly before (warming up, strengthening muscles)

In the water, there's very little to worry about in terms of the knee because, once again, we don't have to carry our weight. Each of our movements is therefore much less traumatic for our body (even if it was incorrectly performed).

The knee can be strengthened in swimming by working the legs. Beating or undulating, on your stomach, on your back, on your sides, don't be afraid to do different things. You can also use flippers. Use shorter ones to get closer to the exact movement but with more energy. Make sure you really use the flippers and don't just use them to do fewer movements, otherwise they'll be less useful. Put some rhythm into it, it will also work your cardio.

Concerning leg movements in breaststroke. As the movement is less natural for the knee because it involves external rotation, it can cause knee pain. It's a very technical movement and is therefore often performed incorrectly. Try avoiding it if you're in pain, or if you have weak knees.

4.3 The shoulders

In swimming, the shoulders are the most commonly used muscles and joints. They are used in every phase of the arm movements, particularly in the crawl, backstroke and butterfly. There are two phases for the arms: a propulsion phase and a forward return phase. These phases are repeated over and over again as you swim. This is why shoulder pain can occur when swimming

The pain can be explained by incorrect technique, which, with the repetition of movements, will lead to pain. In particular, inflammation of the tendon, caused by repeated friction between the tendons and the constituent parts of the shoulder (bones, ligaments). Several pathologies exist and they all have the same symptom: shoulder pain

Pain can also be caused by a sudden increase in training intensity. In this case, the rotator cuff is too weak or too tired to fulfil its role, leading to excessive movement and strain on the joint. The role of the rotator cuff (a group of tendons and muscles) is to stabilise the shoulder joint. In particular, it stabilises the humerus (the arm bone between the shoulder and the elbow) in the glenoid (the joint surface in the shape of a rounded cavity) of the shoulder blade.

It is therefore essential to work on strengthening the shoulder muscles (deltoid and rotator cuff muscles).