Any swimmers out there?

[Space Canoe]

Yeah, I know, we’re all swimmers eventually, but I just started swimming as a means of physical therapy for my elbow, and it's great! I would go out and paddle 25 minutes, seven minute break, 20 minutes; basically one big 600 foot inner circle on the left, and then back again on the right. My elbow wouldn't feel that bad while I was doing it but it would really hurt afterwards. But now I'm swimming; well, a reasonable facsimile of, anyway, since I use a snorkel and fins. I think it's better for my whole body, certainly, and for my elbow as well, for a couple of reasons:
swimming is much more numbingly repetitive, but that's a good thing when you're exercising a specific muscle, I think ;
there's not nearly as huge a difference in torque, as there is during a canoe stroke (between recovery and the "catch" of the power stroke),
and I'm not gripping with my hand and therefore putting tension on my whole forearm as when I do a power stroke. And now I have that warm fuzzy pain of just being basically sore all over, which is as it should be. Can anyone think of a better or equally noninvasive exercise?
Thanks in advance,
Ric Taylor

[Kevin]

Hey, I was haveing Elbow pain after boating for like 2 days in a rwo...like seroius paddlers elbow it sucked, and im 19. @ great things that will help, is a paddle index that goes on the shaft of the paddle and forces your fingers out a little more putting less stress on the elbow..( I notice a huge difference) and wearing a tensor elbow thingy when paddling helps too.

And always Some Vitiman I at the end of the day doesn't hurt if you still do.

If you want more info on the paddle indexers let me know.

Kevin

[Space Canoe]

Kevin;
Yeah, the indexers sound very interesting. Are they like the grips on kayak paddles (seven2, etc), or can you rotate the shaft in your bottom hand as usual? I sent you a private e-mail as well.
Thanks so much for the tip;
Ric

[Randy]

I swim laps using only my legs, in an effort to strengthen the muscles around my knees. I have a variety of ligament damage in my knees, and doing the frog kick for several laps every week seems to prevent knee pain.

The medical types tell me that when my muscles get slack, the worn ligaments take more strain and become inflamed. The swimming exercise keeps this from happening. Bicycling works too.

[Space Canoe]

Randy;
thanks, that's quite helpful, actually. I try the frog kick when I'm not sharing a lane, which is fairly rarely, unfortunately. I would think it might help you in keeping your legs spread apart, as well. It seems to me to be much harder to do, hopefully because I haven't done it, and not because of flexibility problems. But I think I'll try and incorporate it more from now on. Do the doctors confirm that theory or does it just seem to work for you? I also try to do a semi-butterfly stroke at the same time which seems to work my shoulders and a different way, and hurt my elbow much more.
Thanks again,
RT

[Randy]

Space Canoe,

The first time I damaged a knee (motorcycle and cadillac crash many years ago... I was on the motorcycle) one of my knee ligaments ripped partially through, in a location that was difficult to repair. The doctor involved suggested that I opt for physical therapy to beef up the muscles and take a load off of the ligaments - instead of having surgery on the damaged ligament. It worked well. I think that is where I first heard of the concept of muscle strength versus ligament repair.

Since then, I have taken the same approach with several minor knee injuries. I can always tell if I have been slacking for too long, because my knees start to ache all the time. If I exercise my legs with a bicycle or by swimming, I have little or no chronic pain.

Worth noting: I had a physical therapist for awhile that seemed to be really good at making my knees hurt. I am still convinced, years later, that I did the right thing by bailing out on that therapist. Swimming and bicycling do not hurt while I am doing the exercise, and my knees don't hurt afterward.

Hope this helps,

Randy