Swimming is a sport enjoyed by athletes of all ages. Although it is not commonly associated with a high risk of injury, swimming does have its own problems. For swimmers, the biggest source of sidelining injuries is the shoulder. While there may be a number of underlying causes for shoulder pain, the condition is commonly referred to as “swimmer’s shoulder” or rotator cuff tendonitis. The symptoms associated with this condition include pain in the anterior shoulder and pain that increases with shoulder elevation.
The shoulder is a unique joint, similar to a golf ball on a tee, or a ball and socket joint. The ball is the head of the arm, medically termed as the humerus bone. The socket (or tee) is called the glenoid fossa. The design of the shoulder joint allows the least amount of restriction to movement, which enables the use of arms with greater dexterity than legs. However, this makes the shoulder relatively unstable and prone to injury. A group of four muscles called the rotator cuff, are involved with fine movement of the shoulder. The muscles that comprise the rotator cuff help to correctly position the humerus in the glenoid fossa.
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