Swimming

[jwtoto]

Hi my brothers and sisters,

After doing a search of the topics here I came up empty handed when I looked for any detailed information about swimming in post op training. Time in the pool doing swimming has been a major element in my rehab so far. I started out with the notion that doing the breast stroke kick was the best and only stroke to use to rehab with (I thought that Dr. Su had told me that before I left NYC?!? Maybe I was still high on pain killers then.).

Now that I am getting stronger (week 9 now) I started experimenting with other kicks. Low and behold I find that dolphin, free style, and back stroke kicks are easier than breast stroke kick for me. Today I started really trying to get my glide going and did my entire workout with 15 stroke per length free style, which felt really good. Each length started with four dolphin kicks under water. I don't have any groin pain and I actually feel better than when I was doing strictly breast stroke. My effort level is still in the easy range but knowing that I can do my favorite strokes without hurting myself was reassuring and makes me feel good about my next pool workout.

I'd really like to hear from other swimmers about how you work out, what your progress was like from when you started swimming again and how your hip feels with the different kicks.

                                         Later,

                                                Jerry

[halfdone]

Hi Jerry
I'm a swimmer.  My surgeon's advice was to not start breaststroke kick until 3 months or so.  I started swimming soon after the op, initially open turns before going back to flip turns then building into "normal" workouts.  I found fin kicking (fr, bk, fly) very helpful for strengthening my hips again.  I was back to "full speed" in about 6 months, though I was cautious and progressive in building back up to competition grab starts, building these back up in the 6-12 month post op period.  As far as breaststroke is concerned, I noticed that I was slightly uncoordinated and had poor adductor and abductor strength, so I continued regular PT on this for the 6-24 months post op.  (I had obviously lost a lot of mobility and strength in the 4-5 years of compromised hip pre-op.)  Good news is that I'm now doing BR PRs. ("Wierdstroke" has never been my favorite - I swim it mainly for IMs.)

Happy swimming!