Happy Friday!

Any exciting plans this weekend??

Fall is my family’s favorite season. No, it’s not the pumpkin spice (although it is pretty darn good)… But really though, we love Fall because it’s football season. We have our favorite teams (Chiefs, Browns, Steelers, and Raiders for NFL and Longhorns for college) but we don’t discriminate. Football is on tv from Thursday through Monday and we’ll watch any and all of it. Anyone else obsessed with football??

Anyway, let’s get started on your biweekly tips and tricks to becoming a better, faster, and more resilient swimmer.

I’ve Got A Kink In My Neck!

Raise your hand if that’s you. We’ve all had those annoying kinks in our neck where you need to turn your entire body 180 degrees just to check your blind spot while driving.

Why do we get these kinks out of the blue? Well, sometimes it’s a sneeze gone wrong. Other times, it’s poor swimming mechanics.

So what leads to these kinks and neck pain? There are several reasons why you might be experiencing neck pain after swimming. Here are a few:

1. You’re over-rotating at the neck. Rather than rotating your neck with your torso to breathe (think rolling a pencil between your fingers), you lack trunk rotation so you end up rotating in segments or you simply don’t rotate enough at the trunk. This forces you to compensate and over-rotate at the neck while maintaining a relatively flat position with your trunk. Because of this, you may be going into end ranges of neck rotation in order to breathe.

2. You look forward instead of down. It’s natural to want to see where you’re going, especially when you’re trying to avoid hitting your head on the wall. But doing so is going to cost you in efficiency, as well as pain. Prolonged neck extension may cause overuse of various neck extensor muscles resulting in stiffness, pain, and general discomfort.

3. You pick your head up out of the water to breathe. This is kind of a combination of 1 and 2. When you pick your head up out of the water to breathe, you’re likely also looking forward and over-rotating at the neck. When you combine both motions, your head automatically lifts out of the water when you rotate for a breath. Doing this excessively will give you some neck (and upper back) issues down the line.

Alright, so I gave you some reasons why you’re dealing with neck pain. Here are a few things you can do to bring some relief to that neck.

1:1 Coaching on Skillest would be a perfect place to get technique analysis to see what you’re doing wrong and get feedback so you finally swim correctly.

Click here to get started for a free discovery call if you need guidance on how to improve your strength and swimming!

Looking for general month-long strength, mobility, or swim programs? Use code SUMMEREND15 to get 15% off. Offer ends tomorrow, 9/30.

Also, if you like Fall because of pumpkin spice, you’ll need to check this collection out!

As always, let me know what you thought by replying to this email. What did you enjoy reading? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? I love sharing the wealth of knowledge and I want to make sure you find it valuable.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Until next time,

Sandra

The Swimmer’s Doc

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