Treating and preventing breaststroke knee?

January 5, 2016 3:01 AM

I've recently added some breaststroke swimming to my fitness routine, which previously just consisted of road cycling, walking and a little yoga. Now my knee is hurting. YANMD, and YANMSwimmingCoach, but how can fix this and stop it happening again?

I started swimming again, after about fifteen years without swimming at all, in mid December and I last swam on Sunday morning. My knee felt fine in the pool, but for most of yesterday and today I've had a niggling pain just below and to the inside of my right kneecap. I can bear weight on the knee fine; it only hurts when I bend it a few certain ways like going up/down stairs.

So far all I've done is rest, ibuprofen and about fifteen minutes with an ice pack yesterday evening. My intention when I feel OK to swim again is to try to stick to front crawl rather than breaststroke, and possibly join a masters club for some coaching to make sure there's nothing harmful in my technique. Is it worth me seeing a doctor or a physio about this, or are they only going to tell me what I already know?

posted by A Robot Ninja to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

I took up swimming as serious exercise a while back and for the first few weeks I felt great except for this weird pain in the back of my neck. I was like, "Goddammit, swimming isn't supposed to hurt and this sucks and this is why I hate exercising."

I was getting out of the pool one day when the lifeguard asked if I had a neck injury and I thought he was a supergenius because he could tell.

He said I was holding my face in the water awkwardly and quickly demonstrated how to position my face and neck so I wasn't torquing my neck constantly.

TLDR: ask a lifeguard to evaluate your stroke. They can immediately spot what you're doing wrong.

**Also--beware of foot cramping if you start wearing flippers on your feet when doing the crawl. AGONIZING.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 3:16 AM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Best answer: You say we are NYSC, but it appears you do not have a swim coach.

So get one! As YISYIW notes, someone on deck can often spot a quirk in your stroke and fix it. And the breaststroke kick is one of the toughest things to really get right. (Mine is a constant work in progress.)

I am a huge fan of masters programs- if you're in the US, you can find places to swim here here.
posted by susiswimmer at 6:16 AM on January 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, and I think no need for a doc yet- just RICE and ibuprofen. If it persists for awhile or gets worse (such as trouble bearing weight) then go. I'm also a huge fan of the "how much does this interfere with your daily life" test for ortho or sports injuries. If it doesn't really interfere, no need to see the doc yet.
posted by susiswimmer at 6:23 AM on January 5, 2016

I just went to see an ortho doc today for what sounds like a similar pain. Kneecap, interior side, underneath. Got diagnosed with patellofemoral syndrome after an x-ray. My knee would give out suddenly with a burst of pain, and sometimes I could feel something popping. I got referred to PT and a prescription for an NSAID. The PT is optional with mine, but i do need to do some exercises.

SO, IANAD, and IANYD, and if it gets worse or doesn't get better after a couple of weeks, I'd recommend getting it checked out to see if it is something worse.
posted by Stewriffic at 11:20 AM on January 5, 2016

Best answer: When did you learn this stroke? For a while (in the early 80s?) they switched from teaching the frog kick to a whip kick. Then they realized that the whip kick was really bad for knees. If your kick involves keeping your thighs roughly together, and rotating your lower legs out and around, that's a whip kick. A frog kick involved your thighs coming apart and back together during the kick. That's the better one for your knees. As you've been told above, a swim coach can see what you're doing and fix it.

As far as what to do now, I concur that you can basically self test and see a doc if it interferes with daily living or gets worse. But after you get back in the pool, I would see a coach no matter what stroke you use. It's so helpful.

And awesome on you for swimming. Such a great way to stay fit and sane.
posted by Capri at 9:28 PM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for all the advice. There's definitely an element of whip kicking in my technique (I learnt as a kid in the early 90s, if that makes a difference) so when I went back to the pool today I concentrated on frog kicking rather than whip kicking. While it felt much less effective, it hasn't left me feeling any discomfort despite ending up swimming further than last time.

The rest, I think, will come with practice despite my impatience but I'll definitely look into some local Masters clubs to see if any are a good fit for me.
posted by A Robot Ninja at 3:51 PM on January 6, 2016