Effect of Two Preventive Exercise Programs for Swimmer's Shoulder on the Torque of Shoulder Rotator Muscles in Competitive Swimmers

Twice a week, over 12-weeks, the weight program group carried out a strength program with the 5 open kinetic chain exercises most often reported in the literature to prevent swimmer's shoulder - internal rotation at 90°, external rotation at 90°, scapular punches, T's, and Y's - with two weights Domyos with 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 kg.The load used to perform the programs with weights were previously assessed and adjusted for each swimmer, corresponding to 75% of one repetition maximum. After 6 weeks of program execution, each swimmer carried out another one repetition maximum test assessment, to verify the possibility of a load instrument progression.

Twice a week, over 12-weeks, the elastic band program group carried out a strength program with the 5 open kinetic chain exercises most often reported in the literature to prevent swimmer's shoulder - internal rotation at 90°, external rotation at 90°, scapular punches, T's, and Y's - with an elastic band Bodytone Power Band with 10, 15, 20, 25, or 30 kg weights Domyos.The load used to perform the programs with weights were previously assessed and adjusted for each swimmer, corresponding to 75% of one repetition maximum. After 6 weeks of program execution, each swimmer carried out another one repetition maximum test assessment, to verify the possibility of a load instrument progression.

The control group performed a sham intervention, twice a week, for 12-weeks. This intervention consisted of 2 sets of 10 repetitions of 5 shoulder mobility exercises, without preventive aim, normally carried out in warm-up before training: shoulder maximum flexion and extension, horizontal abduction and adduction starting from 90º of shoulder abduction, maximum internal/external rotation starting from 90º of shoulder abduction, circumduction of the shoulder in a clockwise direction and circumduction of the shoulder in a counterclockwise direction. There was no progression after 6-weeks of this sham intervention. The coach of the respective team checked the execution of the exercises, but there was no individualized monitoring with a regular exercise technique correction by a physiotherapist.