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

Summary

The purpose of this study was to verify the effectiveness of two 12-week preventive exercise programs for swimmer's shoulder with monitoring and progression over time, on the peak torque and respective conventional concentric ratio and functional ratio. One of these programs was performed with weights and the other with an elastic band. This study hypothesized that the two preventive exercise programs minimize shoulder rotators imbalanced during the swimming season. The study design is a care provider and participants blinded, parallel, randomized controlled trial

Conditions

• Shoulder Pain
• Injury;Sports
• Sports Physical Therapy

Interventions

OTHER

12-weeks weight prevention program

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.

OTHER

12-weeks elastic band prevention program

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.

OTHER

sham intervention

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.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Coimbra

  collaborator OTHER

• Instituto Politécnico de Leiria

  collaborator OTHER

• School of Allied Health Sciences of Porto (ESTSP) - Polytechnic Institute of Porto (IPP)

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Maria António Castro, PhD · Instituto Politécnico de Leiria

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Max Age

35 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-09-01

Primary Completion

2022-11-01

Completion

2023-04-30

Countries

• Portugal

Study Locations