Things You Need to Know About Swimming and Low Back Pain
Swimming is a form of exercise that people may attempt for low back pain relief. The idea is that swimming helps spare the body of stress due to its low impact; however, if the context isn’t specified – then this isn’t correct to say. Yes, standing in water will be less stressful since the buoyancy forces will counteract the gravitational forces. But if we start moving in water – we are moving against resistance.
For example – swinging our arms underwater is going to be more challenging then if we are swinging our arms while walking. During walking – we don’t have to overcome the water resistance that we encounter in a pool.
Swimming is challenging, and it’s a type of exercise that needs consideration before prescribing. Yes, it can have benefits if prescribed to the right person. But a lack of consideration for prescribing swimming to people with low back pain is a problem.
Swimming is a general term. It doesn’t inform people which swimming strokes they should or should not perform for low back pain. For instance, repetitive hyperextension of the low back during the breaststroke or butterfly is a known mechanism to cause spondylolysis in swimmers (1,2). People with spondylolysis tend to present with symptoms that become worse with low back extension (3).
If you took a person with spondylolysis and recommended swimming to them, but don’t explain what swimming strokes to perform – that person may perform a swimming stroke that may provoke their symptoms.
The Butterfly and Breastroke may trigger low back pain in people that have spondylolysis. Image Licensed from “Vectorvstocker/stock.adobe.com”
Also, swimming is a technical activity. If the technique is not optimal during a swimming stroke or if a person doesn’t have a coach who can teach them how to swim – how are they suppose to know what to do in the water when they have low back pain?
Health care providers, personal trainers, and fitness enthusiasts are quick to recommend swimming to people with low back pain. But they never inform them how to swim or explain what swimming strokes may provoke their pain.
To share a story.
When I was going through my low back problems years ago – a doctor recommended swimming to me as a form of physical activity. The suggestion was that swimming is a joint sparing activity and it would help with my low back pain. Although this doctor never gave me a diagnosis – I ended up listening to the doctor’s advice and tried swimming. Upon trying the front crawl and breaststroke – both swimming strokes ended up being a trigger of my symptoms.
After this moment – I quit swimming for the duration of my recovery and never saw this doctor again.
The takeaway from this story is that you need to be cautious in attempting swimming with low back pain. If you don’t know what is causing your low back pain or don’t understand what triggers your low back pain – you could make your symptoms worse by swimming.
When it comes to low back pain – everyone is different, and not one person will respond the same to swimming. I didn’t respond well to swimming, but I know others who have. For swimming to be effective, the program needs to be specific to the person’s low back problems. If a person doesn’t know what is causing their low back problems or doesn’t understand their pain-triggers – they should find a clinician that can give them a proper a diagnosis and perhaps a coach that can teach them how to swim.
Salute,
Remi
References
1. Drori A, Mann G, Constantini N. (1996). Low back pain in swimmers: is the prevalence increasing? The 12th International Jerusalem Symposium on Sports Injuries, 75.
2. Nyska, M., Constantini, N., Calé-Benzoor, M., Back, Z., Kahn, G., & Mann, G. (2000). Spondylolysis as a cause of low back pain in swimmers. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 21(5), 375–379.
3. Purcell, L., & Micheli, L. (2009). Low Back Pain in Young Athletes. Sports Health, 1(3), 212–222.
Thumbnail Image Licensed from “Wavebreakmedia/depositphotos.com”
