• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

  • Fitness
  • Workouts
    • Best Shoulder Workouts
    • Best Chest Workouts
    • Best Leg Workouts
    • Best Leg Exercises
    • Best Biceps Exercises
    • Best Kettlebell Exercises
    • Best Back Workouts
    • Best HIIT Workouts
    • Best Triceps Exercises
    • Best Arm Workouts
  • Reviews
    • Supplements
      • Best Pre-Workouts
      • Best Whey Protein
    • Equipment
      • Best Home Gym Machines
    • Certifications
      • ISSA Review
  • News
  • Exercise Guides
    • Legs
      • Back Squat
      • Bulgarian Split Squat
      • Goblet Squat
      • Zercher Squat
      • Standing Calf Raise
      • Hack Squat
    • Chest
      • Bench Press
      • Dumbbell Bench Press
      • Close-Grip Bench Press
      • Incline Bench Press
    • Shoulders
      • Overhead Dumbbell Press
      • Lateral Raise
    • Arms
      • Chin-Up
      • Weighted Pull-Up
      • Triceps Pushdown
    • Back
      • Deadlift
      • Trap Bar Deadlift
      • Lat Pulldown
      • Inverted Row
      • Bent-Over Barbell Row
      • Single-Arm Dumbbell Row
      • Pendlay Row
Fitness

Rehab Your Back Injury With Swimming, Not Surgery

When I was faced with back surgery, I used swimming instead to rehabilitate myself. I made a full recovery and research shows swimming is a great tool for back/spine injury rehab.

Hannah Caldas

Written by Hannah Caldas Last updated on November 8, 2012

As a swimmer I am biased when I say there is very little for which swimming isn’t beneficial. But even thinking objectively it is a fairly accurate statement. I recently covered the benefits of swimming as a recovery strategy between workouts for other sports, backed by peer-reviewed studies. Another area for which swimming is particularly useful is in the rehabilitation of injuries. I am using the word “injuries” here in a very broad sense, and for this article will focus on back injuries.

There are a few main reasons why swimming is a good rehabilitation tool:

  1. It is low impact. (Unless you are training to be an elite swimmer at which point you will be putting your body through a more intense, higher impact workout.)
  2. It is a form of active stretching – swimming technically will ensure full range of motion movements for many different body parts.
  3. It provides just enough resistance from water to provide, over time, sustained aerobic conditioning to the rehabilitating subject, allowing them to continue to workout while rehabbing at the same time.

It was a few years ago, during my “retired swimmer” career woman days that I herniated a disc from fairly intense running, which is ironic because my friends know how much I despise running, so why was I even running? But the fact remained I had a herniated disc, preventing me from further running, making walking fairly challenging, and lifting any kind of weight practically impossible. Consulting a colleague at the hospital I was given two choices: surgery or swimming. My first reaction was “No, not swimming!” Swimming to me was always associated with a structured program, “blood, sweat and tears,” and competition. I certainly didn’t want to go back to that at that point. But that wasn’t what my colleague was suggesting, and it sure sounded a lot more appealing than having surgery on my back.

swimming for injury rehab, rehab back with swimming, swimming back rehabSo, for the months that followed, I frequented the pool three times a week, experimenting with exercises to help me rehabilitate my back. At the end of my rehab period, and to this day, my back made a full recovery, without surgery. I run regularly without any back issues (and I mostly run against my will these days). So swimming – swimming is how I got there.

For back injuries swimming is particularly useful because swimming is not weight bearing. The water mostly supports you, and you swim close to horizontal, releasing most of the pressure associated with exercises where you need to stand. Now that pressure is not completely eliminated, and obviously the back is still engaged while you swim. Playing around with strokes can help alleviate some of this pressure further. Swimming backstroke is likely one of the best strokes for back injuries as you lay in the water in the supine position, allowing the water to support your back, in contrast to the other three strokes which are performed in the prone position.

My case was not severe and I was able to swim. In severe cases, swimming may initially not be a possibility, but getting in a pool and doing low impact exercises in an aquatic environment are a good starting point in rehabilitation. Start with getting in the water to chest level and walking the pool, eventually add some arm movement and gradually progress to full on swimming. This is a common recommendation by neurosurgeons for post-spinal surgery rehabilitation. You will also often find that physical rehabilitation facilities contain therapy pools used for low impact injury rehabilitation. These centers usually have faster rehabilitation rates than other centers.

swimming for injury rehab, rehab back with swimming, swimming back rehabInterestingly, a recent study in animal models of peripheral nerve injury suggests swimming is beneficial in the rehabilitation of rats following sciatic nerve crush. In this study the authors reported swimming applied during both the acute and late phases after axonotmesis (nerve cell injury that disrupt the axon) in rats accelerated nerve fiber regeneration and synaptic elimination – a process that is activity-dependent, favors monoinnervation and subsequent recovery of physiological muscle activity – ultimately increasing the rate of recovery from nerve injury. While the same studies would be unethical to perform in human subjects, there is mounting evidence that swimming accelerate the rates of recovery of patients with back/spine injuries.

In the spirit of election season I would propose, “swimming for president.” But since President Obama has just been re-elected for another four years I will have to settle for proposing swimming as a prime rehabilitation tool for back injuries.

Hannah Caldas

About Hannah Caldas

Since returning to swimming in 2010 after an 8 year retirement, Hannah Caldas has claimed FINA masters world records in 3 different relays and USMS National Records in the 50m Breaststroke and 50 and 100m Freestyle. She was awarded USMS 2010 and 2011 Pool All Star, earned All-American status in over 20 individual events, and was ranked as the fastest masters female swimmer in the world over 30 by FINA in the 50 and 100m Freestyle in 2011.

In 2012, Hannah was an Olympic hopeful for Portugal in the 50m Freestyle, but fell short of the qualifying time for London by 0.3s. She made a debut in Open Water Swimming in the Maui Channel Crossing Race, as a member of the Mixed Relay team in 2011.

Hannah started CrossFit in the summer of 2011, and in 2012 competed in the CrossFit Open and Southwest Regionals while simultaneously training and competing in swimming. She swims 4,000 meters per day, 2 hours per day, 6 days a week, and CrossFits 5 days a week, with one active rest and one full rest day.

In addition to her impressive athletic background, Hannah served as Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at Wake Forest University from 2006 to 2010. Since leaving academia, Hannah has lived in Phoenix, AZ, where she devotes her time to being a full time athlete. More recently, she has started applying her knowledge of functional fitness to help other swimmers and triathletes.

View All Articles

Recommended Articles

swimmer
Triathlon Training: Find Your Breath in the Water
butterflyheader|butterfly stroke
Swimming Basics: A Beginner’s Guide to the Butterfly
swimmingheader|breaststroke
7 Essential Swimming Tips for Even the Strongest Athletes
swimmingheader|breaststroke
Swimming Basics: A Beginner’s Guide to the Breaststroke

Primary Sidebar

Latest Articles

Legendary Ronnie Coleman Explains the Four Bodybuilding Poses That Built His Career

2023 Clash On The Coast Results — Sumer Johnson and Andrew Clayton Triumphant

Jay Cutler Believes Bodybuilding’s Men’s Open is Returning to Its Greatest Era

Sherine Marcelle (90KG) Scores All-Time Raw World Record Squat of 262.3 Kilograms (579 Pounds)

Latest Reviews

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

Best Whey Proteins for Packing on Muscle, Shredding Down, Meal Replacement, and More

Best Pre-Workouts for Building Muscle, Running, Taste, and More

Best Home Gym Machines

Best Home Gym Machines

woman lifting barbell

Be the smartest person in your gym

The Breaking Muscle newsletter is everything you need to know about strength in a 3 minute read.

I WANT IN!

Breaking Muscle is the fitness world’s preeminent destination for timely, high-quality information on exercise, fitness, health, and nutrition. Our audience encompasses the entire spectrum of the fitness community: consumers, aficionados, fitness professionals, and business owners. We seek to inform, educate and advocate for this community.

  • Reviews
  • Healthy Eating
  • Workouts
  • Fitness
  • News

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS Feed

© 2023 · Breaking Muscle · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Affiliate Disclaimer · Accessibility · About