Clinical method to assess shoulder strength related to front crawl swimming power in male collegiate swimmers.
Takenori Awatani, Ikuhiro Morikita, Seigo Mori and 2 others
PMID 30349153WHAT IT FOUND
In male collegiate front crawl swimmers, shoulder extensor strength in maximum abduction was related to swimming power.
Internal rotator strength and side-to-side differences were not, so this dry-land test mainly reflects extension strength.
Key findings
01Maximum swimming power was significantly correlated with extension torque on the dominant side (r=0.844; p=0.017) and on the non-dominant side (r=0.779; p=0.04).
02No significant correlations were observed between maximum swimming power and internal rotation torque on either side, or between swimming velocity-to-swimming power ratio and bilateral difference rates.
03Maximum swimming velocity was significantly associated with maximum swimming power (r=0.927; p<0.001).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only 9 healthy male collegiate front crawl swimmers were studied. Participants had no shoulder pain or shoulder surgery during the past 6 months. Strength assessments were done on dry land, not underwater during swimming. The study did not use motion research or electromyographic analysis. The results are correlations, so they do not show that changing shoulder strength changes swimming power. The relationship between other muscles and maximum swimming power remains unclear.
Declared interests
None declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the correlations as proof that strengthening shoulder extensors will improve swimming power or that this test applies to injured swimmers. The study measured healthy male collegiate swimmers and reported associations, not treatment effects.