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

Effect of Two Preventive Exercise Programs for Swimmer's Shoulder on the Torque of Shoulder Rotator Muscles in Competitive Swimmers: a Randomized Controlled Trial

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

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Shoulder Pain; Sports Physical Therapy; Injury;Sports
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: 12-weeks weight prevention program; Other: 12-weeks elastic band prevention program; Other: sham intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 30
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Portugal
  • Coimbra, Portugal, 3045-093
    • Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra - RoboCorp

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Competitve swimmer in the current season.
• Aged between 16-35 years old.
• Have a minimum of 5 years of experience in national competitions.
• Performed a minimum of 8 hours of weekly swimming training.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Subjects who had performed at least 6 weeks of treatment such as physical therapy, injections, and medication.
• Clinical situations such as a history of significant shoulder pain in the last 6 months, a history of traumatic shoulder injuries such as fractures, subluxations, cervical or thoracic conditions, previous shoulder surgeries, shoulder range of motion deficits, or neurological injuries.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Sham Comparator: Control	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.
Experimental: Weight program group	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.
Experimental: Elastic band program group	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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Peak torque	The concentric and eccentric peak torque of internal and external rotators of the dominant and non-dominant shoulders at 60°/s, 120°/s and 180°/s, evaluated through an isokinetic dynamometer Biodex System 3 (Biodex Medical Systems, New York).	12 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Conventional concentric external/internal shoulder rotators ratio	The quotient between peak torque values of the concentric external and internal rotators of the shoulder multiplied by 100.	12 weeks
Functional eccentric external/concentric internal shoulder rotators ratio	The quotient between peak torque values of the eccentric external rotators of the shoulder and concentric internal rotators of the shoulder multiplied by 100.	12 weeks
Time to peak torque	The time between the beginning of the torque caption and the peak torque previously described.	12 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: School of Allied Health Sciences of Porto (ESTSP) - Polytechnic Institute of Porto (IPP)
• Collaborators: University of Coimbra; Instituto Politécnico de Leiria
• Investigators: Study Director: Maria António Castro, PhD, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 1, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): April 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: August 7, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 10, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): August 14, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 14, 2024
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 10, 2024
• Last Verified: August 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Injury prevention; Swimming; Swimmer's shoulder; Elastic band program; Weight program; Shoulder rotators
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Wounds and Injuries; Joint Diseases; Musculoskeletal Diseases; Arthralgia; Shoulder Pain; Athletic Injuries
• Other Study ID Numbers: SchoolAHSP

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No