It hurts my back when I do butterfly style, should I stop doing it?

Question

I’ve been swimming since I was 15, I’ve never bothered to try any style other than freestyle. For 10 years I’ve been competing freestyle. I decided to put all my efforts into butterfly. After several weeks, I was able to swim 250m of butterfly everyday non-stop. It’s not much considering I can effortless swim 5km freestyle. I’m 25, and I’ve never experienced any kind of back pain, until now. It’s not much pain, I don’t need aspirin or cream or anything it’s just scary. I’ve just never experienced any kind of soreness or discomfort on my back, and now I’m scared I might have hurt a part of my body that was perfectly well.

Should I stop doing butterfly, will this go away, did I hurt myself?

Answer 1

If you don't have any physical problems I'd say it was probably technique. Get a good butterflier to watch your stroke and see if you are doing something to make your back hurt. When I started doing butterfly my shoulders killed. All it took was a good swimmer to tell me to turn my thumbs down a little and the pain stopped almost immediately. Give it a shot. If nobody can find a problem I'd stick with what you do best.

Just keep swimming.

Answer 2

I really hope you consider what I'm about to say: Go see a physiotherapist!!! I'm very serious about this. I hurt my shoulder swimming some breaststroke... let it rest a bit, swam again, still hurt, didn't think much of it. I though " Well... my muscles are just tired, it's nothing" after 2 weeks after hurting it, couldn't lift it high enough to brush my hair, or take off a shirt. Had to get my mum to brush my hair AND put my clothes on, and take them off. By the time I went to physio, the shoulder was wrecked. Rotator cuff tendonitis was the smallest problem. I popped my shoulder that day when i was swimming, and since i left it alone, it's now completely out of line. It's been a long time, and i STILL can't raise my arm all the way up without my shoulder popping. YOU NEED TO SEE A PHYSIOTHERAPIST!!! It may not be anything serious, but it definitely is better to be safe than sorry. PLEASE go! I've wrecked my shoulder, I can't swim anymore.... don't take the risk. I'm not answering this because i want to get voted the best answer or to get the points, I'm answering this, because I know how 1 second can RUIN your swimming career... I know how, a week or two of doing nothing about something that you don't think is serious, can cause you chronic pain for the rest of your life. PLEASE i am BEGGING you, see a doctor... it might be one of the best decisions you'll ever make!!

Answer 3

since you've only started having these pains recently, it's not because of new muscles recieving exercise. the cause of the pain could be that the spine gets hurt everytime the back is curved, and you won't feel it during freestyle, coz the back stays straight. i suppose you should go see a chiropractor, and you should most likely stop doing butterfly. but don't stop with the freestyle, because freestyle could help to soothe the pain again.

Answer 4

Form means a lot... the person above has some good ideas. There are some other possibilities... you can see a Chiropractor (preferably one who is used to sports) to see if there is something going on. If you worked up to it, I'm not seeing this as a muscle issue... maybe I'm wrong.

Answer 5

stop doing fly for a while...have u ever considered testing how flexible u are? try doing stretches with ur back like the "bridge" and the "dog" (i think from yoga). maybe after ur back is more flexible, u'll be able to swim fly.

Answer 6

Its possable, the back mussles that normallydon't get stretched much, are complaining now.
I would slow down some and re attack it at a slower pace

Answer 7

ahh that started happening to me today. like all i swim is free, and then today i really worked on fly alot... and my back hurts.
sorry, this was pointless and of no help whatsoever... but i can totally relate :\\

Answer 8

if it hurts ur back then yes