A stress fracture is a very small crack in a bone, which is usually in the lower leg or foot. Stress fractures are often caused by the overuse syndrome, when an athlete repetitively puts weight and force on a bone, for example in running or long jumping in track. A stress fracture can usually be diagnosed by an X-ray, CT scan or MRI. The onset of a stress fracture is often gradual and usually becomes worse with repetitions of the same exercise. The main symptoms are pain, swelling and tenderness in the affected bone immediately after the exercise and a decrease in symptoms with rest.
Swimming as a Low Impact Alternative
Stress fractures most commonly occur in the lower legs, usually from high-impact exercises like running and jumping. The best treatment for a stress fracture is for you to rest the effected bone for about six weeks. The good news is that there are alternative low-impact exercises in which you can participate, and swimming can be one of your best low-impact selections. Swimming events can be either aerobic or anaerobic, and can help you maintain your fitness level, while you are recuperating from a stress fracture.
Aerobic Swimming
Because of the specificity of sports skills, no two types of exercise are exactly alike, but the fitness levels that can be reached and maintained can be fairly equal between two completely different sports by adapting the workload. One way to measure the intensity of exercise is to measure the amount of calories you are burning during an exercise. For example, a 150-lb. person, without a stress fracture, who runs 30 minutes at 8 mph will burn approximately 458 calories. To receive a comparable aerobic conditioning effect, the same person, with a stress fracture, will need to swim the freestyle stroke for 60 minutes to burn approximately 413 calories, which is only 45 calories less than running.
Anaerobic Swimming
Stress fractures can be caused by sports events like basketball, track long jumping and floor exercise in gymnastics. These are all anaerobic exercises, which means that the skills require an all-out effort for a short period of time. Swimming the 50-meter freestyle, breaststroke or butterfly strokes are anaerobic exercises. A 150-lb person playing basketball for 1 minute will burn 12 calories, while the same person swimming fast for one minute will burn a comparable 11 calories.
Prevention of Stress Fractures
There are several ways that you can help prevent a stress fracture, such as wearing the proper shoes, include low-impact exercises in your program, and making sure you are getting enough rest between exercise bouts. A personal trainer can also help you design a program that will be less likely to produce stress fractures.
References
- Mayoclinic:com: Stress Fractures
- "Kinesiology Scientific Basis of Human Movement"; Nancy Hamilton, 2002
- Orthoinfo.org: Stress Fractures
- Healthstatus.com: Calories Burned Calculator
