Which swimming posture is good for the cervical spine? What should I do if water gets into my ears while swimming?

Any sport, proper exercise will be good for our body, of course, swimming is no exception, so which swimming posture is good for the cervical spine? What should we do if we accidentally get water in our ears while swimming? The following article shares these common sense about swimming for you in detail, hoping to help your health.

Contents of this article

1. Which swimming posture is good for the cervical spine?

2. What should I do if water gets into my ears while swimming?

3. Why do you need to wear a swimsuit when swimming?

Which swimming posture is good for the cervical spine?

1. Backstroke

Backstroke mainly relies on waist and abdomen to maintain trunk balance, shoulders to rotate repeatedly, and legs to whip up and down alternately to complete the main movements. Since the neck is in a backward position during backstroke, the small joints of the cervical spine are exercised, so patients with cervical spondylosis are more suitable for backstroke. However, backstroke has high requirements for shoulder movements and leg kicking movements, so backstroke may cause sports injuries such as "swimming shoulder" and "swimming ankle".

2. Breaststroke

The exhalation and inhalation exchange of breaststroke keeps the head and neck in a state of one low and one up, which just meets the requirements of functional exercise for cervical spondylosis. It can fully mobilize the joints of the cervical spine and effectively promote the repair of strained muscles and ligaments around the neck. It is best to swim once every one to two days, each time for about half an hour to forty minutes. It will be effective if you maintain it for a long time to prevent and treat the cervical spine.

What to do if water gets into your ears while swimming

1. Single-leg jumping method: Point the affected ear downward and use the gravity of the water to make the water flow downward and out of the external auditory canal.

2. Shake your head back and forth several times to use centrifugal force to get rid of the water in your ears.

3. Mobilize the external auditory canal: continuously press the tragus with your palm or pull the auricle with your fingers; or repeatedly open your mouth and move the temporomandibular joint. These can make the skin of the external auditory canal move up and down and left and right or change the stability of the water barrier and the pressure, allowing the water to flow out of the external auditory canal.

4. After drying your hands, cover one ear hole with one hand, press the other ear hole with the middle finger of the other hand, and then suddenly pull your hand outwards to create instantaneous negative pressure to suck out the water in the ear, alternating between the two sides.

5. External auditory canal cleaning method: Use a clean, fine cotton swab to gently probe the external auditory canal, and once it touches the water barrier, the water can be sucked out. Since the swimming pool or river water is not clean, sewage enters the ear and causes infection of the external auditory canal skin and eardrum, or improper treatment after water enters the ear, such as unclean ear digging, etc., can often cause the following ear diseases: external otitis, external auditory canal furunculosis, cerumen obstruction, tympanitis, suppurative otitis media. If the above symptoms occur after water enters the ear, you should temporarily stop swimming and go to the hospital for examination and symptomatic treatment.

6. Side-lying method: After trying all the above methods, lie down on your side when you sleep at night, that is, the ear that has water in it, but do not block it, because after blocking it, the air pressure will affect the outflow of water.

Why do you need to wear a swimsuit when swimming?

One is for aesthetics... (Generally, underwear becomes transparent when you enter the water, and secondly, it is easy to fall off. If you don't mind being naked and others don't mind, you can swim in any pants.) Another scientific point of view is that swimsuits are tight-fitting, which can reduce resistance when swimming in the water (otherwise, you can try swimming without a swimsuit, and you will feel more resistance). And from a professional point of view, many male athletes in international competitions now choose to wear one-piece swimsuits (rather than shorts), which shows that wearing swimsuits still makes scientific sense.