Alright, I know that if you have a rotator cuff injury right now the last thing you need is some cheery person being glib about how to put it right, but the truth is that for a lot of us rotator cuff rehab is actually very simple. The only exceptions to that are if you have either managed to acquire a bad tear or what is known as a full thickness tear. If you have then you'll be looking at corrective surgery before you start using that shoulder again.
But, like I said, for the majority of us rotator cuff rehab is relatively simple.
The first thing that you need to understand is the nature of the injury that you have, because once you do, then you begin to understand how you are going to fix it.
A rotator cuff injury is an injury to the rotator cuff muscles. These are a group of four muscles that all connect to the scapula or shoulder blade at one end and the top of humerus or upper arm at the other. What they do, in the great scheme of things, is to help hold the arm in place as you move. Depending on how you move, different muscles within the four work harder. Once you get your arm above shoulder height your rotator cuff is working at its hardest to prevent the ball of the humerus coming away from the socket of the shoulder joint
This is why when you hurt your rotator cuff it always hurts worst when you raise your arm above your shoulder or reach for something.
the muscles are all grouped tightly together forming a cuff of muscle around the shoulder joint to help hold it in place. They run over the surface of the shoulder blade. One of them, the supraspinatus runs through a channel of bone at the top of the shoulder blade before it attaches to the humerus.
This is the tendon that causes the most trouble with a cuff injury because when it gets inflamed and swells up it has nowhere to go so it starts to get pinched by the bone which leads to further pain and injury. Think of it like a tow rope being rubbed against a hard surface. Sooner or later it will either break or at best start to fray.
So if you want a rotator cuff to heal quickly there are really omly three steps.
Step one, rest the muscles to let it heal. That means avoiding any painful movements. Which may involve changing the way that you work for a while or even taking some time off.
Step two, work on the the inflammation. Try anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen and start using ice packs whenever you can. If that doesn't worksee if your doctor will give you a steroid injection.
Step three, when the muscle has started to settle down start a simple course of shoulder specific physical therapy exercises designed to strengthen and rebuild the rotator cuff muscles. These will involve small movements with light weights or low resistance that isolate and exercise this small but important group of muscles.
It's quite simple really. Muscles can't heal unless you rest them. Carrying on through a rotator cuff injury will cause more damage. Let the swelling go down before you start exercising and do exercises that strengthen the damaged muscles.
Told you it was simple! I know because that's exactly how I fixed my shoulder.
Having torn my rotator cuff and ending up with a shoulder impingement I started to research shoulders and the rotator cuff to better understand my own injury. Check out my blog for more useful information
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