Exercises for Rotator Cuff

If you’ve been training too hard and lifting too many weights, you might have a sore rotator cuff. A rotator cuff is the muscle group that connects your shoulder joint to your arm. This is a very important group of muscles and any injury to this area will be very hard to live with.

Sore rotator cuff can happen due to a number of reasons. Your rotator cuff could be slightly injured while lifting something or while playing ball. The overhead motion of the arm tends to stretch the shoulder joint and ball players frequently face sore rotator cuffs. This is the lot of tennis players as well.

When the rotator cuff is injured, it gets inflamed and a sore rotator cuff is the result. To treat the sore rotator cuff, first apply ice on the injured area. Leave on the ice on until the pain numbs and your shoulder feels better. Ice actually helps stimulate the blood flow. Blood flow to the injured area is what’s required for quick healing.

If the soreness persists, you can take anti-inflammatory drugs to bring down the swelling. It’s important to note here that at no time should you self-medicate yourself. Always consult a doctor if the ice treatment and the rest do not help your sore rotator cuff.

If the pain increases after sometime, or if the pain disperses only to return a few days later, then your sore rotator cuff is probably more serious than you thought. It’s time now for an appointment with the doctor, who’ll scan the cuff using an X-Ray machine first to check for bone spurs, fractures or hair line cracks. If the matter is serious, an MRI scan might be done to get to the bottom of it.

The symptoms of rotator cuff strain include pain and weakness when the arm is held overhead or stretched out horizontally from the body. Pain when performing activities such as dressing and brushing your hair are common symptoms of rotator cuff strain. Although some injuries to the rotator cuff are traumatic such as sports injuries or falls, the predominate reason for symptoms of rotator cuff strain are wear and tear on the shoulder especially in those over forty years of age.

Symptoms of rotator cuff strain and tears include atrophy of the shoulder muscles and pain when lifting the arm both overhead and horizontally away from the body. There may also be pain when lowering the arm after it has been fully raised and weakness when rotating or lifting the arm. Other symptoms of rotator cuff strain include a crackling sensation called crepitus occurring when the shoulder is moved in certain positions.

The symptoms of rotator cuff strain may come on suddenly in the case of a traumatic injury with sudden weakness and sharp pain. The symptoms of rotator cuff strain may be more subtle if the injury is coming from wear and tear. You may notice atrophy of the muscles around the shoulders, dull pain even when not moving the shoulder and sharp pain during activity.

Sometimes the symptoms of rotator cuff strain help the doctor diagnose the problem better than tests such as x-rays and even MRI’s since the injury may not show up on the tests. If the symptoms of rotator cuff strain are not alleviated by conservative measures such as wearing a sling, therapy, and anti-inflammatory medication, your doctor may recommend that you have surgery to stop the symptoms of rotator cuff strain.

Do you feel that your shoulder feels sore and it seems to be getting worse day by day? You need to get it checked for a rotator cuff sore. The dull ache in your shoulder could lead to a stiff shoulder and very soon, you might be struggling to move it up and down.

If you leave it untreated, your rotator cuff sore can turn into a real rotator cuff injury that might require surgery, potentially. If what you are experiencing is only a mild rotator cuff sore, then your shoulder may stabilize with sufficient rest and prescribed rotator cuff therapy exercises.

What is the rotator cuff? It’s actually a group of tendons, muscles and ligaments that form a cuff over your shoulder joint. This cuff connects the shoulder joint to the arm bone, allowing the shoulder to move and rotate. Performing heavy activities such as lifting weights and repetitive overhead motions might cause rotator cuff sore, inflammation or more serious injury.

If you are an athlete or a sportsperson, cease working on your activity or sport for a while until your doctor gives you the go-ahead. If you continue to punish a rotator cuff sore, it might aggravate. It’s in your best interests to lay low for a while.  If the pain is severe or if your shoulder’s mobility seems impaired, the doctor may ask you to take an MRI scan. It’s possible that your rotator cuff is torn, partially or fully.

If there’s only a mild inflammation, the doctor will prescribe anti-inflammatory steroids and prescribe complete rest for the shoulder and physical therapy for the shoulder after the sore heals. If there’s a tear, depending on how big the tear is, you may have to go in either for arthroscopic or open surgery.

Rotator cuff recovery from a rotator cuff injury or surgery can be a long, complicated process. Rehabilitation post surgery is one of the biggest downtimes of rotator cuff procedures.

If the injury is mild, your surgeon’s rotator cuff recovery instructions will be that you completely rest the injured shoulder until it recovers. Mild inflammations and inflamed bursae can be treated with rest and physical therapy, after a thorough checkup and MRI scan to ensure there are no secondary complications.

Rotator cuff recovery from a more serious injury would require that the shoulder be bound in a tight tape bandage that cannot be removed easily. Since the shoulder is one of the main areas of the body and therefore involved in many different body movements, keeping this area immobile is very essential to recovery.

Inflammations are mostly treated using steroids. Once the inflammation reduces, the shoulder is moved in particular ways using physical therapy procedures. The initial movements are meant to get the shoulder get used to lifting the arm. The more complex exercises allow the shoulder to remember how to rotate the arm and how to pull objects.

Rotator cuff recovery from surgery is the toughest. If the surgery is arthroscopic, recovery includes the same process as when the rotator cuff is injured. Usually surgery is not recommended unless the rotator cuff is torn all the way through the tendon. For mild tears, physical therapy and rest are the prescribed norms.

Once the tear in the tendon is stitched up, the shoulder is bound and packed tightly into a sling. Rotator cuff recovery doesn’t take too long if the patient responds well. In the case of an open surgery, rotator cuff recovery can take a long time because the larger incision has to heal and the pain is more severe.

Symptoms of rotator cuff problems are pain and weakness when holding the arm up over the head or when stretching it out horizontally. Painful symptoms of rotator cuff problems may surface when dressing, sleeping, brushing hair, or any activity that involves moving the arm in an outward or upward motion.

Pinpointing the exact source of the symptoms of rotator cuff problems may be difficult but the weakness can be apparent to a doctor during the physical exam. X-rays may look normal and partial tears aren’t always visible to the eye even when using imaging technology such as MRI’s.

If the symptoms of rotator cuff problems point to the diagnosis, non-invasive treatments are normally prescribed before invasive treatments such as surgery are considered. The first treatment of rotator cuff problems tendon is usually applying hot or cold packs to the painful area and treatment with anti-inflammatory medications such as oral NSAIDS or ibuprofen. A sling may also be prescribed so the arm that is affected by the torn rotator cuff can rest.

In addition electrical stimulation of the muscles and nerves, ultrasound, and steroid injections may be recommended for the treatment of a torn radiator cuff. If these non-invasive treatments are not successful at alleviating the

symptoms of rotator cuff problems, arthroscopic surgery or an open repair of the rotator cuff tear may be pursued. After arthroscopic or open surgery is performed extensive physical therapy may be required to regain strength and normal range of movement.