Torn Rotator Cuff Treatment - Should You Be Taking Exercise or Resting?
Both is the answer but not in that order. It also depends on how badly you have torn it. Most tears will get better with just rest and exercise but any serious tear or full thickness tear may need corrective before you do any therapy exercise.
The important thing with any torn rotator cuff treatment is to rest and let the tear begin to heal. Carrying on through rotator cuff pain is likely to leave you needing corrective surgery as you do more damage to the muscles, so rest is the first thing that you need to do.
Along with rest, you need to bring down the inflammation before you can think about starting any type of exercise. The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles that help to stabilise the shoulder joint by pulling the head of the humerus into the socket of the shoulder joint. They are small but vital muscles that surround the shoulder joint forming a cuff of muscle that supports it, in doing so they run over and sometimes under the bones of the shoulder.
Any inflammation to these muscles causes pain as the inflamed tendon can catch or impinge on one of the bones. A classic example of this is the supraspinatus muscle which runs under the collar bone and the acromion of the shoulder blade. When this muscle become inflamed it can catch on the channel of bone and start to wear or fray. Worst case scenario is that you could end up with a snapped tendon that would leave you needing shoulder surgery.
So you must let the muscles rest. This means steering clear of any movement that is painful. If your work involves a lot of overhead movement you may need to modify the way in which you work. If you sit at a desk, you might need to change the setup of your desk to avoid reaching or stretching movements with the damaged arm. It might even be necessary to take a few days off to rest the arm properly.
At the same times start to treat the inflammation. This could be by using non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen and also by using ice packs on the damaged muscle to help to reduce the swelling. If symptoms persist you may need to have a steroid injection into the muscle to combat the inflammation. Your doctor should be able to do this for you.
Once the muscle has begun to settle down you can start simple exercises designed to strengthen the rotator cuff muscles. Don't go rushing to the gym thinking that any kind of exercise will do the trick. It won't. Pushing weights before the muscle has healed properly is likely to cause more damage.
Rotator cuff exercises use little or no weight when recovering from an injury. They will start with gentle exercises that should not cause any pain. If you feel pain or discomfort when exercising stop straight away as this is an indication of further damage being done. It may be that you started exercising too soon.
And finally, when your shoulder is fixed and back to its full pain free movement, don't just give up on the exercises. Rotator cuff injuries are very common but a lot of them can be avoided by keeping the rotator cuff muscles healthy so just take five or ten minutes a day to keep them in shape.
Questions and Answers
Only a program of physical therapy for torn rotator cuff can fully rehabilitate the cuff muscle and strengthen it to prevent future tears. A set of exercises for the rotator cuff works very well to reduce inflammation and speed up the recovery process, reducing pain and the need for anti inflammatories. It can also be used as a complementary program to bring the cuff up to the strength level of the other shoulder muscles like the Deltoid.
A rotator cuff injury treatment should always include a program of physical therapy as the foundation of a recovery strategy, with anti inflammatory medication and other remedies like ice packs taken in conjunction with the rehabilitation protocol. The most common symptom of an injured cuff is pain. Pain can be sudden and violent following a massive tear, or a subtle ache growing worse with time. Sometimes it can be even undetectable.
"Your shoulder hurts, you lack range of motion, and yeah you've lost some strength".... Which brings you to think that you have a tear in your shoulder. Well stop guessing, because I am going to uncover the top symptoms and treatments for a rotator cuff tear!....
In an adult population, rotator cuff tears are the most common cause of debilitating shoulder pain and disability, with approximately 300,000 rotator cuff surgeries performed annually in the United States. The diagnosis and management of rotator cuff disease places a significant financial burden on the U.S. economy, amounting to an annual cost of 3 billion dollars.
Few key exercises for torn rotator cuff are the right solution for a fast and permanent recovery, as they tackle the problem at root level, strengthening the rotator muscles, rehabilitating the cuff quickly, eliminating the need for anti inflammatories and preventing future tears from occurring.
Whether for an injury or a disorder, a program of exercises for rotator cuff is the best long term treatment for rehabilitation, strengthening and conditioning. Injuries like tears or post traumatic rehabilitation following surgery or dislocation must include a full rehabilitation program to restore the cuff to former strength.
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