Chances are if you are at all familiar with your rotator cuff it is because you have injured it at some stage. Unfortunately this group of four small muscles that support the shoulder joint can be quite vulnerable to injury in certain circumstances. Sudden stresses and strains that occur in some sports such baseball and martial arts can be very stressful to the rotator cuff and so can sloppy form or poor bio-mechanics while weight training. Even excessive repetition of certain movements in regular daily activity can exact their toll on the rotator cuff.
A rotator cuff tear is not pleasant and can be quite debilitating. If you’ve ever injured your rotator cuff you will have realized how much you took these muscles for granted prior to the injury. An injured rotator cuff can restrict your shoulder and arm movement (especially overhead movement) and can be very painful if you’re used to sleeping on your side. The injury can be very persistent, taking a long time to heal, and in extreme cases may even require surgery. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that there are steps you can take to reduce the likelihood of injury.
Here are three of them:
- Keep your rotator cuff muscles healthy (i.e. strong and supple).
- Always warm up properly before vigorous exercise.
- Avoid or minimize activities and movements with a high risk of injury to the rotator cuff.
Later we'll take a look at these one at a time, but in the mean time for more information on how to look after your torn rotator cuff check out the
rotator cuff tear blog.
