Rotator cuff and exercise alternatives

Landmine press is easier on the shoulder joint than conventional barbell or dumbbells.

Research Self Myofascial Release, as well as internal/external rotations

RoxieDawn wrote: »

jdscrubs32 wrote: »

Hi. I had tendonitis in the left rotator cuff over a year and half ago. I assume both your doc and physical therapist gave you good stretches to do which you should continue to do even after the shoulder feels 100% for overall good shoulder health. The only exercise my physio recommended I shouldn't do was overhead press as he said that exercise is causing a lot of rotator cuff issues and most sport teams no longer include that in workout regime. For bench, do floor press until your shoulder is 100% when you can go back to proper bench. For now stay clear of dips, pull ups, chin ups until your shoulder is 100%. For the likes of rows and if you want to do chest work on the bench, dont go below parallel until your shoulder is 100%. Take it easy, continue to do your stretches and in time your shoulder will be 100% again.

Thank you great stuff. Will be doing the pt exercises for long time to come, the pt has been an amazing experience not just for my shoulder but my back/posture improvements as well.

And yes, dips are out for sure probably forever.

I wouldnt rule out dips forever. Took me a while to gather the courage to do them again but I made sure to warm up the shoulders really well before I did them and that I did them slow. However listen to your body and you know when its the right time to do them.

I had a rotator cuff tear and rotator cuff tendonitis. After surgery and Physical therapy, my doctor's and PT's recommendation was that I shift to lighter weights and avoid lifting weight above shoulder height which I have continued to do. I have also learned to be body conscious during cleaning and home maintenance. Think about the muscles involved in sweeping, mopping, running a vacuum, wiping down bathrooms, tables, or windows, cooking (lifting and shifting pots and pans, loading and unloading the dishwasher, scrubbing dishes, using knives, etc.) yard work, and grocery shopping and you will realize just how often you use your rotator cuff, deltoids, and scapular muscles in daily activities. Overwork can easily trigger tendonitis again, unfortunately, so be aware of your activity level. Keep doing the exercises and stretches your PT taught you to help prevent recurrence.

Your physical therapist isn't able to give you "safe" exercises? I don't have experience with rotator cuff--I've had knee issues--but my physical therapist has been able to tailor my rehabilitation to my personal needs (I'm a wee bit driven and so my rehab is a little more aggressive than an average patient). I'm lucky in that my PT is also a personal trainer and was willing to meet me at the gym to help design my workout around my limitations and the equipment at the gym.

I have shoulder issues myself and while not the wisest thing I work through them and if it hurt I DONT do it. However other than landmine presses another press I found works great and the shoulders don't hurt is hex presses.

I'm a 49 year old strength trainer and had a similar sounding injury to my left shoulder that happened in the fall of 2016. I finally had an MRI in mid-2017 (yeah, I'm hard headed and a tightwad) and diagnoses was something like "fluid filled sack near scapula". We also tried the steroid type injection in shoulder. My rotator cuff and other muscles were good (no surgery required). The ortho doctor said he saw no reason why I could not continue to lift just saying that he didn't believe this might result in further or serious injury (sorry lots of the doc stuff is added here by memory). After months of no improvement I gave up on ALL lifts that I thought could be aggravating the shoulder: weighted dips, lying tricep extensions (it hurt to press the bar into position and lower it), overhead barbell presses, bench press, weighted wide grip chinups. I was convinced that I would never bench press again, because I kept trying to resume even light bench presses for months and it always hurt. It wasn't until months of complete rest (I also quit doing dumbbell laterals and some of the rinky dink stuff that i thought was helping recovery and blood flow). (Side bar comment: some of the exercises I quit doing were not painful but regardless I believe now that they were aggravating my shoulder). Long story short(er), it wasn't until months of complete shoulder rest (I continued deadlifting and squat only) that my shoulder felt better and I then I resumed light overhead and bench pressing. Now, in 2018 after months of slowly upping the weights- I've hit some personal records in bench press and overhead press. My lesson learned is that some things might be aggravating the shoulder even thought they don't seem to be painful during exercise. In addition, this may go against modern physical therapy theory: but in my case complete rest was the remedy and not continually trying to improve blood flow and repair by trying to rehabilitate it via light weights. One last tidbit is I also switched to double overhand grip or hook grip for deadlift as I (partly) believe that the alternating deadlift grip may have been aggravating my shoulder (my left hand was the supinated grip and my left shoulder was the injured one). So, not very scientific... but this was my experience. Complete rest was key to my recovery and based on my reading of old lifters I will always be cautious about bench pressing and I will probably never do weighted dips, weighted chins, or heavy dumbbell bench pressing ever again. I'll also probably stick with DOH and hook grip when deadlifting.

The bright spot (other than my recovery) is also that my squat went up dramatically while I was taking time off of uppers. Best wishes and sorry for the confused book.

If you have a rotator cuff tear, it will NEVER heal by itself and neither rest or any PT will help. Only surgery can fix it.

Take it from someone who has had 2 rotator cuff tears and surgeries.

I have shoulder issues too. After a couple of surgeries I came across https://crossoversymmetry.com and after buying and using this product I find it helps me get stronger.