Rotator Cuff Injury

DietrickKooyman
DietrickKooyman Posts: 6 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Just injured my rotator cuff when working my shoulders at the gym. Guessing that it was because I lifted to much to quick. Anyone have any ideas of lifts that include the shoulders and supporting muscles that could help prevent this happening in the future.

Replies

  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
    Do you have a warm up routine that includes shoulder mobility work?

    For example; band dislocates, arm circles, Cuban rotations.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,676 Member
    If the pain continues, you'd do well to get some PT. When the shoulder hurts, you either do less, which can lead to a frozen shoulder, or you continue to work out, which can lead to a worse tear needing surgery. Either way, recovery will take longer than dealing with it properly now.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
    I would get an appointment to see Physical Therapist. My slight tear in my rotator cuff turned into a frozen shoulder. I wish I had seen a PT sooner. Recovery from a jacked up shoulder is a long process.

  • jstuckemeyer
    jstuckemeyer Posts: 7 Member
    This is very unscientific so take it for what its worth, but I suffered with a nagging rotator cuff injury for several years. It resulted from assembling a backyard playset for my kids. The pain would really manifest itself when I would do routine things like pull up my pants. I thought about having surgery, but I always put it off. A few years ago, I decided to do P90X with my son. At first, I couldn't do the pull-ups despite being reasonably fit. I was determined, so I bought a chin-up max rubber-band thingy and used it religiously for a few weeks until I could do pull-ups unassisted. The satisfaction from being able to do 50 or so pull-ups a day was so great, that I continued to do them long after P90X ended and I still do them today. After about two or three months, I noticed the rotator cuff pain had disappeared and the problem went away. That was about four years ago. Good luck, I know the rotator cuff is a real nuisance.
  • lkpducky
    lkpducky Posts: 16,731 Member
    edited November 2018
    What @spiriteagle99 and @L1zardQueen said. I also had a strained rotator cuff turn into a frozen shoulder (I was getting PT for the injury but thought it was getting better so I slacked off - and then the shoulder froze). The whole business took nearly a year to heal (from the first injury to the healing of the frozen shoulder) and many PT sessions and exercises.
  • 33gail33
    33gail33 Posts: 1,155 Member
    Yep - also had a "minor" shoulder pop turn into frozen shoulder. Frozen shoulder is hell - you want to avoid that so get to a physio. When my second shoulder started to go the same way I got cortisone shots early and physio and avoided it freezing.
  • ThomasPM
    ThomasPM Posts: 18 Member
    I had to have surgery on a tear in my left shoulder, did it on September 7th. I'm still out of work on dissability which was 9 weeks ago.
    I'm doing PT 3 times a week, I've never had so much pain as I do now..We just started strength training this week with a 3 lb weight to do lateral raises, I never thought 3 lbs was so heavy.
  • DietrickKooyman
    DietrickKooyman Posts: 6 Member
    Thanks everyone, it has been getting better and pain is decreasing. I am now back to comfortably doing ~45 pushups a day where 20 was hell. The largest thing I have noticed is when lifting my arm up to parallel with my my head only causes minor pain and I have significantly decreased flexability for behind back reach. Working with more stretching and supporting lifts in hopes these will do the trick.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    L1zardQueen wrote: »
    I would get an appointment to see Physical Therapist. My slight tear in my rotator cuff turned into a frozen shoulder. I wish I had seen a PT sooner. Recovery from a jacked up shoulder is a long process.

    I didn't get to frozen shoulder stage, but mine took years to heal. Even now, I have to be very careful with certain movements or it sends a clear message to change now or regret it later (and by later I mean in a few seconds).
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,676 Member
    You shouldn't be doing pushups with a shoulder injury. Wait until it is fully healed.
  • jseams1234
    jseams1234 Posts: 1,216 Member
    edited November 2018
    DietrickKooyman wrote: »
    Thanks everyone, it has been getting better and pain is decreasing. I am now back to comfortably doing ~45 pushups a day where 20 was hell. The largest thing I have noticed is when lifting my arm up to parallel with my my head only causes minor pain and I have significantly decreased flexability for behind back reach. Working with more stretching and supporting lifts in hopes these will do the trick.

    Did you actually see a doctor about this and get an MRI? Rotator cuff injuries are very specific and depending on the severity of the tear surgery might be required. You can't diagnose a typical RC injury with just an X-Ray and there are a lot of different issue that crop up in that area that are painful. For example - I fell and jammed my arm into my shoulder and they diagnosed it initially as a rotator cuff tear (they thought a complete tear) because I couldn't elevate my arm at all. A few weeks later they found out that what I actually had was an avulsion fracture of the greater tuberosity - not the muscles or tendons, but the actually bone at the attachment point for 3 of the 4 RC muscles. Took a year to heal properly and I lost about 10% range of motion. This is a permanent loss unless they intervene surgically... then as others have mentioned I ended up with adhesive capsulitis (frozen shoulder). However, the method they used to fix that was effective and brutal. They numb the area up, inject cortisone, and a brutish nurse who looked like an East German power lifter wrenched my arm about and broke up the adhesions. ;)
  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
    Having dealt with shoulder problems over the years, two main things keep me pain free in the gym. One is proper warm up (exercises from PT form the basis of that work, using bands and very light weights for cuban snatches). The other is to forgo overhead presses and use incline bench instead, with very careful attention to form and shoulder placement.

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