Workout injuries: Paying attention to your Rotator Cuff

We usually think shoulder injuries are limited to people who lift weight and do push-ups. We couldn’t be more wrong. A particularly sensitive part of your shoulders, the rotator cuff can get injured by any kind of repeated activity that involves the shoulders. So if you enjoy jumping, skipping with a rope, running, lifting heavy objects or just plain old spring cleaning the windows, you should definitely pay attention to rotator cuffs. Even poor posture or slouching can affect the rotator cuff.

So what is a rotator cuff? You can think of the rotator cuff as the bunch of muscles and tendons that glue your upper arm and shoulder together. They’re also responsible for keeping the ball of the upper arm attached firmly to the shoulder socket. That means any movement you make using your shoulders or upper arms requires your rotator cuff to be in top shape. Especially if the activity requires your arms go overhead, like shooting baskets or stacking stuff on a high shelf.

Since we can’t give up on doing basic things like reaching out for the cookie jar on the top shelf, we need to figure out a way to keep the rotator cuff strong and injury-free. We’ll get to that but first we’ll discuss what do if our rotator cuff is already in trouble.

Recognizing a Rotator Cuff Injury

You know your rotator cuff is messed if you feel pain while performing overhead movements or reaching behind or even when you’re sleeping sideways on a shoulder. Even small things like combing your hair or rubbing your forehead would cause pain. Since the rotator cuff controls all the movement you make with your upper arm and shoulder, if the muscles and tendons get irritated in the rotator cuff, any and every movement would cause some pain.

Now if the pain is slight, it can be easily countered with the exercises and steps we discuss below. But if the pain is strong and it doesn’t allow you do any activity at all using that arm, you should go to a doctor immediately. If your slight shoulder pain has been on for a week, we strongly suggest going to a doctor. However, unless you have a history of shoulder pain or unless you have fallen and injured your shoulders, most rotator cuff injuries start off as a small inflammation of the shoulder muscles. And thankfully we’ve got the steps to fix it before it becomes a full-blown problem.

Treating a Rotator Cuff Injury

Now, the good news is that most rotator cuff injuries heal on their own if you follow the steps below.

• The first thing to do is to not aggravate the injury. So resting the shoulder joint is primary. Stop all movement from that arm. Keep it still. If you need to move around and work, use your other arm.
• Icing your shoulder, that is gently pressing ice packs where it hurts, at least three to four times a day during the first two-three days of the injury is a must. Ice counters the inflammation of the muscles and tendons and is known to provide instant relief from pain.
• Once the pain has dulled and been subdued, after two to three days of resting the muscle and letting it heal, perform light range of motion exercises that can test whether your rotator cuff is back to normal.
• By light range of motion exercises, we mean simple movements like slowly raising your hand upward, swinging your arm and lifting light objects. Try lying down on the side of the shoulder which was injured. If it doesn’t pain then that means the injury has healed.

If this works, then that means you’ve weathered the injury and the next step is to prevent it in the future.

Preventing a Rotator Cuff Injury

The biggest way to avoid a rotator cuff injury is to acknowledge the rotator cuff. Most workout regimes focus on the front muscles of chest, upper arm and shoulders like deltoids and biceps. But it’s equally important to focus on developing the muscles at the back of your shoulders. Before we discuss simple exercises that help prevent rotator cuff injuries, we’ve got a few everyday things you need to pay attention to outside of the gym:

• If your work requires regular lifting of objects or reaching for a high shelf, take timed breaks that accompany the pattern of the movement. If you have to lift ten times, make sure you rest your shoulder and arm for at least ten minutes in the middle. Make sure you stretch your arms and shoulders before you do any heavy lifting.
• Try to sleep on your back and not turned sideways. Sleeping on a shoulder only puts additional pressure on the muscles, making them vulnerable to inflammation when you’re awake and doing simple activities. Besides, there are plenty of benefits to sleeping on your back.

In the gym, make sure you do warm-up exercises. Stretch your shoulders and arm before you start with any activity.

Do a simple, rotator-cuff friendly exercise routine before any workout: do multiple reps of light and easy exercises like arm raises and the most popular hug a tree motion, which requires you to bring your arms to a circle and release.

Now, with the cable machines you need to do internal and external rotations.

Internal rotation is when you keep your arm close to the cable machine, and your elbow at a 90 degree flex and slowly bring your fist/arm inwards, towards your belly in a motion that would resemble you punching your belly without breaking the elbow flex at 90 degrees.

External rotation is the opposite of internal rotation, instead of bringing your arm inwards, you need to move it outwards away from belly. Keep your arm at a distance from the cable machine.

Make sure shoulder flys are a part of your regimen.