Anyone injured a rotator cuff? If so, what did you do to make it heal. I screwed mine up over the weekend, and I want to get better so I can still lift.
Lay off the exercise that caused the injury. The most common culprits seem to be the flat bench press with elbows out, incline barbell presses and upright rows. Take chondroitin and glucosamine sulfate. Rehab using external rotation exercises. Poliquin and Alessi have some good ones in the main web site. HTH.
Get the poliquin principles…not only is it great advice for the rotator cuff but every bodypart he goes into…and i used what he told me too do and my rotator cuff has been injury free for like a year or two now…ummm once you do start working out again ice your shoulder… this reduces inflammation and also take alleve…an anti inflamatory…to help speed recovery heat your shoulder for like 20 minutes then ice it for like 15 minutes…this should also aid in recovery…but seriously buy poliquin principles or go search around in t-mag and enter in rotator cuff exercises into the search button and see what comes up…let me know if i can help ya any more…oh yeah find out what exercises hurt you then avoid them…like barbell bench press hurts my rotator cuff…so i do incline barbell presses and dumbbell presses…i am starting to be able to do dips with weight and no pain so you just have to ease back into it use great technique and when you do feel pain dont work through it quit exercise and find exercise that doesnt hurt it…then ice after workout…good luck and let me know if ya need some more help
I’ve had impingement on and off for a couple years, and I’m just now solving the problem. For me, flat bench presses are the most painful. I can do direct shoulder work and it doesn’t both it, though. My problem resulted in a significant strength deficit in external rotation vs. internal rotation. I would suggest going to a specialist/physical therapist to identify exactly what the problem is. Then, they’ll treat it accordingly. Generally, the idea is to stimulate blood flow to the area for healing with light weights and rubber tubing exercises, and maybe even some ultrasound. Hope this helps. All the best.
I’ve had rotator cuff and biceps tendonits problems in the past, but have been able to train around it by doing a couple things:
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First let it heal. Ultrasound may help some. Lay off flat bench, press behind the neck and even deadlifts can cause problems. Snatches (the lift) were what originally caused problems for me. Avoid movements that cause pain.
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When you get pretty much healed up, make sure you warm up thoroughly each and every time you lift. A great warmup for the rotator cuff is to hold a medium weight dumbell in the hand of the injured shoulder, bend at the waist and support your weight on a bench with the other hand. Let the weight hang and swing the dumbell in small circles in each direction 15 or 20 times to loosen the cuff. Perform this before each of your warmup sets.
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Do L-flyes with relatively light weight for 8 to 12 reps. These are performed laying on your side on a 20 to 30 degree (slightly inclined) bench. You hold the dumbell in your top hand, bend you elbow at 90 degrees, and rotate slightly up and down from your side. You should do these twice per week. Do them when you work shoulders.
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Massage the point that it hurts fairly vigorously with your fingers. Apply direct pressure. You can do this almost every day. I’ve found that this really helps.
Make sure you keep this regimen up even when you think you’re healed. You need to be disciplined about this, otherwise you can easily reinjure yourself.
Good luck!
Wow, thanks for the replies guys. Your input really means a lot to me. With all of your advice, I want to make my cuffs stronger than ever, although it looks like I’m going to have to lay off the weights for a while. Thanks once again. I plan to give myself a months time, and I’ll let you all know how I’m doing.
BTW. I’ve had the Poliquin Principles lying on my shelf for the past several years and I completely forgot about it. If Rob hadn’t reminded me, that book would have still been on my shelf, unread since the Macarena was cool.
I recently had a rotator cuff injury and got it taken care of in less than three weeks using ART. Find a good provider in your area and go to him/her immediately. I’m back to 100%
I had a rotator cuff injury occured while flat barbell benching, and I really think that this was a blessing in disguise. My injury occured due to sever overtraining, i.e. bench 2 or 3 times a week, working to a single rep each workout. When i injured my rotator cuff, i tried to keep lifting and found myself getting weaker and weaker due to teh severe pain i was in. so…what i did was i took a month off, no gym at all except some abs and some cardio to keep a little active. i bought those elastic bands and made up my own excercises to really pinpoint the area that was injured and week. also, i stretched and massaged everyday. i came back a month later and was able to get back to full strength on the bench in a month, make sure you start real light and super slow. avoid and shoulder workout besides the elastics for at least 3 months. also, i find any behind the head movement or standing barbell curls hurt my shoulder the most. make sure you ice, and really, i would suggest looking into Mag 10 to further strengthen the little muscles of the cuff. But, dont let your strength gains make you think that reinjury is not possible, do not overtrain or attempt shoulders or curls for at least 2-3 months.
When i fucked mine up(severly sprained, loud popping noise on lifting the arm and ) i went to see my doc. He sent me to a sports rehab place(Bruins and other boston professional athletes have been to)and they told me that it WOULD NOT TEAR IF I KEPT lifting hard, but that it might take longer to heal. Because Im rather serios about training and rugby, I didn’t see a need for time off, doing the basic band rehab in/ext DID NOT HELP. what worked the best was to use a band and do hundreds of diffrent motions SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY, even some motions that could aggrevatre it if not careful. Good luck, itll heal up in 6-8 months if similar to mine. ALso its gonna hurt, so try heating pre wo, and longer warmups. Also lay sideways on bench grasp db on floor and do a reverse of a pectoral fly motion. This helped immensly, done on all upper body days, three sets at the end
I was diagnosed with a slight tear, and thickness (tendonitis) in my right rotator cuff tendon afetr a car accident. i have done the routine in Rotator Cuff Solution and it helped somewhat. But what helped alot so far, are those chest expanders cables. Matt Furey sells the ones I use, but Irnmind sell a good set also. I also got this video from matt Furey titled “How to eliminate shoulder pain in 30 days”.
I wasnt sure these cables would help but they really did. The exercises work the shoulder girdle through all different angles and also gave me alot more flexibility in the region. Not only that but I have noticed my delts fell alot fuller.
ART therapy will also help in breaking up scar tissue from the injury.
And also I have been looking into Prolotherapy.
I havent done it, but once I find a doctor in my area I am going to give it a shot. This is where they inject an irritant (sugar water basically) into your joint at where the tendon or ligament is attached to the bone, and it causees an inflamination in the area that sends blood and nutrients to the area. The proponents of this therapy says it repairs the tendon or ligament (slight tears, tendonitits, etc). I wish T-Mag would do some research on this also, alot of athletes are having this done now. C Everette Koop (the former US Suregon) endoreses this therapy.
Brad, I’ve been looking into ART and heard many good things about it. I am not familiar with the procedures these therapists use, and I was wondering if it’s ok if you can tell me what they actually did to you. It would really mean a lot. Thanks.
Sure thing bud. Basically at your first session the DC will give you an initial screening and get as much background information on yourself and your specific injury. Then the actual injury site is localized. For example, I knew my rotator cuff was messed up, but it was my supraspinatous that was giving me the most problems. Then the DC will actually give you sort of a message/therapy session. Basically, he applies pressure to a specific point on a targeted muscle group and then has you go through a designated motion. Just imagine someone pressing really hard on your rear delt area for example, and then moving your arm forward like a bench press and then pulling your arm across your body with your other free hand. This was one of my favorite manouvers while I was being treated. You’ll go through a whole series of these “active” motions as the ART provider is tryig to “release” tension on the designated area by clearing away muscle scar tissue and lesions. At first, naturally, this is uncomfortable but IMO bearable. After a few sessions it begins to “hurt so good” as everyone says. I went six times and I am back to as good as new! Hope this helps, and best of luck with everyting.
reeshdawg: I have a slight problem with the AC joint in my right shoulder. It flairs up now and then and is usually accompanied by pain in the rotator cuff. This is brought on by the pressing movements performed in a traditional bodybuilding routine. I also had an on-going problem with a right elbow tendon which went into spasm whenever I did any kind of heavy bicep work.
Having read about “negative only” training a few years back and then again in T-MAG earlier last year (Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION A Solution to Tendonitis? by Peter Blanchonette) I put together a program that consisted of “negative only” exercises, but just for my - CHEST, TRI’S, SHOULDERS, and BICEPS - those being the affected areas. I trained with my usual exercises for the legs and back (i.e. - dead lifts, rows, squats etc… you get the picture.) The main obstacle for me was training alone!
Having only one example to work with (the machine bench press where you press the lever with your foot to get the weight up) I HAD TO INVENT MY MOVEMENTS. Most of the exercises I employed were hybrid movements involving dumbbells and machines (50% uni and 50 % bilateral). A common thread I used on all my movements was that of a 5 second negative, usually performed for 6 - 8 reps. I paused a few times during the descent while flexing against the weight.
I did this routine back in september/October. Results: My shoulder regained stability… pain subsided … and I was once again able to perform all my favorite
pressing movements… except for flat and decline bench. My bicep tendon is now completely healed, and I can curl heavy with no pain or spasm. Believe it or not, I was still able to get in a damn good workout on this routine. What sucks is that 5 months later my
shoulder is acting up again (not nearly as bad) so I have to go back to “eccentric only exercises” for pressing movements (probably just for 2 weeks this time). The good news is that my bicep tendon is doing really great now!
I fucked my Rotator cuff big time several years back,at one point I couldn’t even press a 25 db on my RHS.My shoulder felt like it had gravel inside when I moved my arm around. My successful treatment proceeded as follows-I rested,found a doctor who performed prolotherapy ( a mixture of glucose and lignocaine that is injected directly into the injured area) which produced almost instant improvement, I cannot speak highly enough of this treatment.Then I went to a chiro who helped get the joint mobile,then when I was confident I started using the shoulderhorn,which was also a great help.I also used glucosamine about the same time I started using the S/Horn. My shoulder is now stronger than ever.
I also took a good look at my routine and ditched a lot of excercises,and changed my benching technique,similar to what Dave Tate prescribes (elbows IN, scapula pushed back and down to flatten your back against the bench).Best of luck!