Hey everyone,
Yesterday at the gym I think I injured my rotator cuff. I was doing DB Incline Bench and when I tried to get the DB’s up, I struggled with my left arm and had to drop the weight. I then found someone to spot me and the rest of the workout went fine. Shortly after I returned home my shoulder started to hurt, especially if I tried to move my left arm quickly. I took some Motrin and tried doing some stretching and when I got to doing some external rotations, I could barely raise my arm.
I put some heat on the shoulder and some ice before I went to bed. Woke up and things feel a little better, although my ROM is still limited.
Any suggestions as to what I should do to help the healing process?
In general, heat is not a good idea for the first 48-72 hours after an injury. Your best bet is to go with ice until it settles down. Anti-inflammatories will also help keep the swelling down. You should stay away from activities that bother it right now, then gradually add them back in as tolerated.
If the pain does not seem to be subsiding, or if your range of motion is compromised, get it checked out.
It is likely that you strained a tendon during the lift, but it did not bother you while the muscle was still warm. If you reaggrivate it before it heals, it can develop into a tendinitis. So keep icing it, and let it settle down.
There are a few other injuries that could have occurred, but a R-C strain is quite likely.
I started rotator cuff work 2x a week and took 400 mg Advil 3x a day for about the 1st week after injury. Did some scapular retractions (top portion of push up). I recovered very quickly and never had a problem since. Let me know if you want to know any more info bout how I got over it.
[quote]Modi wrote:
In general, heat is not a good idea for the first 48-72 hours after an injury. Your best bet is to go with ice until it settles down. Anti-inflammatories will also help keep the swelling down. You should stay away from activities that bother it right now, then gradually add them back in as tolerated.
If the pain does not seem to be subsiding, or if your range of motion is compromised, get it checked out.
It is likely that you strained a tendon during the lift, but it did not bother you while the muscle was still warm. If you reaggrivate it before it heals, it can develop into a tendinitis. So keep icing it, and let it settle down.
There are a few other injuries that could have occurred, but a R-C strain is quite likely.[/quote]
I figured that I was able to finish my workout b/c my body was already warmed up (I had done mobility and prehab work and also a few leg exercises before the injury). I’ll change over to ice treatments and take some anti-inflammatories.
[quote]IronDude17 wrote:
Wow, I had the EXACT same scenario happen to me about 3 weeks ago. I made a post about my experience a few weeks ago that you can check out if you want my story on it: http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1266187&pageNo=0#1266856
I started rotator cuff work 2x a week and took 400 mg Advil 3x a day for about the 1st week after injury. Did some scapular retractions (top portion of push up). I recovered very quickly and never had a problem since. Let me know if you want to know any more info bout how I got over it.[/quote]