The predominant treatment for a rotator cuff injury includes some type of exercise therapy along with self-care measures. In fact with proper care a majority of these type injuries will mend fine on their own. Below are steps to follow if you believe you have injured your rotator cuff. Then we can answer the question “how do I strengthen my rotator cuff?”

The first thing is to stop doing whatever it was that caused the pain. Rest the shoulder and limit it’s range of motion until it starts feeling a bit better – usually a couple days to a week.

Find a pain reliever and take it until the pain is no longer intolerable. Use OTC (over-the-counter) NASIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) or naproxen (Aleve), or acetaminophen (Tylenol).

During the first two days apply ice on the shoulder every couple hours to reduce inflammation and pain. Use a cold pack or just wrap ice up in a towel and apply for around 20 minutes each time.

Once the inflammation is under contol switch to heat to relax the muscles which may have become constricted and feel sore. Use a heating pad or hot packs for no more than 20 minutes at a time.

Realize that inactivity will make your joints stiff and after a couple days some gentle exercises will help to limber them back up. Favoring your shoulder and not using it at all can cause it to freeze up where it becomes so stiffened you can hardly move it. The heat will help as you start to extend its range of motion a bit too.

As the injury heals and range of motion returns, continue to exercise. Doing stretches and regular rotator cuff exercises, along with a strengthening program will help prevent a recurrence of a rotator cuff injury.

If you’re already started seeing a therapist for symptoms, they will no doubt have discussed certain exercises to meet your particular needs.

Which ones will depend somewhat on the extent of your specific rotator cuff injuries, but they’ll be targeted both at improving flexibility, as well as strengthening the surrounding shoulder muscles. In the case where some are dominant, the exercises will help create balance across different shoulder muscle groups.

Beyond rotator cuff exercises, other treatments for more serious injuries include steroid injections to relieve pain & inflammation, and various forms of surgery. A surgeon may do an open repair or arthroscopic procedure to mend a small tear.

More extensive surgical options would include partial or total shoulder replacement in the form of a ball and socket prosthesis. This latter is only appropriate for extensive or repetitive shoulder injuries that have failed to heal using less invasive procedures. But for people with arthritis, unusually complicated shoulder problems, and multiple muscle and tendon tears, the prosthesis approach may be best.

Remember that surgery often becomes necessary because injuries have been neglected. By finding the right answer to “how do I strengthen my rotator cuff?”, and following through with this sort of therapy, a recurrence will be increasingly unlikely and you’ll never has to deal with the surgery.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 12:50 pm and is filed under Healthy Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.