Most Shoulder Injuries Respond Well To Exercise – But Make Sure That It’s The Right Type of Exercise
Diet Expert | Oct 16, 2009 | Comments 0
Shoulder bursities, shoulder dislocation, shoulder impingement, frozen shoulder or torn rotator cuff. Whichever of these shoulder injuries you are suffering from, a physical therapy regime will almost certainly feature as part of the treatment but you need to make sure that it is the right sort of shoulder exercise and that you are doing it at the correct time in the recovery process or you could end up with a bill for corrective surgery.
With a rotator cuff injury, for example, it is vital to allow the muscles heal and any swelling to subside before you start exercising. The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles which help to move, strengthen and stabilize the shoulder. They all run from the shoulder blade to the upper arm and pull the ball at the top of the humerus into the socket of the shoulder. They surround the joint forming a cuff of muscle, hence the name. Without them the shoulder would be extremely easy to dislocate. One of these muscles, the supraspinatus, runs through a tunnel of bone at the top of the scapula.
When it becomes damaged you can end up with an impinged shoulder where the swollen tendon is getting snagged against the bone each time that you move it. This can lead to the muscle fraying and eventually snapping if you ignore it and try exercising. Trust me, that is not a result that you want.
With a frozen shoulder, it may be frustrating but it is important to wait until the end of the freezing stage before trying any exercise as again you can cause more damage. Exercises for frozen shoulder are based around regaining movement, often working through the pain. If you did the same sort of exercises for a rotator cuff injury, you would end up injuring yourself even more and spend even more time recovering. Worst case scenario is that you could turn a simple injury, requiring rest and therapy, into a bigger needing corrective surgery followed by several months of rest and therapy.
So whatever the injury, it is vitally important to get the treatment right. Pain is usually an indication that rest is required and with any type of shoulder injury that is definitely right. Rest the joint and muscles, try anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen or even steroid injections and once the inflammation is under control you can start exercising again, but always start with low resistance exercises.
If you have damaged one of the rotator cuff muscles, these are very small muscles that should only be exercised using low weights or resistance. To start with you would probably use no weight at all just using the natural weight of your arm to make the muscles work..
Never work through shoulder injuries of any sort. Rest first, let the healing start and then start to work the muscles and joint with the right shoulder exercises.
If you found this article interesting check out my full story at My name is Nick Bryant and I tore my rotator cuff lifting something that was too heavy. Despite being told that I would need surgery I have managed a full recovery with just phyical therapy. Check out one of my other articles on shoulder exercises
www..myrotatorcuffcure.blogspot.com
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