Getting Rid of Shoulder Pain - Treating a Rotator Cuff Injury

Shoulder injuries can be some of the most aggravating and painful to endure, and when in the midst of trying to get through, it often seems as if they won’t ever go away. If you’re there now, you likely know this to be true.

Simple things are difficult or impossible to do and even getting dressed is a chore rife with pain. The range of motion for that injured rotator cuff can become so severely limited that you may not even be able to lift your arm even halfway, much less grab anything from an upper shelf.

One of the most complex parts of the human body is the rotator cuff which is why shoulder injuries in general and rotator cuff injuries in particular are so much harder to recover from. It’s called a rotator because of the full range of motion through 360 degrees that it allows when working correctly, and no other joint in the body can perform the same.

To make this amazing capability possible, the rotator cuff is comprised of several muscle groups and tendons all working in tandem to keep your arm attached to the shoulder blade. In fact, looking at how the ball end of the upper arm is held in the shoulders socket, one can’t help but appreciate the intricacies of its construction.

But along with incredible possibilities for movement comes the chance for undue stresses which makes injuries to the rotator cuff a somewhat common occurrence. There are many causes such as the impact from a fall, lifting incorrectly, and even doing the same arm movement over and over. Maybe you hyper-extended trying to reach something or did so at an awkward angle.

Throwing type activities like football or baseball, and any number of other athletic pursuits can cause the injury, as can especially heavy demands made of the shoulders in certain trades like building or loading. Aging is also an increased risk for this type injury, and sometimes a simple movement can bring it on.

Our shoulders extremely wide performance range when its working as advertised is exactly why we feel its loss so much when its not. After an injury, the most prevalent symptom is pain. In some cases nothing you do makes it stop. Reaching for anything is out of the question and even if you could, holding it up to bring it to you would be agonizingly impossible.

The shoulder will often feel weak and just trying to put on a shirt or jacket will be an ordeal. If the injury itself doesn’t force limits on movement, you will likely find that favoring that arm by not sleeping on it or doing much with it will help reduce the pain. In general, the more continuous the pain, the more serious the injury up to the point of a torn rotator cuff.

In general, inflammation only injuries include Tendonitis and Bursitis. Tendonitis is a repetitive trauma to the muscle from everyday use where the tendons in the rotator cuff become inflamed due to overuse. This can happen with athletes, and also older folks as muscles degenerate with age. In Bursitis, the fluid-filled sac between your shoulder joint and rotator cuff tendons gets irritated and inflamed.

Muscle tears can be chronic or acute. A chronic tear can result from repetitive stress from continual overhead movement of your arms which can stress rotator cuff muscles and tendons, causing inflammation and eventually tearing.

An acute tear results from falls directly on the shoulder, or on the arm while raised in an attempt to cushion a fall. Also by lifting a heavy object that’s too heavy with arms extended, or pulling on something with too much force.

Foremost in any sufferers mind is how can I fix this thing and do so as fast as possible. This really depends on the type of injury sustained. The problem may be muscle inflammation with no permanent damage done, or some amount of tearing that might require surgery. Most of the time self-care steps and exercise treatment that is reliable and medically sound will lead to recovery.

To start with, this involves rest; cold, then heat therapy; pain and anti-inflammatory medications; then easy exercising to avoid stiff joints. Once some movement is possible and healing occurs, proper re-conditioning, training, and strengthening exercises are the way to full recovery.

You want to be sure to utilize a method of conditioning, training, and strengthening that is reliable and medically proven. Foremost is to deal with the injury as soon as possible after it happens. Just pampering it for many days on end with no improvement is not the answer. Knowing when to see a doctor is critical as is understanding the proper way to care for yourself. If a rotator cuff injury is not acute, recovery is most often possible with proper exercise therapy.

To get more in-depth information on the shoulder and rotator cuff injuries, as well as proper rotator cuff treatment, check out our resource pages.