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Originally Posted by jsamples12
Has anyone here dealt with a rotator cuff injury? If so please let me know about it.
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This is one of the most common issues I come across in training my clients... It would help to know how serious the injury is...
In my experience, rotator cuff pain isn't that serious, it's usually just impingement or inflammation. If you do really intense shoulder exercises (like heavy military presses for instance) and don't do any rotator exercises, you may experience this. A couple of years back, I even had problems in my right rotator because as I slept I was rolling over to my side and sleeping on my right arm...
If it is just an impingement/inflammation then give it some rest; lay off working out for a couple of weeks - then start doing excercises specifically to strengthen the rotator muscles.
This is probably the most popular rotator strengthening exercise...
Lie horizontally on a bench or mat (with the shoulder you wish to strengthen on top) and tuck your elbow in at your side. Hold a light dumbell in front of your stomach and rotate your forearm up and back to its full range of motion, keeping the elbow tight at the side. You can also do this exercise standing if you have a band or cable to the side (where the resistance is now horizontal). A very common mistake I see is people standing doing this exercise with dumbells - the key is the resistance has to be in the plane of the shoulder rotation (and free weight resistance is always down).
Another good one is 'pouring the water out of the jug'... Stand holding light dumbells at your side... Think as if you were holding 2 gallons of milk... Now lift up your arms in front of you, as you lift rotate the thumbs inward and down as if you were pouring out the milk... Squeeze and hold for a second at the top... This one is great for anterior deltoids as well...
Hope this is enough to get you started J, if your injury was more extensive than what I mentioned above (like a tear for instance) it may require surgery, and rehabilitation with a physical therapist, which goes beyond my scope of expertise as a fitness trainer...