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I Fixed a Rotator Muscle Tear with Simple Exercises

By: Nick Bryant

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That statement may not mean a great deal to you but to me it meant a lot. I tore the rotator muscle in my left shoulder and ended up with a shoulder impingement. I had been in pain for about six months and even had surgery booked so being able to sort out the tear with rest and exercise was a bit of a surprise, albeit a welcome one.

If we back up about a year I will explain from the start.

I was moving some flat packed office furniture . I was finally being allowed a home office and was keen to get it set up. Being somewhat impatient I lifted a heavy package on my own. I was careful, looked after my back and took the weight using my leg muscles. Where I went wrong was to keep my left arm absolutely straight which meant all the weight was pulling straight down on my shoulder. I felt a twang and that was the start of months of inconvenience and pain.

I had torn the supraspinatus which is one of the four tendons which make up the rotator cuff. It was only a partial tear but it caused the muscle to swell up. Since the supraspinatus runs through a channel of bone in your shoulder, the inflammation caused it to get trapped, rubbing against the bone.

This in turn meant that every time that I moved it in a certain way, the tendon was getting damaged further.

What started out as a sore shoulder soon deteriorated as I continued to use my arm. The pain spread down my arm and went from being occasional to being a constant pain in my shoulder. My shoulder started to stiffen up and become immobile and my arm just got weaker and weaker.

My doctor sent me to a specialist who diagnosed a rotator cuff tear and shoulder impingment. He gave me a steroid injection to help with the inflammation and told me to rest the arm.

To cut a long story short; after two more steroid injections my arm was no better. The injections alleviated the symptoms for a while but gradually the pain would return, so in the end I was booked for surgery to free up the trapped tendon.

It was while I was waiting for my operation that I started looking into shoulder injuries on the internet and found out that exercise features in all recovery programmes. What I had been doing wrong, was not resting my arm properly. Each movement was causing more damage so although the injections helped with the inflammation, I was causing more trouble by continuing to use the shoulder.

So I stopped using my arm, avoiding carefully any movement that gave pain. I gave up driving, rearranged my desk at work and asked for help with anything I found difficult. I also began taking anti-inflammatory drugs every four hours. The pain reduced and I started to get some movement back.

Then I began exercising my shoulder. No lifting weights, these were gentle low resistance exercises focusing more on flexibility and control. They were Pilates based rather than bearing any resemblance to gym based exercises. Gradually over the following weeks I increased the amount of exercise always taking care that I did not feel any pain. My shoulder became more mobile and is now back to normal without the promised surgery.

What do I put this down to? I think rest is the most important thing to do with a rotator muscle injury. Treating the inflammation reduces the pain and stops you doing further damage. The exercises focused on the whole shoulder, which meant that other muscles could take the strain while my rotator cuff healed.

As we get older our posture changes putting a strain on different muscles. I think that the exercises woke up a few sleepy muscles and improved the overall health of my shoulders.

Whatever it was, I'm taking no chances. Exercising my shoulders is now routine.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

If you found this article useful or just plain interesting then and would like to know more about rotator muscle injuries and their treatment read my story at myrotatorcuffcure.blogspot.com

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