Shoulder Exercises - The Way to a Pain Free Shoulder
Posted: Thursday, November 05, 2009
by Nick Bryant
After damaging my rotator cuff about six months back I have spent a great deal of my time looking into the subject of shoulder problems and shoulder exercises on the world wide web and have found out that simple exercises can sort out a huge proportion of shoulder problems.
At the end of last year I managed to tear my left rotator cuff. It was a bad tear as they go and I ended up with an impinged tendon. Basically one of the tendons became inflamed after I lifted something heavy and tore one of the muscles in my rotator cuff. Because it was inflamed it was getting impinged or pinched by my clavicle or collar bone. The pain was bad. Each time I moved my shoulder in certain directions my tendon was getting worn against the bone.
I tried a three month course of Ibuprofen, a steroid injection right into the muscle and even cold compresses to reduce the swelling. All of them gave some relief and reduced the symptoms but each time the pain came back and nothing was getting better. In the end I was offered corrective surgery to shave away a small piece of my collar bone to free up the tendon so that it could heal. Being based in England, with the NHS waiting lists, the surgery was scheduled for three months away and having already suffered three months of discomfort and pain I was reluctant to wait any longer.
So I started finding out about shoulder injuries and shoulder therapy and discovered that physical therapy can do a lot for rotator cuff problems.
The secret is to rest the arm to start off with and work on the inflammation. My mistake had been to try carrying on as normal which could have damaged my arm even further. Once I rested it properly for a couple of weeks I was able to start simple exercises designed isolate and strengthen my rotator cuff. It was bizarre because only two weeks before the thought of doing any kind of shoulder exercise seemed absurd but it worked. It is important not to experience pain when exercising as any pain indicates that you are damaging the muscles further so I started slowly and built up over about six weeks until I found myself with a healthy, pain free shoulder that had its full range of movement restored.
Another four weeks on and I have just played my first round of golf. The shoulder therapy has not only sorted out my rotator cuff but they also seem to have improved my swing, or is that just wishful thinking?
Why did it work? I think that as we age our posture changes, we don't stand as straight as we did when we were younger, we move slightly differently to when we were younger. What I think is that the shoulder exercises have woken up some lazy muscles and changed my posture for the better, only slightly, but enough to free up the problem tendons. Would I recommend exercise as a therapy for a rotator cuff problem?
Definitely! Not every shoulder injury will respond to just exercise. Common sense would say that it must depend on what you have managed to do to yourself but ten weeks after I was told that surgery was the only option I am pain free and feel great. The surgery is postponed indefinitely at the moment.
Having torn my rotator cuff and ending up with a shoulder impingement I started to research shoulders and shoulder exercises to better understand my own injury. Read more on my blog at http://www.strongershoulders.com
At the end of last year I managed to tear my left rotator cuff. It was a bad tear as they go and I ended up with an impinged tendon. Basically one of the tendons became inflamed after I lifted something heavy and tore one of the muscles in my rotator cuff. Because it was inflamed it was getting impinged or pinched by my clavicle or collar bone. The pain was bad. Each time I moved my shoulder in certain directions my tendon was getting worn against the bone.
So I started finding out about shoulder injuries and shoulder therapy and discovered that physical therapy can do a lot for rotator cuff problems.
The secret is to rest the arm to start off with and work on the inflammation. My mistake had been to try carrying on as normal which could have damaged my arm even further. Once I rested it properly for a couple of weeks I was able to start simple exercises designed isolate and strengthen my rotator cuff. It was bizarre because only two weeks before the thought of doing any kind of shoulder exercise seemed absurd but it worked. It is important not to experience pain when exercising as any pain indicates that you are damaging the muscles further so I started slowly and built up over about six weeks until I found myself with a healthy, pain free shoulder that had its full range of movement restored.
Another four weeks on and I have just played my first round of golf. The shoulder therapy has not only sorted out my rotator cuff but they also seem to have improved my swing, or is that just wishful thinking?
Why did it work? I think that as we age our posture changes, we don't stand as straight as we did when we were younger, we move slightly differently to when we were younger. What I think is that the shoulder exercises have woken up some lazy muscles and changed my posture for the better, only slightly, but enough to free up the problem tendons. Would I recommend exercise as a therapy for a rotator cuff problem?
Definitely! Not every shoulder injury will respond to just exercise. Common sense would say that it must depend on what you have managed to do to yourself but ten weeks after I was told that surgery was the only option I am pain free and feel great. The surgery is postponed indefinitely at the moment.
Having torn my rotator cuff and ending up with a shoulder impingement I started to research shoulders and shoulder exercises to better understand my own injury. Read more on my blog at http://www.strongershoulders.com
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