Home » Simple Shoulder Pain Exercises Sorted Out My Torn Rotator Cuff in Just A Few Weeks

It was about a year ago that I tore my rotator cuff while lifting some flat pack office furniture. If I am honest with myself, it was too heavy for me but I was in a hurry so tried lifting it without any help. I was careful of my back, bent my knees, took the strain with my thigh muscles and all was going well until I felt a pop in my shoulder. I put the desk down, gave my shoulder a rub and waited for my friend before continuing.

The following day I woke up to a sore shoulder which was gradually stiffening up. Over the next few days it began to hurt more, lifting my arm to the side or front hurt, my shoulder gradually deteriorated until it was painful all the time and the pain was spreading down my arm. My shoulder and arm got weaker and weaker and hurt more and more and the range of movement just got worse. I had trouble lying on it so sleep became difficult.

Finally, after a few weeks, I took myself off to the doctor who diagnosed a rotator cuff problem and made an appointment for me to see a specialist. He also gave me firm instructions to stop using my shoulder as much as possible and to take some anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce the inflammation.

At the hospital I had an MRI scan which confirmed that I had torn the supraspinatus tendon in my left shoulder. What was more, I now had a shoulder impingement because the tendon had become inflamed and was now getting trapped whenever I moved, which was causing the pain He gave me a steroid injection to help with the inflammation and told me to rest my arm.

Although there was a common theme of advice about resting my shoulder I was too pig headed to take any notice and really just paid lip service to it. The injection worked wonders and within a couple of days my shoulder felt better but it gradually deteriorated over the next few weeks as I carried on using it as normal.

A second steroid injection worked the same way. By now, I was about six months in and seeing the specialist for the third time. He suggested surgery to free up the impingement. The idea was to shave away a piece of bone to free up the tendon to allow it to heal. My operation was booked for three months away.

I was not looking forward to surgery. The general anaesthetic just had no appeal; so I started looking into alternative treatments on the internet and found out that shoulder pain exercises make up a large part of most treatments for rotator cuff injuries.

So this time I rested my shoulder properly, stopped driving, rearranged my desk at work. At the same time, I started taking anti-inflammatory drugs on a regular basis. Gradually the pain subsided. Then I started a shoulder specific exercise programme. These were Pilates based and focused on control and flexibility. They were low resistance, low weight exercises designed to stretch, strengthen and stabilize the whole shoulder to help support the rotator cuff while it healed.

I gradually increased the level of exercise. My shoulder started to get better and over the next few weeks it returned to 100% pain free movement. All the time, I was careful to steer clear of any exercise that caused pain.

So, if you have injured your shoulder, learn from my mistake. Rest it and rest it properly. Then get exercising, carefully, gradually building it up to strengthen your shoulder. And when your shoulder is better, keep up the exercises.

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