Having torn my rotator cuff quite badly at the end of last year and ending up with an imipinged shoulder I have found out that rotator cuff physical therapy exercises are the quickest way to get your shoulder back to its pre injury state. This is true whether you are aiming to just speed up recovery time or get over surgery.
Physical therapy will always form part of the recovery process for rotator cuff. It is usually tried before surgery simply because most shoulder problems will respond to shoulder exercises. The exceptions to this are a severe shoulder impingement or a full thickness rotator cuff tear both of which may require surgery and a period of rest before starting physical therapy.
It is essential with any shoulder injury that you let your shoulder rest properly for some time until any inflammation and pain have subsided. Any pain that you feel with specific movements is usually a sign that you are doing more damage to the muscle or tendons. Resting properly may well mean wearing a sling, avoiding driving and will certainly mean modifying your day to day activities to avoid painful movements. Alongside the rest, use non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to bring down the inflammation. Inflammation of the tendons and muscles is the main cause of pain in rotator cuff injuries and controlling the inflammation is key to a successful recovery.
When the inflammation and pain are under control it is essential to begin shoulder specific exercies that are aimed at rehabilitating this group of muscles and rebuilding the shoulder. Physical therapy exercises will not be the general weight bearing shoulder exercises that we use to build muscle as these tend to focus on the main muscles of the shoulder and avoid the rotator cuff.
Rotator cuff physical therapy will involve exercises with little or no resistance or weight often relying on the natural resistance of the body to achieve the desired result. Just lifting the weight of your arm is often enough resistance to achieve the desired effect at first, moving on to using small weights as the muscles gets better. All exercise routines should start with a series of gentle stretches to avoid further injury to the damaged muscle, followed by stabilising and strengthening exercises. You will be surprised how quickly your shoulder can return to normal once you start developing the rotator cuff muscle.
In my case, I managed to fix a bad shoulder rotator cuff tear and shoulder impingement, which I was told would require surgery, in just eight weeks using rotator cuff physical therapy exercises.
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