What is The Rotator Cuff?

The rotator cuff, or the “rotor cuff” as many patients call it, is an area of the body that gets injured commonly, but what actually is the rotator cuff? 

The rotator cuff is a group of 4 muscles that wrap around the shoulder. These muscles help with rotating your arm in and out, lifting your arm up, and most importantly they help with stabilising your shoulder when you are moving it through any type of range. This is a super important job that the rotator cuff does as the shoulder joint is a joint that can often be dislocated.

The shoulder and arm need to be able to move freely in order to reach, throw, and carry objects in a number of different ranges. This range helps us do things like grab a jar from a high shelf, bowl a ball in cricket, and do push ups. However, our ability to move our arm in all directions means that the ligaments of the shoulder can’t be too strong like they are in many other parts of the body. This means that the rotator cuff muscles need to work extra hard to ensure our upper arm is stable in the shoulder joint while still allowing the arm to do everything it needs to do. 

How Does a Rotator Cuff Injury Happen?

With the amount of work that the rotator cuff has to do, you can probably guess that sometimes it all gets a little bit much leading to strains, irritation, or even a torn muscle or tendon. But how exactly does this happen? Well, like with many injuries, there are often a few reasons that these muscles get injured. 

The most common reason for rotator cuff injuries is due to overuse of the shoulder leading to wear and tear of the rotator cuff. This often happens in people who are working in a job where they have to consistently lift objects overhead such as warehouse workers, and tradies. This can also happen with people who do a lot of work at home, such as a lot of gardening or hedging. Because these are overuse injuries that often build up overtime, you are more likely to get a rotator cuff injury the older that you get. 

Another reason that rotator cuff injuries happen is through a single high impact activity. This is usually due to a fall, or trying to lift, or catch something that is really heavy. In this case the rotator cuff muscles have to try and quickly activate and work at their capacity. When rotator cuff injuries happen in this way, they often lead to big tears that need immediate physiotherapy assessment.

How Do I Know If I Have Injured My Rotator Cuff?

The most common symptoms of rotator cuff injuries are:

• Pain in and around the shoulder 
• Pain with movements of the upper arm and shoulder, especially with overhead movements 
• Pain when lying on the affected side
• Weakness with movements of the shoulder and upper arm
• Stiffness of the shoulder 

In some cases, neck pain can refer into the shoulder. Ensure you get a proper physio assessment to make sure that you are doing the appropriate rehab to get you back to health ASAP.

Let’s Take a Look at 5 Great Ways to Prevent Rotator Cuff Injuries

1. Get Your Work Setup Perfect

This one might seem obvious, but it is super important. As mentioned earlier, rotator cuff injuries most commonly happen due to overuse. Overuse injuries can happen if you don’t have the right set up. For example, let’s say you’re a warehouse worker, your job likely involves a lot of lifting heavy objects or boxes onto shelves. Now, something that may save you from injury is getting a ladder, or some other type of equipment that allows you to get your body in line with where you are lifting. This reduces a lot of the load that goes through the shoulders, which will save you in the long run, even if it takes you a little more time in the short term. 

Think of some ways that you can change your work setup. Getting it right now will save you a lot of pain and time in the future. 

2. Keep Your Rotator Cuff Strong

Keeping your rotator cuff strong gives you the ability to consistently lift heavy objects without causing injury. Consistent strength training is a great way to keep your rotator cuff strong. 

• Consistent strength training for your rotator cuff: As mentioned earlier the main job of your rotator cuff is to keep the shoulder stable. This means that when you do strengthening exercises for the shoulders you will always be working the rotator cuff in some way. Strength training will allow your rotator cuff to get used to consistent activity at higher loads. This keeps your rotator cuff active and primed for when you are lifting at work or at home. If your shoulders are not being used unless you are at work it is much easier for them to become overworked when you do have to lift a lot. Two great exercises have been listed below. For both of these exercises, I want you to pick a weight where you begin to struggle to do the exercise over the last 3-4 reps, this will allow your shoulder strength to continue to increase. If you don’t have weights at home, you can use household objects like milk bottles, heavy cans, bottles of water etc.: 
  • Shoulder press 3×12 twice daily: This exercise involves you carrying a weight in both hands. You start with your elbows in line with your shoulders and bent at 90 degrees. Your palm will be facing forward and the back of your hand will be facing backwards. You then push your arms arms up above your head until your elbows are fully extended and then slowly lower your arms back down until your elbow is in line with your shoulders. Do this exercise for 3 sets of 12 twice a day.
  • Lateral raises 3×12 twice daily: This exercise involves carrying a weight in both hands again. This exercise starts with your hands with the weights down by your sides. You then lift your arms out to the side up to shoulder height while keeping the knuckles of your fingers pointed to the roof. Then slowly lower your arm down back to your side. Do this exercise for 3 sets of 12 twice a day.

3. Break Up How Much You do at Once

I understand that at work or at home sometimes things just need to be done, and that means that you will need to do a lot of lifting to complete the job. However, this doesn’t mean that you have to do it all in one go. 

Having regular breaks, even if they’re only short, gives your rotator cuff the time needed to recover from the constant lifting that you are doing. This doesn’t mean that you have to go away and sit down for that entire time, you can use this time to eat, write reports, or do a different task which lessens the load on your rotator cuff muscles. 

Let me guess, you’re probably thinking that I’m out of my mind, if you had the time to take breaks then you already would be. Hear me out, will you be able to finish whatever you are doing if you injure yourself? You might be able to, but not without pain and a high likelihood of making the injury worse than it already is. If you can plan some breaks into your job, you are going to be able to get a lot more done in the long run, because you’re not going to have to stop doing things altogether, then go and see the physio because you’ve got shoulder pain that won’t go away.  

If you can plan short breaks, or even just time spent doing something else that doesn’t involve your rotator cuff muscles as much into your working time then you are going to get a lot more done, with a lot less issues than if you try to power through and hurt yourself.

4. Warm Up

Warming up before you lift something heavy is really important. As mentioned earlier, the most severe rotator cuff injuries are usually caused by something high impact such as a fall, or lifting or catching something that is heavy. One reason that these lead to more severe rotator cuff injuries is because your muscle has gone from not being activated and cold, to trying to activate all of the muscle fibres at once. This is a massive change for the muscle to go through in a really short period. However, if you know that you have to lift or catch something that may be heavy, or even if there is the possibility of that happening (e.g., you are helping someone move something and there is the possibility that it may fall over) you should do a quick warmup of your rotator cuff muscles; this will limit your risk of injury substantially. 

Now, there are many ways that you can warm up your rotator cuff muscles, in fact, doing a light version of the exercises that are mentioned in the 2nd tip (above) are a great way to get your rotator cuff warmed up and ready to fire just in case it’s needed. Another great warm up is to just do the exact same task that you need to do, but just do it with something that is quite a bit lighter. For example, if you need to lift something that’s heavy, then start off by lifting some lighter objects first. Lifting something lighter 10-15 times before you increase the weight is going to prepare your rotator cuff for something heavier, and lower your injury risk massively, thus allowing you to do what you need without issue. 

5. Don’t Lift Things That are Too Heavy!!!

Again, this might seem obvious, if something is too heavy for you then you know that you shouldn’t be lifting it. However, this tip also relates to things that you may be able to lift once or twice, but, repeated lifts up to 5-6 times or even more might just be way too much for you to handle. 

This tip links quite well with the other 4 tips that have been talked about above. There are some things that are just too heavy, even if you have been keeping your shoulders strong and have done a good warm up. This type of heavy load means you need to have a good work set up, which includes having the right equipment needed to lift things that you can’t on your own. It may also mean that even if you could lift it once, you may need to give your rotator cuff a break by doing something else before lifting it again.

Don’t let your ego get in the way of getting the job done safely. As I keep harping on about, you are going to be able to get a lot more done if you can stay pain-free. Taking a little more time before you lift, will ensure you can continue lifting for the long term.

Stay Safe and Pain Free Out There 

I hope that you now have the information that you need to reduce those pesky rotator cuff injuries from happening. If you have suffered a rotator cuff injury, or any other type of injury, then remember, the earlier you get it seen, the quicker we can figure out a way to get you back to your pain free life. 

Take a look at our Rotator Cuff Injury Masterclass if you are a visual learner and want to figure out how you may be able to treat your shoulder at home.

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