The Rotator Cuff

Rotator Cuff:

So the good old Rotator Cuff. Let’s get controversial and upset the apple cart straight away …… as a single entity it doesn’t exist! So when your doctor tells you that you have a rotator cuff injury, the question should be: “so which one of the muscles in the group of muscles that make up the rotator cuff is actually injured?” I bet he can’t tell you.

Let’s find out.

The rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that surround your shoulder. It holds your humerus (the long bone in the upper arm) in place, in its socket, in your scapula (shoulder blade). Rotator cuff injuries are common, especially among athletes who play contact sports, or sports with repetitive actions, tennis, racket sports etc. 

Overview:

There’s one rotator cuff structure on either side of the body, one for the right shoulder and one for the left. This group of muscles is used to raise your arm overhead and to rotate your arm toward and away from your body.

The muscles and tendons in your rotator cuff structure surround your shoulder joint and hold the bones together and keep the joint stable and you can probably guess from the name that the group of four muscles also help you turn and rotate your shoulder joint / arm.

Your shoulder is a ball-and-socket joint. The ball-shaped is the upper end of your humerus (its head) fits into a socket in your scapula (shoulder blade), sort of like a golf ball sitting on a tee.

Anatomy:

The Rotator Cuff?

The structures that make up the Rotator Cuff sit in a small space between your Humerus and the upper part of your shoulder blade. It surrounds your shoulder and covers the head of the Humerus.

The Rotator Cuff is made of four individual muscles:

• The Supraspinatus, which lets you rotate and lift your arm. It stretches from the top of your Scapula to the upper end of your Humerus.

• The Subscapularis, which lets you hold your arm outstretched, away from your body. It attaches to the middle of your Scapula and stretches to the lower part of your Humeral Head.

• The Infraspinatus, which helps you rotate your arm. It reaches from the bottom of your Scapula and connects to your Humerus behind the Supraspinatus.

• The Teres Minor, which also helps you turn and rotate your arm. It attaches to the outside edge of your Scapula and attaches to your Humerus beneath the Infraspinatus.

Conditions and Disorders:

The muscles in the Rotator Cuff are highly susceptible to injuries because you use them so often for so many daily activities throughout your day with injuries happening suddenly, such as a specific injury or accident, or build up over time, such as poor posture or bad working position.

The most common Rotator Cuff injuries include:

• Overuse / repetitive strain syndrome.

• Shoulder impingement (rotator cuff tendinitis).

• Rotator Cuff Muscle tears.

• Swimmer’s shoulder.

How do I know if I have damaged my Rotator Cuff Muscles?

Rotator Cuff tears cause shoulder pain. You may feel a dull ache deep within your shoulder, or the pain may feel sharp and stabbing. Sudden tears from traumas or injury cause immediate, intense shoulder pain and arm weakness and can be very serious. If you’re experiencing shoulder pain that doesn’t get better in a few days seek help immediately.

Along with the pain described above, there will always be a restriction to range of movement, either you physically can’t move the arm / shoulder into certain positions, usually elevation, or there is intense pain on movement.

Most shoulder injuries do not clear by themselves and it is always prudent to get any pain or lack of movement checked out, the longer you leave it the more difficult it is to clear the injury and shoulders are notoriously fickle.

Care:

How can I prevent shoulder injuries?

The best way to prevent shoulder injuries is through regular maintenance, strengthening, avoid poor posture and if serious at all about sport that involves shoulder movement, regular treatment to stop anything nasty developing.

• Stop exercise or physical activities as soon as you feel pain. Never “play through the pain” if your shoulder hurts during or after physical activity, then seek professional help immediately.

• Warm up and cool down, properly, before and after training or working out.

• Wear the right equipment for all sports and physical work.

• Follow a diet and physical activity plan that’s healthy for you.

• Visit a really good sports therapist as soon as you notice pain or any other symptoms.

Closing Words:

Shoulders / Rotator Cuff muscles are incredibly resilient, have a huge range of movement and will put up with a lot of abuse before you realise that something is not quite right. By the time you feel pain or loss of range of movement the damage and malfunction is usually quite extensive.

Things go wrong, injury, sprains and pulls and other events that just happen, but one of the biggest threats to shoulder health now is poor posture. People spend huge amounts of time sitting at desks, on mobiles, tablets and generally quite immobile.

Poor posture can be as destructive and as painful as a specific injury …… the problem is that the damage happens over time, the body accommodates the malfunction and before you know it, you have a shoulder impingement or something just as nasty. I can not stress enough …. any slight pain, any loss of movement in the shoulder or down the arm and into the hand …. contact me straight away. It might be nothing, but it might also catch things early enough so you don’t have to endure weeks of treatment.