WHAT IS A ROTATOR CUFF INJURY?
A rotator cuff injury is situated in the shoulder and pain is caused when the tissues in the shoulder become irritated and damaged, either through wear and tear or in more serious cases, through an injury. Symptoms can include a dull ache which can gradually get worse with the use of the arm when away from the body. Although common, they don’t just affect people who train, but rather people who have very physical jobs where overhead motions are performed repetitively eg carpenters, painters and decorators etc. It is fixable and through physiotherapy and exercises that involve strengthening the muscles and improving flexibility around the shoulder joint, it can be quite a swift recovery depending on the severity.
MY EXPERIENCE
So, 2019 into 2020 wasn’t the best year for me in terms of injuries. Not only was I suffering with a minor hip tear which limited my lower body exercises, but in addition, I couldn’t bench press AT ALL-whether that was dumbbells or with a bar. This said, getting injured does not mean you can’t train at all (depending on severity) but the joy of weightlifting is that due to the hundreds of different variations of exercises, you are still guaranteed a good workout, working around those injuries. As I’ve been told by a few physios and Osteos, it is actually vital to keep mobilising when injured, rather than stop altogether.
After back pain, I would say upper body injuries are probably the second most common, rotator cuff in particular, so this blog post is all about helping anyone with a suspected rotator cuff injury and what to do to sort it!
HOW I KNEW I WAS INJURED
I knew there was something wrong with my right shoulder. One day I didn’t feel anything, the next I would feel a constant aching pain in my shoulder. It felt achy at first then led to a repetitive pain if I rotated my shoulder and would wake be up during the night, even while I was driving. It started to affect even daily routines like putting on my socks or putting my seatbelt on. If I bench pressed with dumbbells or barbells or even used a resistance band to do band dislocates it would feel painful and my range of motion was becoming limited, so I booked to see a Physio straight away. I had treatment for a while and was told I should avoid bench pressing completely. He believed it was from wear and tear maybe through an actual bench press, although leading up to it, I didn’t feel anything painful from one actual moment in a session. There was a good deal of inflammation too (impingement) and I recall the Physio taking a picture of my shoulders as I was laying down and I couldn’t believe how much lower one shoulder was sitting. To be told that I couldn’t bench press was gutting, I was worried I would lose my strength, lose my upper body muscle, lose my gains, but knew my health and recovery was going to be far more important.
RECOVERY
From beginning to end, I didn’t bench press for about 6 whole months. I’m glad to say I was still able to train upper body but without bench or shoulder pressing. It is vital to strengthen the areas around the muscles of the rotator cuff in order for it to improve. Anything that was causing pain more than a 3/10 (10 being painful) had to be eliminated. My squats were also affected anyway due to my lower body injury but even when I could do box squats again, I had to use the neutral bar because lifting my elbows up behind me was painful. The whole process made me more aware, even as far as ensuring my rucksack was worn properly and not having all the weight hanging over one shoulder. You could almost say that being told you can’t do certain things and your body being restricted to certain movement caused me to value my training even more. It made me consider how lazy I was at times with my warmups and that quickly foam rolling just wasn’t going to cut it. This whole experience has taught me to warm up and mobilise my joints appropriately in order to lower my chances of an injury. After numerous Physio sessions I had my heart set on getting better so I could eventually bench press again and taking on every bit of advice I was given was at the top of my priority list.
Neutral pullups were still kept in my usual training routine and it was only after the 6 month mark where I slowly returned to bench pressing, but with a neutral bar and using dumbbells neutrally. I couldn’t quite believe that I was bench pressing 25kgs in each hand previously to now be struggling (embarrassingly for me) with the 5kgs. But, I’m someone that has very good patience so I knew it would be a slow process. These were some exercises I was told to incorporate in my upper body training days and they certainly helped:
· Facepulls (banded and cable)
· Dumbbell reverse flyes
· Banded flyes
· Neutral cable back rows
· Single banded rows
· Single arm external and internal rotation
· Dumbbell chest supported rows
· Dumbbell single arm rows
· Dumbbell neutral bench press
· Dumbbell neutral shoulder press
Exercises that I had to avoid:
X Pushups
X Tricep dips, regular dips
X Barbell back row
X Bench pressing dumbbell or bar
X Shoulder pressing
X Wide grip pullups
X Wide grip pulldowns
LAST BIT OF ADVICE
Don’t ignore the pain you’re feeling and stop doing exercises that are causing pain because you will never recover. Also, stop being so stingy and go and see a good Physio-this will speed up your recovery massively! You can’t put a price on your health. Lastly, take on board the advice of a professional; if they say to avoid certain exercises just swallow your pride and get on with it. Ignoring said advice will only set you back even further, so do the boring exercises you’re told to do, god damn it!
Want to talk to me about all things training? DM me today @natashakostalas on Instagram.
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