Injuring your rotator cuff muscles can affect your everyday life activities and be able to play sports. The typical rotator cuff muscle injury treatment involves Rest, Ice, Range of motion exercises, and Strengthening Exercises. In the previous blog, we talked about the anatomy of the rotator cuff muscles and an overview of treatments. Today we will introduce a few more Range of Motion exercises and Strengthening Exercises for you at home.
Range of Motion Exercise
Hold a cane with both hands with thethumb of your injured hand facingoutward. If your right shoulder is injuredlift the cane out to the right side as far asyou can. If your left shoulder is injured liftthe cane out to your left.
Strengthening Exercise #1
When the arm is very painful start isometric exercises (strengthening the muscle without moving the shoulder joint). For all of the following exercises push the injured arm against the wall as hard as you can without causing pain. Push for 5 seconds 10 times, twice a day.
Stand with your elbow bent and your arm against the corner of a wall. Push the arm against the wall as if you were to rotate the arm outward.
Strengthening Exercise #2
Stand with your elbow bent and your arm against the corner of a wall. Push the arm against the wall as if you were to rotate the arm outward.
When Should You Contact Your Physiotherapist?
If you lose full range of motion of the shoulder you may not gain this movement back without help. This can limit your ability to perform everyday activities or work. If you have had an injury to your shoulder before or have diabetes you may be at risk of developing Frozen Shoulder. Frozen Shoulder is a condition that prevents you from moving the shoulder for 1-2 years. This can easily be prevented with physiotherapy.
You could contact us at our Oshawa Advanced chiropractic Treatment Centre. Our Physiotherapists, Chiropractors, and Massage Therapists at the Bowmanville physio clinic have treated numerous shoulder and rotator cuff cases and helped patients recover completely. Make an online appointment here or call us at 905-233-4374.
