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All too often we ignore aches and pains and carry on as normal. Most of us have minor aches every now and again and most of us just carry on with life regardless. If we stopped work each time we had a pain the world would soon grind to a stop.

But don’t ignore a painful shoulder, especially if it is consistent. A Rotator Cuff Problem will|Rotator Cuff problems} often give us plenty of warning before they get bad and stop us in our tracks. If you notice weakness,stiffness, pain or swelling in your shoulder it may be time to take it easy and start the healing process.

There are someshoulder problems that begin as the result of a knock or fall, most begin because of simple |wear and tear on the joint, either as we age or caused by a repetitive stressful movement. Okay, You can’t always do anything to stop the accidental injury but we can take early measures to cut down the damage from wear and tear. As we age our rotator cuff gets weaker through lack of use. We hold ourselves differently to how we did as youngsters, our {posture|shape gradually changes over the years. I only need to look at my waist to confirm that.

As the rotator cuff gradually gets weaker we become more prone to shoulder injuries. The right sort of physical therapy done early on to strengthen the rotator cuff can go a long way towards stopping shoulder injuries. Although these are a small group of muscles {they are key to having strong shoulders and once we get past fifty we ignore them at our peril.

So prevention is definitely better than cure, but just in case you’ve left it too late, what are the rotator cuff symptoms? Firstly, weakness and pain in the damaged shoulder. This might only occur when you use your shoulder joint. The commonest causes of discomfort are reaching up, or reaching for an object. Whenever you reach up or out the rotator cuff starts to work at its hardest. If you are having problems getting to sleep because of a painful shoulder, this is yet another classic sign. Lying on your bad shoulder can be painful, but lying on the other side so that your painful arm drops in front of you can be equally uncomfortable.

If the pain is continuous, it might well be telling you that you have a badly torn rotator cuff.

Most rotator cuff problems can be treated with rest followed by physical therapy but don’t rush out and sign up for a gym. These are a small group of muscles that need very specific exercise to build them up using either no weights or very small weights and physical therapy that are designed specifically for group of muscles.

So whether it’s simply shoulder pain or a full blown rotator cuff injury, you will almost definitely end up exercising the rotator cuff as part of your therapy. Whether that is before or after surgery really depends on whether or not you listen to your body and heed the warning signs.

If you found this article interesting check out my full story at
www..myrotatorcuffcure.blogspot.com

My name is Nick Bryant and I tore my rotator cuff lifting something that was too heavy. Despite being told that I needed surgery I have fully recovered with just phyical therapy. Check out one of my other articles on rotator cuff injury

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/rotator-cuff-symptoms-recognise-them-early-and-you-can-avoid-suffering-a-great-deal-of-pain-1378689.html

If only I had found out about exercises for rotator cuff injuries earlier.

Towards the end of last year I managed to tear my left rotator cuff. It is easily done, I am surprised that I have not done it before. Around a third of us of us will manage to injure the rotator cuff at some time in their lives. It is one of the commonest injuries. Eight million Americans will acquire a damaged shoulder this year alone.

What I did was to lift something awkwardly. It was flat packed furniture for my home office and I tried lifting the desk taking all the weight on my left hand and steadying with my right. Because of the weight and shape my left arm was completely straight so all the weight was on my shoulder. I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder, put the furniture down, gave my shoulder a rub where it hurt and didn’t think about it again until the next day.

I had managed to tear, which is one of the rotator cuff muscles. This had resulted in a shoulder impingement that was causing pain each time that I tried lifting my arm above shoulder height, or reaching for anything, or reaching behind me, or lying on it, or…Get the picture?

The pain got worse over the next couple of weeks as I tried to carry on. I now know that this was not the right thing to do. Trying to carry on with a rotator cuff problem will simply lead to a worse injury which is exactly what happened in my case.

By the time that I went to the doctor after two weeks, I had damaged my rotator cuff badly enough to need surgery. To cut a long story short, the doctor tried anti-inflammatory drugs, steroid injections and a few other things to try to bring down the swelling and free up the impinged tendon, all without success. It was after that he decided that surgery would be best.

By now, three months had gone by and I was getting quite bored with being in pain whenever I tried moving my arm, so rather than wait another three months for surgery (UK waiting time on the NHS) I began to look into rotator cuff injuries on line and found out that the majority rotator cuff problems are sorted out without resorting to surgery.

The key is to rest the shoulder properly, which ,if I am honest, I probably hadn’t done. It is hard to completely rest a shoulder because you use them without thinking. What you do need to do is avoid any movement that causes pain as this is an indication that you are doing more damage.

Deal with the swelling at the same time and hopefully the shoulder will start to free up and become less painful.

Once it has you can start exercising the shoulder to strengthen the rotator cuff. These will not be weight bearing exercises but tend to be more Pilates style exercises working on flexibility and control. As the muscle gets stronger you can then start more resistance based exercises, but even then they will not use any great weights because the rotator cuff muscles are small and not load bearing muscles.

If only I had known then what I know now I could have saved myself a lot of time and trouble, not to mention pain.

As it is, my surgery date has come and gone. I cancelled because my shoulder was back to full pain free movement without going under the knife, and I now do about ten minutes of exercises for rotator cuff injuries every day.

If you want to know what exercises for rotator cuff injuries helped me to fix my shoulder without surgery check out my story at

http://www.myrotatorcuffcure.blogspot.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/exercises-for-rotator-cuff-injuries-that-fixed-my-shoulder-1455913.html

A rotator cuff injury is one of the most common shoulder injuries. Nearly eight million Americans are going to suffer from a shoulder injury this year alone and around Sixty percent of these will be rotator cuff injuries. So when is the best time to be starting rotator cuff injury exercises.

The obvious answer is when you have damaged this group of muscles but if a few more of us thought about this before we damaged them, there would be fewer people waiting at the doctor.

If you do sports that involve overhead movement you are likely to get an injury at some time. Javelin throwers, Baseball Players and tennis players are all at risk simply because this group of muscles is put under most strain when you use your arm above shoulder height. Add a sporting activity to that and you have a potential recipe for problems especially if you never exercise the rotator cuff.

Does a hobby or your work include working above shoulder height? Rotator cuff injury is a classic injury for plasters and painters and decorators.

Are you over forty? If so then you have just entered the at risk group. As we age these muscles weaken through lack of exercise and then suddenly we’ll put a load on them by doing something daft. Through a ball with the grand kids, start playing sport again as we have a mid life crisis. The muscles just are not prepared for it and the sudden exercise often causes problems. Five minuets of feeling young again can leave you in agony for weeks.

If you fit any of the above groups then you are already at risk and need to start exercising your rotator cuff muscles on a daily basis. The great news is that it does not take long on a daily basis and you will hardly work up a sweat. These are fairly small muscles that you will exercise with eother no weight or very small weights. Most of rotator cuff exercises for both damaged and healthy muscles are Pilates based. Slow movement that is focused on control not intensity.

The biggest difference if you have already damaged your rotator cuff is that you need to let it heal before you start any kind of exercise. If you feel pain when you lift your arm, or reach our for something then you probably have a rotator cuff injury. If reaching behind you or lying down causes pain in yoru shoulder then it is probably too late to start preventative exercise and too soon to start therapeutic exercise.

Rotator cuff problems are painful when you move because the muscles are getting pinched when they are inflamed and any movement is simply causing more damage. You need to rest the injury, treat the inflammation and manage the pain before you start any sort of exercise.

The exercises to return your rotator cuff to full health are the same exercises that you would have done to prevent an injury so if you haven’t yet injured your rotator cuff, there is no better time to start. After all, you have a one in three chance of a rotator cuff injury and just five or ten minutes a day is all it will take to prevent a shoulder problem starting.

If I could turn back the clock to pre-injury, I would be exercising these muscles on a daily basis.

If you want to know what rotator cuff injury exercises helped me to fix my shoulder without surgery check out my story at

http://www.myrotatorcuffcure.blogspot.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/rotator-cuff-injury-exercises-save-your-shoulders-before-you-injure-them-1451415.html