Rotator Cuff Injury Questions

[Dominicdb]

I hurt my rotator cuff at the gym about 6 weeks ago while doing a military press. At the time of the injury it did not hurt very bad and I had full range of motion in my arm for about a week. Since then it has gotten progressively worse.

I have not been to the gym since the week of the injury. My shoulder now experiances intense pain when I abduct my arm. I went to see my doctor last week and he was not very helpful. He gave me some pain killers and told me to take it easy. Because I am laid off and currently unisured I could not get an X Ray or MRI. I just last week started to do some rotator cuff rehab exercises that I read about and I have been taking lots of ibprofen to reduce inflamation.

My question's are:

For how long each day and how intense should rehab sessions be? I have been doing a handfull of rehab exerices for about 15 minutes a day. However I am not sure if I should fully exhaust the shoulder or keep the sessions light like I have been doing. I am afraid of making my shoulder worse.

Has anyone had a similar experiance? I am wondering how long this is going to take to heal. Will it ever return to normal?

My Dr. said it sounded like a strain to him but everything that I have read on the internet leans toward a tear. So I am not sure what is going on.

Any other comments or advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks alot for your time!

 

[illiniphase4]

I hurt my rotator cuff at the gym about 6 weeks ago while doing a military press. At the time of the injury it did not hurt very bad and I had full range of motion in my arm for about a week. Since then it has gotten progressively worse.

Firstly, I don't think it's a rotator cuff injury. It's possible that you injured your supraspinatus (part of the rotator cuff), but because you injured the muscle during an abduction exercise, and not a rotation exercise, it's more likely that the injury involved the muscles or tendons of the deltoids. The fact that you don't experience pain with rotation, but pain is primarily present in abduction further supports this possibility.

It's also possible that you've suffered some ligamentous damage at the gleno-humeral joint, maybe from a brief dislocation, but still, deltoids strain is more likely.

In any event, the fact that it's been 6 weeks with no improvement means that you probably need to get back to the doc and get this sorted out; it might require a trip to a physical therapist. In the meanwhile, RICE the hell out of it (rest, ice, compression, and elevation) for a minimum of 1 to 2 weeks and STOP all of the "rehab" exercises you've been doing. You certainly shouldn't be "exhausting" the shoulder at this point, as it is likely that you still have some form of structural damage, and this could cause more harm than good. You need to give the tissue time to heal before any sort of immediate rehab. If the shoulder begins to feel better, don't immediately begin working it, and any exercises that you want to do, keep very light.

And just do you know, a strain is a tear in the muscle/tendon tissue. Strains are graded by severity of the damage, from slightly tear with the muscle structure remaining intact (grade 1) to severe tear and separation of the muscle tissue (grade 3). So your doc wasn't necessarily wrong telling you that it was a strain. It's likely that you're at a grade 1 or 2 as you're not bent over backwards in pain, and the majority of grade 1 and a fair amount of grade 2 strains don't need and sort of corrective measures other than RICE and anti-inflammatories.

 

[mannyford80]

Take illiniphase4's post to heart and stick with it. Definitely see a different doctor if that one couldn't help you more then that. Even if you have to pay a little cash, it's worth it to take care of your body.

As I'm not sure how bad it is.. it's tough to tell you how long you should be going with the rehab stuff. Remember that not everything is ideal for all situations. Like Ill said, it could definitely be structurally messed up, or be a different part of your rotator cuff entirely. After you've let it chill for a good 2 or 3 weeks, maybe it'd be a good time to do some light rehab. It just depends though, and no one can tell you how much you need. Just do some, see how it feels the next day, maybe 2 days, and then do some more if it's feeling progressively better. If not, just let it rest.

All the best though bud, get into the doctor when you can.