rotator cuff

[babyblues]

Hi guys,

I was playing volleyball yesterday and when I went up for a kill, I felt my shoulder kind of pop a little. It didn't dislocate, but it felt like it popped out of place a little but then popped right back in. I did shoulders the day before so my rotator cuff was probably a little weak and I shouldn't have been trying to spike the ball anyway, but it's hard for me to play without going for broke. Of course it's a bit sore today as would be expected. That's my right shoulder, my left shoulder sometimes feels a little weak especially when I do dumbell presses. Right now I'm pretty much sticking to Smith machine presses and raises with barbell presses thrown in every once in a while.

What would you guys recommend to prevent this from happening again? How do I strengthen my rotator cuff without taking the risk of injuring it?

[Scrumhalf]

Do these every day:

http://familydoctor.org/265.xml

http://www.bodyresults.com/E2RotatorCuff.asp

[Strengthminx]

hey babyblues!
One of my primary focuses is rehab work-
get yourself some bands- DynaBands, Resistabands, or Therabands (they all work basically the same, with varying degrees of resistance)
Tie one end of the band to a doorknob (or you can just hold it tight with the uninjured arm) and hold the elbow of your injured arm at your side at a 90-degree angle. now "open" your arm in an outward movement while keeping your elbow tight at your side and maintaining the 90-degree angle. Then reverse the position of the band (you will need to have a doorknob or another person to hold the band this time) and again keeping the elbow tight to the side bring the hand inward toward the body while maintaining the 90-degree angle. This works on internal/external rotation of the cuff and you should see less pain in a few weeks- PM me for more exercises but this one is one of the most basic. you should also be doing this exercise on the "good" arm to prevent injury. there's a good chance that you are compensating with your uninjured shoulder, and you don't want that to result in another tear. Good luck!
~MINX

[Taylor]

i just finished up going to physical theraphy for my rotators cuff...i'll list some exercises and you can google them

sleeper stretch (i do this every day) twice a day.....do 10 times and hold for 10 seconds
triceps stretch with a towel
doorway stretch 2x a day, 3 sets hold for 30 secs


with weights..use a light weight and do a set of 30 once every other day
prone extension
prone horizontal abduction
prone rows
(all three lying on a bench)

using the bands or a cable machine you can try these
active resistive flexion
active resistive extension (does same thing as prone extension)
active resistive adduction
active resistive abduction

and then the internal rotation and external rotation can be done with either bands or dumbells....i feel the burn with external rotation alot more with DB's, but i use bands for internal rotation (my injury is in the back of my shoulder/rc)



some other things i do is i'll sit at the base of a treadmill and "walk" on it with my hands for 5 minutes, take a short break and then go 5 more minutes

you can also use one of those stair climber machines

another thing that i do which is hard to explain is i hold a 6lb medicine ball and bounce it on the wall (using my arm) i start at 3 o'clock and bounce the ball on the wall about 5 times up to 12'o clock counter clockwise and back down to 3 (that's 1)....and i do that 30 times....but using the 6lbs i usually only get to around 20 unless i start off with it


obviously you wouldn't do all this stuff in one day but that's about half of some of the stuff i've been taught

[BBAddict]

I've gone through rotator cuff therapy and both the things that minx recommended helped as well as another one I'll try to explain. Holding a dumbell with thumbs down, keep your arms straight and raise the dumbell like a shoulder exercise but instead of directly to the front, raise it at about a 45degree angle from the front. Maybe minx can clarify if I'm explaining wrong.

[babyblues]

Thanks for all the advice guys. How should I incorporate this into my routine once my shoulder feels back to normal? I'm thinking I should obviously make sure to warm up my shoulders first, but what about intensity? Should I wait until the end of the workout? It seems that it wouldn't be a good idea to do it first and fatigue the muscles before doing chest or shoulders.

[Taylor]

I've gone through rotator cuff therapy and both the things that minx recommended helped as well as another one I'll try to explain. Holding a dumbell with thumbs down, keep your arms straight and raise the dumbell like a shoulder exercise but instead of directly to the front, raise it at about a 45degree angle from the front. Maybe minx can clarify if I'm explaining wrong.

my therapist emphasized thumbs up on front db raises, side raises and the 45 degree raises

she's got me doing all three with thumbs up