Torn Rotator Cuff - Rehab?
 

Caused by, as far as I can figure, doing flys on those TRX straps at the gym. D' Oh!

It's affects about 10% of my arm's movement, minor really...and no difference on a bike. But sleeping - it's horrible for a side sleeper. It's effected a big reduction in my riding simply because I'm sleep deprived most days. A stablizing harness is on the way, just for sleeping.

I doubt I'm a candidate for surgery, this is a minor tear; has anyone gotten back to 90-100% doing the recommended rehab exercises? Once you've gotten past the pain and mobility problems, how's the shoulder perform? Did you get the range of motion back?

I tore my shoulder rotator cuff doing pushups! That was about 5 years ago. What I have now is that if I raise my arm directly to side with my elbow bent and my forearm to the front, there will be an audible rasping sound - but no pain. If I repeated that movement a large number of times I would expect some pain.

I have the full range of motion and I can swim and ride my bike and work out at the gym but I avoid motions that will make it sore.

At first it was pretty sore.

I sustained a rotator cuff tear on day 2 of 16 while rowing a raft down the Grand Canyon. I was able to row ok after that though there were a couple positions with the oars I just couldn't handle. I forget now what the diagnosis was, I think a grade 2 tear but with rehab and over time it isn't a factor at all now. I ended up getting a cortisone shot and doing PT for it. It's been 3 years now so it is as good as it is going to get. Good luck with yours.

Many folks have tears of some degree, more as we age. With a small tear, rehab should help you. Mine was a traumatic tear, over 90%, so they cut it the rest of the way to make it clean for reattachment, and had to do labrum work too. So surgery was no option unless I wanted to live in a sling. If rehab will get you through, that is the way to go. Took a year for me to feel normal again.

Great feedback, thanks.

Wife going through this now. Slight tear, doc gave her a shot, and 4 weeks rehab. She is into the 2nd week and doing a ton better. No meds other that the original shot.

Glad the tear isn't any worse for you FrenchFit, even a slight tear in the RC is painful. Hope you can get some rest with the stabilizing harness and can recover your range or motion completely.

Bill

I had minor tears in both of my rotator cuffs up until a year ago, then finished the job on the right one last spring. It was excruciating, I couldn't even bear the strain of my right arm hanging free. It felt like it weighed a million pounds. I had surgery in June of last year and I'm still recovering.

Although, lifting some light weights to build up the surrounding supporting mucsles definitely helps.

I'm a big fan of side sleeping, it took me along time to be able to sleep on my back.

From what I understand, the tears can be progressive and get worse over time. When I first found out about mine, the doctor said, "it's not bad enough for surgery, but will eventually need it."

RC injuries suck, heal fast.


What really sucked for me is that I developep a blood clot shortly after the surgery, which perplexed quite a few doctors, and took some time to diagnose. While they were trying to deduce what was going on, I became increasing ill feeling, and wound up being hospitalised for it. I now have permanent damage to one of the veins in my leg. Biking is part of my PT to help increase blood flow to the damaged region.

My doctors assistant, who thinks she's my mom, said to me, "you almost died you know?". That's never fun to hear.

Is the diagnosis from a physician reading an MRI? If so, the physician would have told you if you're a candidate for sugary. Right?

Edit: "sugary" - where did that come from?? :)

I tore mine in a bike accident about 15 years ago. Therapy and when that ended (4 weeks I believe--3 times a week) I went back to swimming. At first it was really hard, as my am extension was difficult at best. Doing freestyle, my right arm would go into the water around 3 o'clock. I was in the slow lane, but it really helped, as it forces the range of motion. Gradually I got the arm back to going in at 12 o'clock. The swimming made all the difference in the world. Note that before the accident I was swimming regularly 3 times a week-- about 8000 meters per week. I rarely swim now, but would go back to it in a heartbeat if I had the motion issues again.

train safe-

I let a rotator cuff tear go as it didn't seem all that big a deal. Major mistake. It just got worse and worse. I finally went to a doc, when the arm was in really bad shape, and then to PT. Find a PT office that specializes in sports injuries, or a recommendation from a doc who knows which PT group locally specializes in sports injuries. They can do wonders.

Reid

Brother in law had to have the surgery. The recovery is loooong. It was months before he could get on a bike. Slept in a la-z-boy for weeks. Hope you don't need the surgery, but if you do, coddle it. You definetly don't want to re-injure it.

I'm going to suggest that that is not universally true, because I was back on my bike 5-6 weeks after RC and labrum surgery. Also, I found the attempt to repair the problem with pre-surgery physical therapy a total waste of time... not effective at all for me. I'm pretty sure there is a lot of variability in these injuries and what they involve, so I won't say this is always true.

I'll echo other comments here that mention age contributing to RC problems. I strained my RC and the ortho attributed it to a bone spur which, he said, comes with age :(

With rest and rehab you can get back to 100%. The biggest problem is going to be sufficiently resting it so you don't re-injure it and go back to square 1, or worse. In my case, it took about an entire year to get back to 100%.

Since then I've had to modify my training. Things I could do at a younger age, like flys and bench press, now cause discomfort. Now I train around it and do overheard presses which seem to help keep the shoulder joints strong, too.

If you're interested in a good read on the challenges of staying strong while getting older, check out "Strong Enough?" by Mark Rippetoe.