Rotator Cuff: Exercises and Strategies to Prevent Injury

Have you ever experienced a dull ache or sharp pain in your shoulder or upper arm? Maybe you are unable to sleep on one side because your shoulder wakes you up at night. Perhaps, you have discomfort reaching behind your back to tuck in your shirt or grab your wallet. If so, you may be suffering from a rotator cuff injury.

Rotator cuff injuries, such as tendonitis, bursitis and tears plague several people in our population. The rotator cuff consists of four small muscles, which form a sleeve around the shoulder and allow us to raise our arm overhead effectively. These muscles, consisting of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis, oppose the action of the deltoid and depress the head of the humerus (upper arm) during shoulder elevation to prevent impingement.

The most commonly injured muscle is the supraspinatus. It is responsible for initiating and aiding in elevation of the arm. If torn, the individual typically experiences persistent pain in the upper lateral arm and significant difficulty raising the arm without compensatory motion from the scapula (shrug sign). The hallmark signs of a tear are nocturnal pain, loss of strength, and inability to raise the arm overhead.

However, acute tendonitis may also present with similar signs and symptoms, as pain can inhibit motion and strength. Yet, symptoms associated with tendonitis normally respond to rest, ice, anti-inflammatory medication and therapeutic exercise.

Rotator cuff tears are most common in men age 65 and older. Tears and/or injury are typically related to degeneration, instability, bone spurs, trauma, overuse and diminished strength/flexibility related to the aging process. However, youth are also at risk for injury if they are involved in repetitive overhead sports, including swimming, volleyball, baseball, softball, tennis, gymnastics, etc.

Many people can function adequately with a torn rotator cuff provided they have a low to moderate pain level. The primary reason for performing rotator cuff surgery is to alleviate pain rather than to restore function. It is common for post surgical patients to lose some mobility/range of motion. strength recovery is dictated by the size of tear, quality of the torn tissue at the time of surgery, time elapsed between injury and repair, and the surgeons ability to recreate the proper anatomical relationship.

It may take up to 18 months following surgery to completely recover, although most people return to normal activities of daily living in 3-6 months. On the contrary, tendonitis usually resolves within 4-6 weeks, depending on the management of the injury.

The key to avoiding rotator cuff injury is performing adequate conditioning prior to stressing it with vigorous activities. Many weekend warriors try to pick up the softball, baseball, football, etc. and begin throwing repetitively and forcefully without properly warming up. In addition, they are not likely to condition before the season like competitive athletes.

This often leads to excessive strain on the rotator cuff and swelling. The inevitable result is soreness, especially with overhead movement or reaching behind the back. The act of throwing is the most stressful motion on the shoulder. The rotator cuff is forced to decelerate the humerus during follow through at speeds up to 7000 degrees/second.

without proper strength and conditioning, the shoulder easily becomes inflamed. Since the rotator cuff muscles are small, it is best to utilize lower resistance and higher repetitions to sufficiently strengthen them. sample exercises include theraband or light dumbbell external and internal rotation exercises, which can be performed at various degrees of abduction.

Other common exercises include forward elevation to shoulder height in the plane of the scapula (scaption), press-ups, prone dumbbell horizontal abduction with external rotation, and diagonal arm patterns with bands, weights or medicine balls. In addition to cuff specific exercises, it is also important to strengthen the muscles around the shoulder blade. These exercises include wall push-ups with a plus (rounding shoulder blades), shrugs, rows and lower trapezius exercises.

Finally, it is important to note some precautions with general exercises routinely performed in health clubs. I recommend the following suggestions to prevent rotator cuff problems:

Avoid lat pull downs and military presses behind the head, as they place the shoulder in a poor biomechanical position encouraging impingement.

Do not lower the bar or dumbbells below parallel with incline/flat bench press for the aforementioned reason.

Refrain from using too much weight with lateral shoulder raises. This exercise increases the load on the shoulder to 90% of the body weight, so there is no need to use heavy weight. It is best to maintain an arc of movement slightly in front of the body with lateral raises to decrease stress on the rotator cuff, while avoiding elevation above 90 degrees.

Specific rotator cuff exercises can be incorporated into upper body workouts. Perform 2 sets of 15-25 repetitions for each exercise. These exercises should be done no more than three times per week to avoid overtraining.

Brian Schiff, PT, CSCS, is a respected author, physical therapist and fitness expert. For more information on his e-book on resolving rotator cuff pain, visit http://www.rotatorcufftraining.com. This article was originally published in Business First Columbus, ohio in 2004.

Copyright 2004 Brian Schiff

Yoga Cl In Northern Virginia

This Writers' Life: The Cheat Sheet

Im often asked where I get my ideas from or how I go about writing my poetry/lyrics. Truth be told, Im not exactly sure... a thought or feeling will just appear in my head and I will have this dire urge to get pen and paper to get it out. I honestly cant explain it; when the muse strikes, the words just flow out of me and Im left with a poem or lyric.

I do have to come clean about one thing... I dont just sit around waiting for the muse to strike. If I did, I would hardly ever write or get halfway through a piece and the muse decides to leave me to my own vices. I have what I call Cheat Sheets that I can go to should I be separated from my muse.

What is a Cheat Sheet?

A Cheat Sheet is simply a notebook that I keep with me at all times. Inspiration can come at any time, it doesnt care if you are able to work on the idea that instant or not. Quite often inspiration will strike at inopportune moments. It is times like these that my Cheat Sheet comes in handy, I may not be able to work on the poem or lyric right away, but I can jot it down to work on at a later point in time.

The Cheat Sheet often comes in handy if I come across a thought I may be able to work on but unsure of how I will use it. Another great use for the Cheat Sheet is to jot down lines or phrases that catch my attention. I may be working on another piece and the perfect line comes to me... only to see that it has nothing to do with my current project. I can easily store it on my Cheat Sheet to come back to it later.

How often do you spend hours working on a poem only to find yourself stuck on a line or verse? By taking a break and having a look at your Cheat Sheet you may find a solution to the problem or be inspired to start a new writing project while you distance yourself from the problematic piece. The uses of a Cheat Sheet can be endless you are limited only by your imagination.

The Cheat Sheet and Writers Block

Every writer, at some point, will suffer from the dreaded writers block, if like me, you can go months without a single word written. I find that the Cheat Sheet can help in curing writers block; at least to a certain extent. How on earth can a Cheat Sheet cure writers block you ask?

Its simple really, even though you may not have any current inspiration for a writing project, your Cheat Sheet can have hundreds of different ideas, lines, phrases, etc that you were inspired to write down in the past. Its possible that there are dozens of poems, lyric or story ideas within the pages of your Cheat Sheet.

Start simply by looking through your Cheat Sheet, and jot down any of the lines, phrases, etc that may come to you. Failing that, try and group some of these lines into similar themes. Once you have a collection of these thoughts on your new page, take a long look at what you have in front of you. Can you write something using these words? Are there other thoughts that come to mind while looking at them? Continue jotting down any ideas and thoughts that may come to mind and try to start structuring them into a writing piece [be it prose, poetry, lyric, etc].

You will soon discover that you are writing once again, and that the dreaded writers block has dissipated. The writing may or may not be good, I cannot make any promises in that regard, however, you will no longer have a blank page in front of you and will have something to show for your efforts. If it isnt any good then you will have something to continue working on until it is up to scratch.

* * * * * * * * * *

If you are serious about writing, you probably like to write everyday. Having a Cheat Sheet can help eliminate those wasted hours staring at a blank piece of paper (or the blinking cursor on your monitor). With a little forethought and planning, you can have a system set up to help you through many of the problems a writer can face.

My Yoga Pilates

Why Do Celebrities Look Perfect - Amazing Beauty Tips?

Would women on television ever get old? Seems as if age is just a number for them isnt it? Do they all go under the knife and get surgeries done just to remain beautiful? Well to be honest with you "NO". Not all of them do that. There are small secrets which can chop off 10 years of your present age. They do not do anything special but they do make an effort to remain beautiful. So what are the secrets which celebs know? Read on to find out-

Your looks reflect your diet- This is very true and applies to almost all people in the world. You are a perfect result of the diet and foods you live on. Of course all of us do munch on the wrong foods some time but some of us are addicted to junk food and than we complain that why do we look the way we do. It's all about what you put into your tummy. If you can not control what you eat than you can never get the desired results. Therefore this is the art every celeb has mastered. They all have controlled the desire to munch on the wrong foods.

The biggest beauty secret "WATER"- Yes you must have heard of it. Two thirds of our planet is water and so is the human body. Most part of our body is water and water is the only liquid which can keep your body clean. The more you drink it the better you would look and feel. Due to the busy life now days people do not drink much water rather they prefer sugar drinks and coffee. Drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day is very important to look and feel beautiful.

All Celebes workout- It is very hard to find one celeb who does not exercise. Almost all of them do workouts in whatever form it might be. Some go to the gym, some do yoga, and some do Pilates others just meditate. exercise is the only way you can get your blood flowing which makes your skin more radiant and lively.

You hair can make a big difference- Most Celebes have a hairstyles which suits their face most of the times. Most people choose the wrong hairstyles and do not know what would suit them according to the shape of their face. Always choose an appropriate hairstyle which suits the shape of your face as hairstyles have been known to change the overall look drastically.

Therefore to sum it up in a nutshell we all want to look like Celebes but most of us lose our looks as we cross a certain age. The only reason why Celebes retain their look for a longer duration is only because this is their profession. They have to look good as it's a part of their job. Most of us don't have the time to spend on our looks therefore following simple steps mentioned above can take you a long way and cause drastic change to the way you look.

Core Training With Yoga Ball