The answer may be mostly yes. RTC is a typical abbreviation for this muscle group. There are several possible reasons for a person to have shoulder muscle pain. Through differential diagnosis, the orthopedic surgeon will likely figure out which ones. Refer to (Blog Rotator cuff 0723 2011) for a list of other shoulder muscles and other shoulder structure diagnostic tests.
It is of course easy to say prevention but maybe the better phrase is “re-injury prevention”. I know and have treated plenty of athletes over 4 decades and for the last 2 decades, enough has been known to truly prevent re-injury even if the athlete knew he/she could have taken preventive measures in their training programs from the beginning
So why not know the activities frequently causing RTC inflammation and take preventative measures to prevent them in the first place? If you are regularly performing overhead activities: tennis serve, overhead throwing, (baseball and football), swimming, or physical overhead employment activities, you may develop the “over use/repetitive strain/impingement” symptoms of rotator cuff tendinitis. If you keep it up you may cause the body to start a tendinosis pathology (starting of chronic shoulder dysfunction and pain).
The truth is, until an athlete experiences the 10/10 pain of RTC inflammation, he/she just won’t “get it”. In professional (and most NCAA schools) sports it should be a different story because there should be a disciplined training policy (although there will always be some non-complying athletes). Current athletic department strategies will encompass many professional disciplines but this discourse is sticking to the specific RTC discussion; Hence Strength and Conditioning Coaches in the forefront, who may be licensed physical therapists with certification as athletic trainers as well.
The well-funded programs have will attending resident surgeons, nutritionists, and motion analysis physiologists or kinesiologists on staff. Diet/nutrition, sport specific weight training protocols, sport specific performance techniques, and physician supervised radiograph and ultrasound diagnostics, are essential elements of injury prevention philosophies.
Further, sports training clinics have been evolving in recent years for high school and college athletes who have the money to pay for that one-on-one, sport specific coaching and training. Personal trainers can be found in gyms and industry settings offering their version of a supervised training experience.
With that in mind you CAN prevent RTC pre or re injury. Most athletes however, do not have access to the professional, semi-professional, or various sponsored organized amateur sports musculo-skeletal wellness programs. So what do the rest of us need to do who “dabble’ in intra mural, weekend, local “pick-up” sports programs, or lay organized leagues?
If you already have shoulder pain you certainly can consult a health professional familiar with shoulder anatomy and physiology. Since we are just speaking of overhead sports for the “common man or woman”, why not KISS, keep it simple stupid.
For any joint or muscle exercise, there is an agonist / antagonist motor control relationship. One exercise may be suitable for several diagnoses and will always incorporate more muscles than just the titled muscle being referenced.
There are many online exercise program systems such as, http://www.fitnessbuilder.com/ programs like that have hundreds with still and video instructions. These videos show exercise gym machines, free weights, mat and stretching exercises, and elastic exercise bands attached to polls, door nobs, standing on it, wrapped around extremities, etc.
The following 3 exercises may suffice. If they don’t work, you either are not performing them correctly (schedule a one time appointment with a physical therapist to learn technique), you don’t have an RTC problem, or the pathology is too advanced and you will need to see an orthopedic surgeon.
Elastic exercise bands are colored to represent resistances: Yellow – Light resistance; Red – More; Green – More+; Blue – Strong; Gray – Very strong. 36in length should be sufficient.
Hold band wrapped around each hand. Keep thumbs pointing up for all three exercises to help prevent impinging the rotator cuffs attachments. Always keep band taut during exercises and not slack. Many exercises in the United States are 3 sets of 10. Odvar Holten’s diagram would be 3 sets of 30 based on resistance. In general the theory for exercises parameters is establish endurance (repetitions) then add resistance and reestablish endurance and then add velocity component (power) by speeding up the repetition cycle.
The next blog. What went wrong with my RTC?
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