3 important strengthening exercises to do if you have rotator cuff pain

If you’re feeling pain in the front part or top of your shoulder, it could be rotator cuff pain. It can also travel to the mid arm and back of your shoulder into the shoulder blade at times. Rotator cuff pain can vary greatly depending upon how badly you’ve hurt your arm. Some people may just feel a minor ache on doing certain activities , however, for others it can be quite debilitating to the point that all movements are painful. It really does depend upon how you have ended up with rotator cuff pain. Whether it was slowly creeping up on you because of your repetitive work or there was a particular incident that triggered it off. No matter the cause, here are 3 simple strengthening exercises for rotator cuff pain.

This is a pretty simple exercise done with a therabnad. Do you know one of those elastic exercise bands? They’re great for strengthening of the rotator cuff muscles if you have rotator cuff pain. Best to start with lighter colours like yellow or red and progress to darker colours as they’re meant to be stronger. So you will stand with your elbows bent to 90 degrees and hold the elastic band in your hands. Make sure the shoulders are relaxed by the side of the body and not hunched. Keep the elbows tucked in by the side and now pull the band apart slowly. Make sure you use your elbows as a pivot for the movement and don’t move them away from your body. Hold at the end range for about 5 seconds and then come back slowly. Control the recoil of the band because the tendency is to just let the band recoil. This is an excellent exercise for rotator cuff pain because it helps to strengthen the supporting muscles of the shoulder. As with any exercise, repetition and consistency is the key. If you’re doing the movement slowly and in a controlled manner, you don’t have to do 20, just 5 are enough but repeat it again during the day.

The muscles around the shoulder blade tend to be overused if you have rotator cuff pain. Because they have to work hard to stablise that shoulder of yours while you continue to do your daily activities. Hence they become extremely tight. Tight muscles can become weak too. And rotator cuff pain itself can send these muscles into an overdrive and cause them to tighten up. So it’s important to first release the muscles wiht hands on therapy but then strengthen them up. And banded rows specifically target these muscles. So you’ll need to tie the middle end of the band around a door knob so the 2 ends are free. Now with elbows bent to 90 degrees hold the 2 free ends of the band and stand a meter away from the door so the band is at a resistance. Now keeping the elbows at 90 , pull the bands and squeeze your shoulder blades together while trying to pull the band as far back as you can. Hold the position in the end range for 5 seconds and release back slowly. Repeat again!

Rotator cuff pain can cause your shoulders to rotate inwardly while sitting because your body is trying to protect the shoulder. This will definitely affect your posture whether sitting or standing. Unfotunately it gets into a vicious cycle of more inward rotation in the shoulder leading to further restriction in movement. So it’s important to break this cycle by correcting your posture and in turn giving your shoulders more movement. The best exercise for this is to think about pulling the lower part of your breast bone up while sitting. This will immediately align the neck and back and it’s more natural than trying to pull your shoulders and neck back. Now try holding this position for 5 seconds and also squeeze your shoudler blades togther gently. Here’s your perfect posture! Now of course it’s not possible to sit like this for the rest of the day but 5 seconds at a time, every hour or so is a good way of teaching your postural muscles to work. This will certainly help you recover from rotator cuff pain.