Understanding What Physical Therapy Can Do for Your Torn Rotator Cuff

The rotator cuff is an essential part of your body. Its main job is to stabilize your shoulder whenever you engage it. The rotator cuff helps you perform simple tasks such as moving your arm away from your body or raising it over your head.

Unfortunately, rotator cuffs can be prone to injury. It’s possible for your rotator cuff to tear and cause you a significant amount of pain in the process.

In this article, we want to help you understand why rotator cuff tears happen. We also want to highlight how shoulder injury physical therapy can help you deal with that particular issue.

What Are the Common Causes of Torn Rotator Cuffs?

Before we get into the matter of treating your rotator cuff, we should first discuss why they tear in the first place. You may think that a torn rotator cuff is an injury reserved for professional athletes, but that’s not always the case.

Detailed below are the common causes of torn rotator cuffs. Keep them in mind so you can make changes to your habits if needed.

Wear and Tear

Bad habits can put you at greater risk of sustaining a torn rotator cuff.

For instance, failing to stretch before working out could place an enormous amount of stress on your rotator cuff. If your job involves moving your shoulders constantly, you can also pile up the damage to your rotator cuff until it eventually tears.

Bone Spurs Near the Joint

Were you diagnosed with bone spurs near your shoulder recently? If so, you could be more at risk for tearing a rotator cuff.

You see, those bone spurs can gradually damage the tendons in your shoulders. Once they’ve done enough damage, they can cause your rotator cuff to tear.

Old Age

Old age can also make you more susceptible to a torn rotator cuff. As you grow older, the muscles that make your rotator cuff grow weaker from a lack of nourishment. They can tear more easily because of that.

Why Physical Therapy Should Be Part of Your Torn Rotator Cuff Treatment

Physical therapy, by itself, will not be adequate for your torn rotator cuff. That’s not what it is supposed to do.

Instead, you should consider integrating physical therapy into your treatment regimen because of how it affects your recovery.

When you first sustain the injury, you may find yourself unable to move your shoulder without feeling excruciating pain. With the help of physical therapy, you can learn how to move your injured shoulder without experiencing too much discomfort.

Through continued physical therapy, you may also learn new movements that will enable you to use your shoulder. You can discover how to move your shoulder without experiencing pain. Eventually, your range of motion may also improve.

Physical therapy will not heal your shoulder on its own, but it can facilitate faster recovery.

Signing up for physical therapy after a rotator cuff tear is a great idea. It may even be the reason why you can continue using your shoulder despite the severity of your injury.

Categorised in: Integrative Manual Therapy, Manual Physical Therapy, Orthopedic Physical Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation

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