3 Ways to Repair a Damaged Shoulder (including rotator cuff injury)

There are many potential causes for shoulder pain injury, overuse, emotional trauma, congenital conditions. One of the big shoulder issues that comes up is rotator cuff injury. The rotator cuff muscles are easy to injure because they are smaller than the surrounding muscles like the pectorals. {Click to Tweet}

No matter what the cause, once the healing has begun, there are 3 strategies that can be used to get that shoulder feeling healthy and functional again:

1. Gentle appropriate movement.
2. Minimize tension and pain through breath work and visualization.
3. Improve posture through stretching and awareness.

In the article below you will find links to short videos demonstrating all 3 strategies.

WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT SHOULDER PAIN

When I talk about the shoulder, Im not only referring to the joint where the humerus (upper arm bone) connects to the body, but also the shoulder blades, the collar bones, plus all the muscles and connective tissue in those areas.

1) Gentle appropriate movement.

After surgery or an injury its tempting to baby the shoulder and avoid moving it at all. During the initial phases of healing the duration will depend on the condition it is important to let the shoulder area rest so it can heal. Therefore, tiny and careful movement is best in the beginning stages of healing. Once healing has begun and you have the go-ahead from your medical provider, regular gentle movement is essential to keeping the shoulder healthy and avoiding rotator cuff injury. {Click to Tweet}

Its not unusual to fall into a holding pattern when there is pain in the shoulder it can be scary to think about moving it again. But too much holding over time can result in the shoulder becoming limited and dysfunctional. Muscles and connective tissue, including fascia, tendons, and ligaments, must be moved to keep the shoulder healthy.

In the beginning stages of recovery, the movements must be gentle, small, and done with awareness and patience. Pushing too hard can set you back and cause more pain and rotator cuff injury. So you can let yourself off the hook for doing 50 pushups or mastering the handstand within 3 months of a shoulder surgery. At the same time, doing too little or only moving it in one direction can result in a shoulder that never returns to its full strength and range of motion.

In a healthy and fully functioning shoulder, the arm bone should be able to move in all directions (unless limited by a specific condition) front, back, up, and down. It should be able to rotate in its socket, ie. you should be able to rotate your palm up and down with movement originating from the shoulder joint not just from the elbow down.

The shoulder blades should be able to move up and down; plus be able to squeeze towards each other; and be able to draw away from each other. In a fully functioning upper back, the shoulder blades can lift one at a time, independently of each other. In other words, you should be able to lift one shoulder blade up towards your ear while the other one stays put.

In a properly functioning shoulder area, when you lift your arm up towards the sky, you will see the outside tip of your collar bone , or clavicle, move upwards too. If the collar bone doesnt move it may be an indication that there is tightness and holding going on there. Stretching and regular movement across the front of the upper chest is required to loosen tension and tightness to allow the shoulder area to function properly. Even with something specific like rotator cuff injury, its important to maintain looseness in the entire region, not just the part that was injured.

Click here for a series of gentle movements for the shoulders and neck: https://youtu.be/4C68ezSRrs4 {Click to Tweet}

2) Minimize tension and pain through breath work and visualization.

When a body part has been injured and the recovery takes a long time or when pain has been present for 6 weeks or longer, the nervous system gets better and better at recreating the pain sensation. This is because the pain parts of the nervous system are adaptable. Whatever experiences the nervous system is involved in the most, it gets better at recreating.

So if pain persists for 6 weeks or longer, the body gets better and better at producing pain sensations, producing pain hormones, and the pain neurons become over-sensitized. This over-sensitization can result in the body misreading normal touch or movement as something that is causing damage. In such a case, the pain receptors in the body are sending a signal to the brain that we are experiencing pain even when nothing bad is happening.

The good news it that the nervous system can be retrained to move towards a relaxation response instead of towards a pain response. This anti-pain training must be done every day in order to reset the nervous system. Two of the techniques I use to retrain the nervous system are breath work and visualization.

Check out this video clip for a visualization technique to help minimize shoulder tension: https://youtu.be/vS7xRXXNeuY

3) Improve posture through stretching and awareness .

Its common for bad posture to create neck and shoulder tension. Our bodies become slumped into chronic positions that create imbalances of strength and flexibility in body areas. Muscle strength imbalance is a major contributor to rotator cuff injury. Good posture can be rebuilt by regularly stretching the areas that have become tight and are pulling the skeleton out of alignment. Good posture is also about consistently and diligently noticing and correcting how you are sitting and standing.

The shoulder is a complex area of the body and involves numerous joints, tendons, ligaments, bursa sacs, nerves, and blood vessels. These are all affected if the shoulder is not in good form. A common type of bad posture involves keeping the shoulder blades slightly lifted and rounded forward. This causes compression in the front of the shoulder area and around the collar bones. This compression pushes bones too close to each other and too close to connective tissue and bursa sacs resulting in friction between body parts which leads to inflammation, pain, and degenerative problems.

The components of the shoulder need space to function fully. Improving posture can help keep the area open and spacious as opposed to tight and compressed.

Check out this video for some posture tips: https://youtu.be/jjyT2K7CaOc

Just like our loved ones, our bodies thrive on regular attention. Healthy shoulders come as a result of regular and consistent care and compassion.

If youre having shoulder trouble and arent sure how to deal with it, send me an email describing your situation, and Ill let you know if I think I can help and we can schedule a Body Repair Strategy Session .