I mean the muscle in general. It’s a whiny little bitch, and bitch is the right word, because it’s like a scorned ex-girlfriend, or soon-to-be ex. You can tear it right through, and not know a damn thing for a whole week, until your benchpress falls off a cliff. Yet a tiny 1mm partial tear can have you in agony for weeks, nay months. For every other muscle, pain is a nice, reliable indicator…not so for the RC muscles.
Rehab is equally painful, you have to start with ridiculously small amounts of weight, like a TV remote control with the batteries OUT (I’m serious), do a fuckton of reps, and after a few weeks put ONE battery in, wait a few more weeks, put the 2nd battery in, all the while keeping your mind-muscle connection at levels that would make a Shaolin Monk jealous, lest you retear the little vermin. And the slightest little trauma outside the gym could reverse weeks, or months of effort. And you won’t know when you retear. Just turning a steering wheel could wreck your rehab.
The medical world can’t decide whether it’s better to image using MRI or US, can’t wait to sell you surgery with about a frickken 65% chance of retear anyway. It’s deep below the delts, so you can’t see avulsion or feel it. You can do online tests which confirm you have no tear, then go to your GP only for him to tell you, “Yes you do”.
The RC really is like a vindictive ex-lover just waiting for the right time to stick it to you. GRRRRR!!
No argument here. I’ve had both done. Luckily, both have rehabbed well and are working well in the gym. However, I am super careful to protect them at all times.
For me, no more wide grip bench. Almost nothing but dumbbell work for chest and shoulders. Keep my elbows tucked in. If I do use a barbell, I always use a narrow grip. When I isolate my shoulders (like front or side raises) I keep the weight light. If I’m feeling sore in my shoulders after a hard work out, i skip shoulder work for about a week.
Thanks man. Not sure who you were asking but I’ll put in my bit. Elbows tucked in on all movements except wide-grip pulldowns (I would also say wide-grip Bent-Over rows, but I’m also rehabbing a somewhat less traumatised QL). Keep rear delts strong, so as to avoid front/back imbalance, this involves doing rear delt flys in addition to whatever else I’m doing. After any shoulder-involved session, flail arms around like a Chimpanzee watching The Kardashians (It should do more harm than good, but in my case it’s wonderful for shoulder mobility). Scap retractions, and strong upper traps.
Generally, favour slow and steady (time under tension) over higher poundages or higher reps. Emphasis on the ‘Steady’ part. I’m actually quite lucky in that my RC, despite repeated trauma still doesn’t stop me training upper body, but boy oh boy I wish I hadn’t messed it up back in the bicep-boy 90’s by sticking my elbows out a foot in front of me during upright rows.
If it’s ok with Admin I’ll consider this a rehab ‘Journal’ of sorts.
Starting last night I literally used a pair of nail clippers for 3 sets of 12 External Rotations (ER’s). I did some research and the general concensus was not to go in for that German Volume Training mega-sets, actually a max of 12 reps, again nice and slow. No fancy positioning, just did them sitting at my laptop. The movement smarted a little and I realised I have slight immobility as I raise my left forearm past 1 o’ clock. So on that side I’ll make it a partial.
Gottta say, first morning felt a mild, mild soreness, but that disappeared before I got to the bathroom, and going around today it seemed ok. No residual pain, I imagine that’s due to the extra blood flowing now through the area.
I should add that the reason the left went ‘pop’ way back when, is because it’s the weaker, as I’m right-handed. So during the day I was deliberately using my left more, picking up cups, and if I’m eating with just a fork, using the left.
Think I’ll do the exercises 5 days a week, more for blood flow benefits, and rest over weekends.
Same ‘results’ as last time (if you can call them results), the RC’s felt a little sore this morning, but that was a DOMS soreness, not an inflammatory soreness. I say the ‘same’, though to be honest I increased the weight from 50gm to 60gm. More a psychological thing, I wanted to ‘feel’ like I was making some progress, however pathetically small.
Part of me wants to add 10gms every 2 days, at least in a month I’d be moving some appreciable weight. Part of me is afraid I’ll retear by increasing at that speed. But the moment I’m not sure if I’d be wasting my time by staying at 50gms a couple of weeks, then moving to 60gms after that, 2 weeks later 70gms.
So have you confirmed that you have a torn RC? Are YOU trying to rehab it by yourself? Having had 2 torn RC, I can tell you that torn and ruptured tendons don’t heal by themselves.
My advice is to find a good sports medicine oriented orthopedic dr and get evaluated. If you choose not to get the surgery, you likely end up decreasing the use of the arm/shoulder more and more which will result in muscle atrophy. Since the body can’t stand a vacuum, it will fill in the void with fat (I speak from experience here). My MRI looked like a cross section of a Christmas ham!
My GP diagnosed me with a very small tear back in January. This is likely a retear that has recurred since the first major tear in the mid 90’s. My GP is also a sports injury specialist, and ran me through a series of diagnostic drills considerably more exhaustive than those I’ve found on YouTube/Google etc. His advice was very conservative rehab after a healing period of a few weeks. Recently all pain had disappeared, so I have started.