Partial Thickness Tear

[Scalleywag]

I found out the other day that I have a partial thickness tear in my left rotator cuff. Has anyone ever had this problem? I am trying to figure out the best way to go with treatment. The options are physical therapy to strengthen the muscles around the rotator cuff or surgery. It seems to me that the surgery might be the quickest and most permanent treatment. I was thinking to just go ahead and fix it instead of waiting on it to heal itself. What are your opinions?

[T-Man007]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

Dude, if it's a partial tear then I would rest for a few months and then start therapy. Muscle will heal pretty quickly if not used much. You will want to put your arm in a sling for most of the day to keep it immobile. I've haveminor tears and I always just rest. If it hurts when I start back Ijust take more time off. And, a surgery will require lots of rest too. Also, I've known way more guys to be less than 100% after surgery than after rest. As long as there is not a complete tear, you can heal. The body is very smart and it wants to function the best it can. When part of the body is injured you rest it and it will heal.

After you keep better, you will probably me like me and some of my bros and have to do rehab twice a week for ever. Every time I stop my rotator exercises it's only a matter of time before they start hurting again. The reason is they are very small muscles compared to your delts and pecs. So, when you are doing really heavy presses the rotators are not strong enough to hole the joint in place and you end up with strains. Continued use will elad to minor tears and then eventually full tears if not allowed to heal. Only with rotator exercises can you keep then strong enough to keep the joint stable. For some of us that is, others go through life and never have an issue.

[Scalleywag]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

Do you think I would be pushing my luck if I tried to finish this cycle (5 more weeks) or should I just stop now?

[T-Man007]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

Do you think I would be pushing my luck if I tried to finish this cycle (5 more weeks) or should I just stop now?

Well, I don't think it's a good idea to end abruptly. So, you will need to make changes to your program. No incline presses, no military presses, no DB presses of any kind, no over head tricep stuff, no fromt raises and no upright rows. If you need to do incline, which we all do, then I suggest incline DB flies or see if your gym has and incline press machine and if it doesn't hurt then do lighter sets like 12 -15 reps. You still want to work the primary muscle without having a lot of weight pushing down on your shoulder joint. BB bench usually should not hurt it at mid to high rep ranges. You can still grow with 12 reps. Also, you could switch to just a fly only program for chest. I never believed flies added much mass until I met this dude a few weeks ago. He's got one of the thickest chests I've seen on a guy and all he does is flies. 3 sets of 10 reps twice a week at all three angles. That's all he's done for a year and a half. Try it, as long as you are working the muscle against resistance you will not lose anything. You may not gain as much as you want, but you wont lose, so that's good.

Do some research on the net and find rotator exercises and post the links. I have a buddy who used to be a physical therapist and he's a CSCS from NSCA and the exercises he told me to do work great. Some are just hard to explain.

[Scalleywag]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

I appreciate it. I was thinking of upping my reps to decrease the load so it was good for that confirmation. I have been researching all morning and have found some rotator cuff exercises that I am going to do in place of my regular shoulder routine.

Thanks again for all the help.

[FUZO]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

REHAB IT WITH A PARTIAL TEAR.I HAVE THAT RIGHT NOW ALONG WITH THE SURGERY I HAD WITH MY SHOULDER.EVEN THOUGH HE WENT IN AND FIXED OTHER STUFF HE DIDNT THINK IT WOULD NEED TO BE FIXED WITH SURGERY.P/T WILL HELP THAT PARTIAL TEAR

[Iron_Gook]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

I have/had a partial thickness tear in my anterior supraspantous (someshit) my phucking shoulder. Best thing for it is rehab and rest! Otherwise, you're going to really phuck yourself up.

IG

[kite]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

Like everyone else said, rehab and rest.

[badasz32]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

i had the slap type II tear and rehab didnt fix it and they had to go in anyways. sometimes it will heal on its own with PT. i wish i would have gottent he surgery first and not wasted all the time. after the scope it took about 3 months to get back to 100%. i had a bone spur, tear, impingment, and bursatist.

[DJDIGGLER]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

I agree with rest.

Tmann what are the exercises you do to strengthen your rotator?? I keep having recurring problems with my rotator. I'll take a few months off, pain goes away, I slowly get back into the workouts that would hurt it, then once I start getting into the heavy weights again it tears all over. What do you do to stop that from happening?

[T-Man007]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

I agree with rest.

Tmann what are the exercises you do to strengthen your rotator?? I keep having recurring problems with my rotator. I'll take a few months off, pain goes away, I slowly get back into the workouts that would hurt it, then once I start getting into the heavy weights again it tears all over. What do you do to stop that from happening?

Ok, look at these and then read my comments:

http://familydoctor.org/265.xml

Exercise 1: I don't do that one.
Exercise 2: I do this standing using a cable attachment set at the same height as my elbow.
Exercise 3: Same as #2, I us the cables.
Exercise 4: This is the one that really helped mine. However, my dude explained it like this: you hold the DB's or a 5 or 10 lb plate with your thumbs pointing down. You don't bring your arms all the way out to your side, in stead you have them at about 160 degrees. In other words the are slightly forward. Then, when you elevate your arms you don't go all the way to parallel to the floor. You stop at about a 50-60 degree angle. (90 degrees would be perpedicular to the body)

Stretching: Stretch #1 is awesome for your shoulder joint. It will loosen up the pecs and anterior delt real nice.

http://www.bodyresults.com/E2RotatorCuff.asp

Here's a better site of the exercises standing:

http://www.orthoassociates.com/shoulder1.htm

Ok, I like this one too, espescially for the lateral exercise. (click on the picture to watch it move)

http://www.thetrainingstationinc.com/rotator-cuff-exercises.html

You will notice it basically the same range of motion, that's what you want to do. Do 15-18 reps for 2 sets twice a week. After 2-3 weeks, or when the pain as subsided, up the weight to 12-15 reps. You don't really ever want to go less that 10 reps for 2 sets twice a week.

[Scalleywag]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

Thats some good spit yall. I actually did some rotator cuff exercises yesterday and it is amazing how week mine are. I used 5 lb DBs and really targeted the muscles. I guess a majority of people out there dont realize how important their rotator cuffs are until it is too late. No doubt that those muscles are neglected and need to be worked for the good of your whole body. Thanks again everyone. I AM NOW ON MY WAY TO RECOVERY.

[DJDIGGLER]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

Thanks for the help Tmann, I'll rep you as soon as it lets me.

[Iron_Gook]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

Great Post T-Mann... definite reps coming your way...

IG

[Scalleywag]

Re: Partial Thickness Tear

I forgot to say that I will surely rep you as soon as I am able T-Man.