10 Rotator Cuff Exercises for Pain Relief (Non-surgical Rehab)

there are a surprisingly high number of people who have rotator cuff injuries each year over 3 million people to be exact and while surgery may be the best option for some people the fact is that non-surgical rotator cuff treatment can really help decrease pain and improve function of your shoulder one study reported a 75 success rate for non-operative treatment like physical therapy and as a physical therapist myself i've worked with a lot of people who've had partial to full thickness rotator cuff tears and after a few weeks of physical therapy their function had improved significantly so today we're going over the top 10 exercises that i share in the clinic to help my patients who are having pain because of a rotator cuff injury and it's very important to say that you should always check in with your own physical therapist or your surgeon or your physician before doing any of these movements these exercises are part of my non-surgical rotator cuff rehab program so if you're recovering from an actual surgery you need to follow the timeline and the protocol from your surgeon and physical therapist so the first exercise is called the pendulum exercise and to perform this movement start with your feet about shoulder width apart and hold on to a chair or a countertop and lean over to allow your painful arm to hang there keep your arm as relaxed as possible and shift your body to cause your arm to swing like a pendulum back and forth or even in a circular motion now this is a great way to relieve pressure in the shoulder as the hanging provides a distraction of the shoulder joint which can be increased by holding a small weight try to perform this movement throughout the day because that can be helpful to relieve pain and it only takes a few seconds to do when i recommend this to my patients i tell them to aim to perform this motion for 20-30 seconds at a time multiple times a day the second exercise is called scapular retraction or simply shoulder squeezes not only does this help your overall posture but this exercise is important for activating the muscles that support the shoulder and the rotator cuff now the key to this exercise is to keep your neck relaxed and to squeeze your shoulder blades together holding for about one to two seconds and repeating this 15 to 20 times it's the perfect exercise to do every couple of hours especially if you work behind a computer or you find yourself sitting for long periods of time okay for this next exercise you'll need a flat surface and a stick it doesn't have to be as fancy as this handmade oak cane from brazos down in waco texas but that's what i'm using because i think it's cool for people who have really limited range of motion i have them do the first two exercises along with this third movement and while it may seem very basic these movements are really important because we want to make sure that you have as much pain-free motion as possible before we start emphasizing other strengthening exercises and movements on a flat surface holding a broomstick or a cane or a golf club extend both of your arms down towards your knees which can be bent into this comfortable position now bring your arms into full flexion but stop at the point where you start to feel discomfort bring your arms back down and continue the movement 10 to 12 times you'll start to notice that you can go further and further each time as you do this exercise two to three times a day it'll become a lot easier especially if your injury is pretty recent you can also try using the stick to bring your arm out into abduction which means moving your arm out to the side exercise number four is called the serratus punch because it targets the serratus anterior muscle now to do this motion lie on your back and bring your arm to 90 degrees now reach up towards the ceiling like you're performing a slow punch to extend your arm forward you don't need any weight to start out but if it feels really comfortable as you do this you can work up to a one or two maybe even three pound weight as you progress and for this exercise try to perform three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions this fifth exercise is called a wall slide now a lot of times my patients with rotator cuff tears will have a difficult time raising their arm above head level which can be a real problem if you're trying to reach into a cabinet or just reach to the back of your head in the morning when you're fixing your hair and they're often really surprised with how high they can reach when they use a wall for support so as simple as this sounds we're going to turn it into an exercise sliding your arm up the wall but make sure you keep your neck relaxed and only go as far as you can without pain now it's also important to keep your arms relaxed as you slide your arms back down and repeat this movement 10 to 15 times you don't have to do this movement 200 times a day but try to perform it two to three sets of 10 to 15 wall slides a day okay number six is called countertop planks and i like this movement because it promotes stability in the shoulder and it's really easy to perform anywhere you have a countertop or a tabletop you just place your hands shoulder width apart and hold that position for 10 to 15 seconds you can even shift your weight towards one arm and gradually progress the movement to lift your arm as it becomes stronger and easier to do and since it doesn't take too long to perform it's easy to mix this exercise in throughout your day at the office at home performing it every time you're in the kitchen or in the bathroom or wherever you are wherever you have a countertop available this countertop plank is a great exercise for shoulder stability the seventh exercise is called side lying external rotation and it really isolates the rotator cuff muscles there's actually three of the four rotator cuff muscles that perform external rotation and it can be really difficult or painful to perform if you have a rotator cuff tear so we want to be really careful when you're performing this movement and do so in a pain-free range of motion if possible before you start place a rolled up towel under your elbow between your arm and your body as this will help to avoid strain to your shoulder and it will really isolate the muscles that we need to strengthen here gently rotate your arm like you're spinning it on a rod allowing it to rotate as your hand moves towards the ceiling just be careful not to lift your arm off your body as you perform this motion you don't actually need weight to begin to do this exercise but after a few days or a couple weeks you might be able to progress to a pound or two pounds if you're able to even three pounds if you're getting stronger like most of these other exercises try to do two to three sets of 10 to 12 repetitions of this exercise and of course stop if you're feeling pain or if you're only able to go a certain distance without pain just do that partial range okay number eight is the resisted row now we're actually going to be breaking into some big weights here some bands and these aren't any bands these are some bob and brad bands have you not heard of bob and brad i'm sure you've heard of bob and brad they're the two most famous physical therapists on the internet in their opinion of course there are a couple helpful physical therapists who make physical therapy videos treatment videos and products like these bands you can pick up on amazon so thanks bob and brad for sending them out these are the ones we're using today now the idea with a resisted row is to keep your neck relaxed and to perform the scapular squeeze you remember the shoulder squeeze as you bring your arms towards your body now this movement should not be painful but it may get tiring as you perform two to three sets of ten rows with the resistance band and you don't need much resistance to engage the muscles of your shoulder so i like to start with a red or yellow band and then work my way up to the green band when i'm working with patients who aren't really familiar with this type of resisted row you can also hook the bands into a door by using this little attachment that clips into a door and you can clip your bands onto it i think that's a great option for people who don't have a pole to hook their bands around hooking it into the door with this little slip is really easy okay on to exercise number nine which is resisted shoulder rotation we'll be using a band whether that's the yellow or the red band i'll give you two variations of how to do it one without a door and the second one with using the door and the door stopper the first way to perform the movement is with both arms keeping your elbows at your side while stretching the band apart it's helpful here to squeeze your shoulder blades before you initiate the rotation with your arms because it helps to stabilize your shoulders you can also loop the band around a pole or if you have the door loop that comes with resistance bands that i'm using you can slide it in the door and perform a unilateral or a single armed movement i actually like isolating the rotator cuff this way with a single band tied into the door because i can use both external and internal rotation by just turning around and using the band to provide resistance as i bring my arm towards my body like i said with most of these exercises i recommend performing two to three sets of 10 or 12 repetitions as long as the movement is pain free and finally on to number 10 this is definitely one of the more advanced movements that i perform with my patients when they've demonstrated a few weeks of improvement with their strength and their motion after a rotator cuff injury i call this exercise the diagonal band exercise and it works like this start by initiating a small shoulder blade squeeze and stretch the band in a diagonal pattern bringing one arm up and the other arm down to the side return to the starting position and repeat the movement in the opposite direction as you continue to focus on setting your shoulders with that small squeeze of your shoulder blades if you find this movement to be really hard make sure you're using a light band like the yellow band you can use the bands at the wall to perform this motion as well which can provide a little bit more stability as you incorporate some resistance into this movement using the wall okay so there you have it 10 exercise ideas that i commonly use with my patients for non-operative rotator cuff rehabilitation again remember if you've just had rotator cuff surgery follow the protocol from your physician and your physical therapist but if you're interested in using the tools that i'm using today check them out in the description below if you found this video to be helpful i'd love it if you gave it a like below and also be sure to subscribe to the channel for more helpful videos like this and thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next video

Channel: Tim Fraticelli - PTProgress

Views: 162,013

Rating: 4.9614305 out of 5

Keywords: rotator cuff, rotator cuff exercises, rotator cuff injury, shoulder pain, rotator cuff exercise, physical therapy, shoulder exercises, shoulder injury, strengthen rotator cuff, rotator cuff stretches, rotator cuff pain exercises, strengthen rotator cuff muscles, rotator cuff tear rehabilitation, bob and brad bands

Id: 70UxCj6AoPo

Length: 9min 47sec (587 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 18 2020