By: Dillon Moeller, PT, DPT, FAFS

Your rotator cuff is a group of muscles and tendons that cover your shoulder and allow it to move in all directions. Injuring this impacts your day-to-day life, but how do you know if you injured it?

Rotator cuff injuries can occur from repetitive stress, lifting heavy objects improperly, or with an acute injury such as falling or being pulled in an aggressive manner.

Repetitive use injuries often happen on the job. Learn how physical therapy can help treat those injuries and teach you ways to reduce the chance of reinjury in “Injured On the Job? How Your Physical or Hand Therapist Can Help You Return to Work“

Symptoms

One of the biggest symptoms of a rotator cuff injury is a painful arc. This is when you are trying to raise your arm overhead, and it is painful at a certain degree of range of motion. This pain at a certain point of movement could occur in any direction you move your arm overhead; you may find it hard to reach back and tuck in your shirt, reach up and wash your hair, or reach up and then across to fasten a seatbelt.

You’ll usually get pain on the top of the shoulder, but the pain can reach towards the outside part of the shoulder. That’s often referral pain, which is very common for anybody experiencing rotator cuff symptoms. Typically, there is pain with reaching away from the body, reaching overhead, or trying to lift something.

Oftentimes, a rotator cuff injury can limit your ability to sleep on your injured shoulder due to pressure or possible “impingement.” It is common to have issues sleeping because of the pain depending on the severity of the injury.

Other Injuries?

Other injuries can cause pain like a rotator cuff injury and can easily be mistaken based on the symptoms.

  • AC Joint Sprain
  • Rotator Cuff Impingement
  • Upper Trap Strain
  • Bicep Tendonitis
  • Bursitis

While each of these injuries/ dysfunctions cause similar pain, they have a different root cause that needs to be determined by a physical therapist.

Physical Therapy for Rotator Cuff Injuries

You might have rotator cuff symptoms, but your rotator cuff may not be injured. Your rotator cuff may be working too hard, which is now causing pain, but you may actually have a muscle or joint dysfunction or something else going on with the shoulder complex that is actually the root cause of your pain.

Having the expertise and hands-on treatment of a physical therapist can help you determine if you have a rotator cuff injury and its severity.

As we get further into the examination, usually we’ll be able to tell if it’s more of a muscle strain or a tear based on your quality of movement. As movement experts, physical therapists know what signs and symptoms to look for to determine the severity of your injury. If you have larger muscle compensations to help move your arm up, physical therapists can identify whether you have a strain, sprain, or a tear.

Arizona is a direct access state, so you can go to a physical therapist first. Our examination and evaluation of your injury can give you a diagnosis that helps you know whether you need to be referred out to another specialist, if we should get imaging, or if conservative treatment is the best path for you to achieve your functional goals.

Rotator cuff injuries can be helped with physical therapy, and, if there was any underlying muscle dysfunction, we can find it and treat it.

Physical therapists are also your experts to healing. We prescribe exercises that will specifically help your healing as well as checking in with you to make sure you are not experiencing extreme discomfort and are meeting your goals. We know whether you are doing your exercise correctly, how to modify if you have pain or if your symptoms are not improving, and more. We are your accountability partners.

Do you think you have injured your rotator cuff? Schedule an appointment with a Spooner therapist today!