Let's Talk about the Shoulder!

Do you know all of your rotator cuff muscles?

There are FOUR muscles in the rotator cuff....can you name them?

SITS is the acronym

Supraspinatus

Infraspinatus

Teres Minor

Subscapularis

These are the 4 muscles that make up your shoulder. They provide your shoulder with Stability and they work together with your bigger muscles to give you strength.

The shoulder is made up of the clavicle and scapula and the humerus. We call the shoulder joint your glenohumeral joint.

Your ligaments around the shoulder provide your first line of defense in preventing dislocations, maintaining stability.

Your Rotator Cuff muscles provide the second line of defense! They provide stability and maintain proper joint motion during shoulder ranges of motion.

So what happens when you have a rotator cuff tear?🙋🏼‍♀️

When you tear your rotator cuff, it does impact the stability of the shoulder joint. Depending on the severity of the tear, you may still have strength.

A partial rotator cuff tear is when only some of the tendon is torn, it could range from just a few percentages or more. Usually when someone has a partial tear, they still have some strength and usually have fair ROM. These patients are more likely to improve without surgical intervention.

A full rotator cuff tear is when the full tendon is torn. This will lead to significant loss of strength, however they may not have as much pain. These patients may rehab well, there is definitely evidence that this can be a successful rehab! However, these patients are more likely to benefit from surgery.

What if you just strained your rotator cuff muscles?

If you have a strain, you likely have more pain and some inflammation. The pain may impact your range and your strength. A strain is better than a tear! Because your full tendon is intact! BUT, we need to get the tendon's inflammatory response to decrease and gradually improve the strength and stability.