The shoulder rotator cuff refers to a set of four muscles. The rotator cuff muscles are part of the shoulder blade and meant to protect your shoulder. The shoulder is protected by the rotor cuff and the tendons that act to prevent injuries. One of the reasons this set of muscles is called the rotator cuff is because the way they operate allows a person to move their arm in different directions. One of the problems when people get older is that the rotator cuff itself is often subject to injury.
One or more of the four muscles that go to make up the rotator cuff are more likely to be injured when a person plays some sports and injury often occurs when sports people and athletes don’t exercise and warm up the muscles before playing strenuous games such as cricket or golf, which means the muscles are subjected to unnecessary pressure. A damaged rotor cuff can be avoided by doing exercises that stretch the muscles and make them ready for any strenuous activities such as sport.
The shoulder rotator cuff can be stressed and damaged if there something traumatic occurs in that area, for example, something like a heavy fall can result in injury to these muscles. This may cause damage, which the person feels at the time, but chooses to ignore it; when this happens it can lead to more damage and greater pain.
The symptoms of an injured rotator cuff are not always apparent because some injuries develop over time. A person will be in a great deal of pain if their rotator cuff is stressed in this way. Over time repetitive stress on this group of muscles can mean that the person is in so much pain that it does not respond to pain killing medication
A shoulder rotator cuff injury puts extra stress on the shoulders, which can result in a great deal of pain, people who suffer a lot of pain in their shoulders often have a history of injuries to that area of the body. Many rotator cuff injuries go unchecked for a long time because people often ignore warning signs as pain in the rotor cuff may go in cycles. Although a person may not be in constant pain from a rotator cuff injury, each time the pain returns it is more severe than it was before. If the strain and discomfort in that area carries on for some time then it is possible for the person to lose flexibility in that area.
When you try to engage in strenuous activity with a lack of flexibility it is all too easy to tear the muscles. When the damage is left and not seen to, it can make that area of the body age more quickly than it should and this results in lowered strength and flexibility However, it is possible to reverse the damage done to a rotor cuff as there are a series of exercises that are designed to bring strength back into that area.
